King: (Coming in.) That's very good. I was
in dread the Queen might be in it.
Dall Glic: It is a good thought I had bringing
it in here, and she gone to give learning to the
Princess. She is not likely to come this side. It
would be a great pity to annoy her.
King: (Hastily swallowing a mouthful.) Look
out now the door and keep a good watch. The
time she will draw upon me is when I am eating
my little bite.
Dall Glic: I'll do that. What I wouldn't
see with my one eye, there's no other would see
with three.
King: A month to-day since I wed with her, and
well pleased I am to be back in my own place. I
give you word my teeth are rusting with the want
of meat. On the journey I got no fair play. She
wouldn't be willing to see me nourish myself,
unless maybe with the marrow bone of a wren.
Dall Glic: Sure she lays down she is but thinking
of the good of your health.
King: Maybe so. She is apt to be paying too
much attention to what will be for mine and for
the world's good. I kept my health fair enough,
and the first wife not begrudging me my enough.
I don't know what in the world led me not to stop
as I was.
Dall Glic: It is what you were saying, it was
for the good of the Princess Nuala, and of yourself.
King: That is what herself laid down. It
would be a great ease to my mind, she was saying,
to have in the house with the young girl, a far-off
cousin of the King of Alban, and that had been
conversation woman in his Court.
Dall Glic: So it might be too. She is a great
manager of people.