n it will be to save and
to serve her family and to keep up respect for
their name. Here she is coming.

_Nurse_: Ah, you would not tell her! You
would not put the dear child under the shadow
of such a terror and such a threat!

_King_: She must not be told. I never could
bear up against it.

_(Nuala comes in_.)

_Queen:_ Look now at your father the way he is.

_Princess: (Touching his hand.)_ What is fretting
you?

_Queen:_ His heart as weighty as that the chair
near broke under him.

_Princess:_ I never saw you this way before.

_Queen:_ And all on the head of yourself!

_Princess:_ I am sorry, and very sorry, for that.

_Queen:_ He is loth to say it to you, but he is
tired and wore out waiting for you to settle with
some match. See what a troubled look he has on
his face.

_Princess: (To King.)_ Is it that you want me
to leave you? _(He gives a sob.) (To Dall Glic.)_
Is it the Queen urged him to this?

_Dall Glic:_ If she did, it was surely for your good.

_Nurse:_ Oh, my child and my darling, let you
strive to take a liking to some good man that will
come!

_Princess:_ Are you going against me with the rest?

_Nurse:_ You know well I would never do that!

_Princess:_ Do you, father, urge me to go?

_King:_ They are in too big a hurry why
wouldn't they wait a while, for a quarter, or three-quarters
of a year.

_Princess:_ Is that all the delay I am given, and
the term is set for me, like a servant that would be
banished from the house?

_King:_ That's not it. That's not right. I
would never give in to let you go ...if it
wasn't ...

_Princess_: I know. _(Stands up.)_ For my own
good!

_(Trumpet outside.)_

_Gatekeeper_: (_Coming in_.) There is company
at the door.

_Queen_: Who is it?

_Gatekeeper_: Servants, and a company of women,
and one that would seem to be a Prince, and young.

_Princess_: Then he is come asking me in marriage.

_Dall Glic_: Who is he at all?

_Gatekeeper_: They were saying he is the son
of the King of the Mars