her went out of the
world? And as to lovers coming to look for her!
They do be coming up to this as plenty as the eye
could hold them, and she refusing them, and they
laying the blame upon the King!

_King:_ That is so, they laying the blame upon
myself. There was the uncle of the King of
Leinster; he never sent me another car-load of
asparagus from the time you banished him away.

_Princess:_ He was a widower man.

_King:_ As to the heir of Orkney, since the time
you sent him to the right about, I never got so
much as a conger eel from his hand.

_Princess:_ As dull as a fish he was. He had a
fish's eyes.

_King:_ That wasn't so with the champion of
the merings of Ulster.

_Princess:_ A freckled man. He had hair the
colour of a fox.

_King:_ I wish he didn't stop sending me his
tribute of heather beer.

_Queen:_ It is a poor daughter that will not
wish to be helpful to her father.

_Princess:_ If I am to wed for the furnishing
of my father's table, it's as good for you to wrap
me in a speckled fawnskin and roast me!

_(Runs out, tossing her ball_.)

_Queen:_ She is no way fit for marriage unless
with a herd to the birds of the air, till she has a
couple of years schooling.

_King:_ It would be hard to put her back to
that.

_Queen:_ I must take it in hand. She is getting
entirely too much of her own way.

_Nurse:_ Leave her alone, and in the end it will
be a good way.

_Queen:_ To keep rules and hours she must learn,
and to give in to order and good sense. _(To King.)_
There is a pigeon messenger I brought from Alban
I am about to let loose on this day with news of
myself and of yourself. I will send with it a message
to a friend I have, bidding her to make ready for
Nuala a place in her garden of learning and her
school.

_King:_ That is going too fast. There is no
hurry.

_Queen:_ She is seventeen years. There is no
day to be lost. I will go write the letter.

_Nurse:_ Oh, you wouldn't send away the poor
child!

_Dall Glic:_ It would be a gre