CHAPTER 15 Excerpt From The Princess and the Goblin

by George MacDonald

Summary of Chapter 15 - In this chapter, Princess Irene continues her journey. While trying to find her
way back home she stumbles upon an old lady who she discovers to be her grandmother she never met.
They become acquainted after a few visits.The old lady is in her bedroom which is lit softly and has a
fire of red roses burning in the hearth. She is no longer old but looks like a 23-year-old. She is
rapturously beautiful. Her hair is full and golden and falls like a rushing river around her. She is
wearing a crown which is "a circle of shining silver, set with alternated pearls and opals."

The old lady informs Irene that her gift is ready. It is a small ball of silvery white. The old lady takes
the ball back and gives Irene a ring, assuring her that "no one ever gives anything to another properly
and really without keeping it." It turns out that the ball is made of very fine thread, one end of which is
tied to the ring. The old lady instructs Irene that if she ever loses her way or finds herself in danger, she
must follow the string which will lead her to the old lady. The story continues with their conversation
below.

87 "How kind of you!" said the princess, and sat down again.

88 "It makes me happy," said the lady.

89 "But," said Irene, still puzzled, "won't the thread get in somebody's way and be broken, if the one
end is fast to my ring and the other laid in your cabinet?"

90 "You will find all that arrange itself. I am afraid it is time for you to go."

91 "Mightn't I stay and sleep with you tonight, grandmother?"

92 "No, not tonight. If I had meant you to stay tonight, I should have given you a bath; but you know
everybody in the house is miserable about you, and it would be cruel to keep them so all night. You
must go down stairs."

93 "I'm so glad, grandmother, you didn't say—go home—for this is my home. Mayn't I call this my
home?"

94 "You may, my child. And I trust you will always think it your home. Now come. I must take you back
without any one seeing you."

95 "Please, I want to ask you one question more," said Irene. "Is it because you have your crown on that
you look so young?"

96 "No, child," answered her grandmother; "it is because I felt so young this evening, that I put my
crown on. And it occurred to me that you would like to see your old grandmother in her best."
97 "Why do you call yourself old? You're not old, grandmother."

98 "I am very old indeed. It is so silly of people—I don't mean you, for you are such a tiny, and couldn't
know better—but it is so silly of people to fancy that old age means crookedness and witheredness
and feebleness and sticks and spectacles and rheumatism and forgetfulness! It is so silly! Old age
has nothing whatever to do with all that. The right old age means strength and beauty and mirth
and courage and clear eyes and strong painless limbs. I am older than you are able to think, and—"