'Only the usual one,' said Mr Noah. 'The Princess, you know.' Philip became aware that a figure in a white veil was standing quite near him; round its feet lay lengths of cut rope. 'The Princess is yours,' said Mr. Noah, with generous affability. 'But I don't want her,' said Philip, adding by an afterthought, 'thank you.' 'You should have thought of that before,' said Mr. Noah. 'You can't go doing deeds of valour, you know, and then shirking the reward. Take her. She is yours.' 'Any one who likes may have her,' said Philip desperately. 'If she's mine, I can give her away, can't I? You must see yourself I can't be bothered with princesses if I've got all those other deeds to do.' 'That's not my affair,' said Mr. Noah. 'Perhaps you might arrange to board her out while you're doing your deeds. But at present she is waiting for you to take her by the hand and raise her veil.' 'Must I?' said Philip miserably. 'Well, here goes.' He took a small cold hand in one of his and with the other lifted, very gingerly, a corner of the veil. The other hand of the Princess drew back the veil, and the Dragon-Slayer and the Princess were face to face. 'Why!' cried Philip, between relief and disgust, 'it's only Lucy!' CHAPTER V ON THE CARPET The Princess was just Lucy. 'It's too bad,' said Philip. 'I do think.' Then he stopped short and just looked cross. 'The Princess and the Champion will now have their teas,' said Mr. Noah. 'Right about face, everybody, please, and quick march.' Philip and Lucy found themselves marching side by side through the night made yellow with continuous fireworks. You must picture them marching across a great plain of grass where many coloured flowers grew. You see a good many of Philip's buildings had been made on the drawing-room carpet at home, which was green with pink and blue and yellow and white flowers. And this carpet had turned into grass and growing flowers, following that strange law which caused things to change into other things, like themselves, but larger and really belonging to a living world. No one spoke. Philip said nothing because he was in a bad temper. And if you are in a bad temper, nothing is a good thing to say. To circumvent a dragon and then kill it, and to have such an adventure end in tea with Lucy, was too much. And he had other reasons for silence too. And Lucy was silent because she had so much to say that she didn't know where to begin; and besides, she could feel how cross Philip was. The crowd did not talk because it was not etiquette to talk when taking part in processions. Mr. Noah did not talk because it made him out of breath to walk and talk at the same time, two things neither of which he had been designed to do. So that it was quite a silent party which at last passed through the gateway of the town and up its streets.