She was very ill indeed, for a long time. The Princess Alicia kept
the seventeen young princes and princesses quiet, and dressed and
undressed and danced the baby, and made the kettle boil, and heated
the soup, and swept the hearth, and poured out the medicine, and
nursed the queen, and did all that ever she could, and was as busy,
busy, busy as busy could be; for there were not many servants at
that palace for three reasons: because the king was short of money,
because a rise in his office never seemed to come, and because
quarter-day was so far off that it looked almost as far off and as
little as one of the stars.

But on the morning when the queen fainted away, where was the magic
fish-bone? Why, there it was in the Princess Alicia's pocket! She
had almost taken it out to bring the queen to life again, when she
put it back, and looked for the smelling-bottle.

After the queen had come out of her swoon that morning, and was
dozing, the Princess Alicia hurried up-stairs to tell a most
particular secret to a most particularly confidential friend of
hers, who was a duchess. People did suppose her to be a doll; but
she was really a duchess, though nobody knew it except the
princess.

This most particular secret was the secret about the magic fish-
bone, the history of which was well known to the duchess, because
the princess told her everything. The princess kneeled down by the
bed on which the duchess was lying, full-dressed and wide awake,
and whispered the secret to her. The duchess smiled and nodded.
People might have supposed that she never smiled and nodded; but
she often did, though nobody knew it except the princess.