'Did you not know?
That's how your mother never got the red petticoat my father promised her.

The lord chancellor told me that not only Gwyntystorm but the whole land was mourning over the illness of the good man.' Now Curdie himself had not heard a word of His Majesty's illness, and had no ground for believing that a single soul in any place he had visited on his journey had heard of it.

Moreover, although mention had been made of His Majesty again and again in his hearing since he came to Gwyntystorm, never once had he heard an allusion to the state of his health.

And now it dawned upon him also that he had never heard the least expression of love to him.

But just for the time he thought it better to say nothing on either point.
'Does the king wander like this every night ?' he asked.
'Every night,' answered Irene, shaking her head mournfully.