They had been
quarreling bitterly among themselves all morning, and strangely
enough this quarrel was all about which of them should marry
Ghip-Ghisizzle. They knew that some day the Majordomo would become
Boolooroo, and each one of the six had determined to marry him so as
to be Queen and thus force her sisters to obey her commands. They
paid no attention to the fact that Ghip-Ghisizzle did not want to
marry any of them, for they had determined that when it was agreed
who should have him, they would ask their father to force the man to
marry.
While they quarreled in one room of the palace, Ghip-Ghisizzle was
in danger of being patched in another room; but the Six Snubnosed
Princesses did not know that. The arrival of the Pinkies gave them
something new to talk about, so they hurried downstairs and along
the corridors so as to gain the courtyard and take part in the
exciting scenes. But as they passed the closed doors of the Room of
the Great Knife, they heard a low moan and stopped to listen. The
moan was repeated, and being curious, they unlocked the door--the
key having been left on the outside--and entered the room.
At once, the Pinkies were forgotten, for there upon the floor,
tightly bound, lay Ghip-Ghisizzle, and beside him poor Tiggle, who
had uttered the moans.
The six Princesses sat down in a circle facing the captives, and
Cerulia said, "Ghip, my dear, we will release you on one condition:
That you choose a wife from among us and promise to marry the one
selected as soon as the Pinkies are driven back into the Fog Bank.
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