to look as though I had not thrown it. Good ceased his sighing,

and began to murder Zu-Vendi at the top of his voice, and Sir
Henry whistled and looked silly. As for the poor girls, they

were utterly dumbfounded.
And Nyleptha! she drew herself up till her frame seemed to tower

even above that of the tall guards, and her face went first red,
and then pale as death.

'Guards,' she said in a quiet choked voice, and pointing at the fair
but unconsciousdisciple of Wackford Squeers, 'slay me that woman.'

The men hesitated, as well they might.
'Will ye do my bidding,' she said again in the same voice,

'or will ye not?'
Then they advanced upon the girl with uplifted spears.

By this time Sir Henry had recovered himself, and saw that
the comedy was likely to turn into a tragedy.

'Stand back,' he said in a voice of thunder, at the same time
getting in front of the terrified girl. 'Shame on thee,

Nyleptha -- shame! Thou shalt not kill her.'
'Doubtless thou hast good reason to try to protect her.

Thou couldst hardly do less in honour,' answered the
infuriated Queen; 'but she shall die -- she shall die,'

and she stamped her little foot.
'It is well,' he answered; 'then will I die with her. I am thy

servant, oh Queen; do with me even as thou wilt.' And he bowed
towards her, and fixed his clear eyes contemptuously on her face.

'I could wish to slay thee too,' she answered; 'for thou dost
make a mock of me;' and then feeling that she was mastered, and

I suppose not knowing what else to do, she burst into such a
storm of tears and looked so royally lovely in her passionate

distress, that, old as I am, I must say I envied Curtis his task
of supporting her. It was rather odd to see him holding her

in his arms considering what had just passed -- a thought that
seemed to occur to herself, for presently she wrenched herself

free and went, leaving us all much disturbed.
Presently, however, one of the guards returned with a message

to the girls that they were, on pain of death, to leave the city
and return to their homes in the country, and that no further

harm would come to them; and accordingly they went, one of them
remarking philosophically that it could not be helped, and that

it was a faction" target="_blank" title="n.满意；满足">satisfaction to know that they had taught us a little
serviceable Zu-Vendi. Mine was an exceedingly nice girl, and,

overlooking the cockroach, I made her a present of my favourite
lucky sixpence with a hole in it when she went away. After that

our former masters resumed their course of instruction, needless
to say to my great relief.

That night, when in fear and trembling we attended the royal
supper table, we found that Nyleptha was laid up with a bad headache.

That headache lasted for three whole days; but on the fourth
she was present at supper as usual, and with the most gracious

and sweet smile gave Sir Henry her hand to lead her to the table.
No allusion was made to the little affair described above beyond

her saying, with a charming air of innocence, that when she came
to see us at our studies the other day she had been seized with

a giddiness from which she had only now recovered. She supposed,
she added with a touch of the humour that was common to her,

that it was the sight of people working so hard which had affected her.
In reply Sir Henry said, dryly, that he had thought she did not

look quite herself on that day, whereat she flashed one of those
quick glances of hers at him, which if he had the feelings of

a man must have gone through him like a knife, and the subject
dropped entirely. Indeed, after supper was over Nyleptha condescended

to put us through an examination to see what we had learnt, and
to express herself well satisfied with the results. Indeed,

she proceeded to give us, especially Sir Henry, a lesson on her
own account, and very interesting we found it.

And all the while that we talked, or rather tried to talk, and
laughed, Sorais would sit there in her carven ivory chair, and

look at us and read us all like a book, only from time to time
saying a few words, and smiling that quick ominous smile of hers

which was more like a flash of summer lightning on a dark cloud
than anything else. And as near to her as he dared would sit

Good, worshipping through his eyeglass, for he really was getting
seriously devoted to this sombre beauty, of whom, speaking personally,

I felt terribly afraid. I watched her keenly, and soon I found
out that for all her apparent impassibility she was at heart

bitterly jealous of Nyleptha. Another thing I found out, and
the discovery filled me with dismay, and that was, that she also

was growing devoted to Sir Henry Curtis. Of course I could not
be sure; it is not easy to read so cold and haughty a woman;

but I noticed one or two little things, and, as elephant hunters
know, dried grass shows which way the wind has set.

And so another three months passed over us, by which time we
had all attained to a very considerablemastery of the Zu-Vendi

language, which is an easy one to learn. And as the time went
on we became great favourites with the people, and even with

the courtiers, gaining an enormousreputation for cleverness,
because, as I think I have said, Sir Henry was able to show them

how to make glass, which was a national want, and also, by the
help of a twenty-year almanac that we had with us, to predict

various heavenly combinations which were quite unsuspected by
the native astronomers. We even succeeded in demonstrating the

principle of the steam-engine to a gathering of the learned men,
who were filled with amazement; and several other things of the

same sort we did. And so it came about that the people made
up their minds that we must on no account be allowed to go out

of the country (which indeed was an apparentimpossibility even
if we had wished it), and we were advanced to great honour and

made officers to the bodyguards of the sister Queens while permanent
quarters were assigned to us in the palace, and our opinion was

asked upon questions of national policy.
But blue as the sky seemed, there was a cloud, and a big one,

on the horizon. We had indeed heard no more of those confounded
hippopotami, but it is not on that account to be supposed that

our sacrilege was forgotten, or the enmity of the great and powerful
priesthood headed by Agon appeased. On the contrary, it was

burning the more fiercely because it was necessarily suppressed,
and what had perhaps begun in bigotry was ending in downright

direct hatred born of jealousy. Hitherto, the priests had been
the wise men of the land, and were on this account, as well as

from superstitious causes, looked on with peculiar veneration.
But our arrival, with our outlandish wisdom and our strange

inventions and hints of unimagined things, dealt a serious blow
to this state of affairs, and, among the educated Zu-Vendi, went

far towards destroying the priestly prestige. A still worse
affront to them, however, was the favour with which we were regarded,

and the trust that was reposed in us. All these things tended
to make us excessively obnoxious to the great sacerdotal clan,

the most powerful because the most united faction in the kingdom.
Another source of imminent danger to us was the rising envy of

some of the great lords headed by Nasta, whose antagonism to
us had at best been but thinly veiled, and which now threatened

to break out into open flame. Nasta had for some years been
a candidate for Nyleptha's hand in marriage, and when we appeared

on the scene I fancy, from all I could gather, that though there
were still many obstacles in his path, success was by no means

out of his reach. But now all this had changed; the coy Nyleptha
smiled no more in his direction, and he was not slow to guess

the cause. Infuriated and alarmed, he turned his attention to
Sorais, only to find that he might as well try to woo a mountain

side. With a bitter jest or two about his fickleness, that door
was closed on him for ever. So Nasta bethought himself of the

thirty thousand wild swordsmen who would pour down at his bidding
through the northern mountain passes, and no doubt vowed to adorn