against the walls, which you may sally out to-morrow and break if
it gives you amusement. But for to-day, Deucalion, I have you, and
you have me, and there is peace round us, and some prettiness of
display. If you ask for more I will give it you."

"I did not know of this rebellion," I said, "but as Your Majesty
has made me your minister, it is well that I should know all about
its scope at once. This is a matter we should be serious upon."

"And do you think I cannot take it seriously also?" she
retorted. "Ylga," she said to the girl that stood behind, "set
loose my dress at the shoulder."

And when the attendant had unlinked the jewelled clasp (as it
seemed to me with a very ill grace), she herself stripped down the
fabric, baring the pure skin beneath, and showing me just below the
curve of the left breast a bandage of bloodstained linen.

"There is a guarantee of my seriousness yesterday, at any
rate," she said, looking at me sidelong. "The arrow struck on a
rib and that saved me. If it had struck between, Deucalion would
have been standing beside my funeral pyre to-day instead of riding
on this pretty steed of mine which he admires so much. Your eye
seems to feast itself most on the mammoth, Deucalion. Ah, poor me.
I am not one of your shaggy creatures, and so it seems I shall
never be able to catch your regard. Ylga," she said to the girl
behind, "you may link my dress up again with its clasp. My Lord
Deucalion has seen wounds before, and there is nothing else here to
interest him."