"Tut-tut, Your Ladyship; that won't do! I swore on my Bible oath to the
maharajah that I left you day before yesterday closely guarded in the
palace across the river. He felt easy for the first time for a week. Now,
because they're afraid for their skins, the guard all swear by Krishna
you were never in there, and that I've been bribed! How did you get
out of the grounds, miss?"

"Climbed the wall."

"I might have remembered you're as active as a cat! Next time I'll mount
a double guard on the wall, so they'll tumble off and break their necks
if they fall asleep. But there are no boats, for I saw to it, and the bridge
is watched. How did you cross the river?"

"Swam."

"At night?"

The blue eyes smiled assent.

"Missy--Your Ladyship, you mustn't do that. Little ladies that act that
way might lose the number of their mess. There's crockadowndillies
in that river--aggilators--what d'ye call the damp things?--mugger. They
snap their jaws on a leg and pull you under! The sweeter and prettier
you are the more they like you! Besides, missy, princesses aren't
supposed to swim; it's vulgar."

He contrived to look the very incarnation of offended prudery, and she
laughed at him with a voice like a golden bell.