had confessed to watching before dawn.

"Will your ladyship ride home with me?" asked Tom Tripe.

"No."

"But why not?"

"Because the commissioner is coming and there is only one road and
he would see me and ask questions. He is stupid enough not to recognize
me, but you are too stupid to tell wise lies, and this memsahib is so
afraid of an imaginary place called hell that I must stay and do my own--"

"I left off believing in hell when I was ten years old," Tess answered.

"I hope to God you're right, ma'am!" put in Tom Tripe piously, and both
women laughed.

"Then I shall trust you and we shall always understand each other,"
decided Yasmini. "But why will you not tell lies, if there is no hell?"

"I'm afraid I'm guilty now and then."

"But you are ashamed afterward? Why? Lies are necessary, since
people are such fools!"

Tom Tripe interrupted, wiping the inside of his tunic collar again with a
big bandanna handkerchief.

"How do you know the commissioner is coming, Your Ladyship? Phew!