"Tell it to me."
"Not now; there are too many people present, and white men are not in the habit of telling everybody their secrets. When you are kind enough to grant me, and my friends here, a private audience, we will tell you the real aim of our journey."
"Very well," said the King, secretly flattered by the confidence thus reposed in him, as well as by the distinction drawn between his subjects and himself, "I will receive you to-morrow, at sunset."
He was silent for a moment, but we could easily perceive that he had something else to say. With his right elbow resting on the arm of his throne, and his head supported on his hand, he looked every now and then in our direction, and Madame de Guéran appeared invariably to attract his attention. His black almond-shaped eyes were constantly turned towards her, and he evidently wished to put certain questions to us, but at the same time was afraid of appearing to take too great an interest in us, lest by so doing he should lose some of his dignity.
At length his curiosity got the better of his pride, and, addressing
Nassar, he said—
"Ask the chief who the two white men are who are sitting near him?"
He was taking a roundabout way to get at Madame de Guéran, who interested him far more than we did.
As soon as Nassar had translated the question, de Morin replied unhesitatingly that we were his two brothers. Pointing to me, he said that I was a very learned man, able to write as Schweinfurth had done in Munza's presence. Delange he described as a great doctor, capable of curing all diseases.
"And that old woman there?" asked the King, suddenly, nodding towards
Miss Poles.
Nassar, who had a grudge against our beloved Englishwoman, occasionally somewhat hasty with him, instead of toning down the expression made use of by Munza, repeated it in a loud and very distinct tone of voice. This was all the more cruel towards Miss Beatrice, because when the King looked at her, and before he had called her an old woman, she had half risen from her seat, had taken off her spectacles to produce a more magical effect, and had smiled in her most gracious manner.