"It is only me, your ladyship," said a strange, low voice. "I have been waiting here a long while, but your servants would not let me in; they say you have forbidden them to let any Siamese person enter your house after sunset."
"It is true," said I; "I don't want to see any one this evening; I am ill and tired. Now go away, and, if you have any business with me, come to me in the morning."
"P'hoodth thô!" said the woman, speaking still in the same low tones; "I am not a Siamese, and you do not know that I have rowed thirty miles against the tide to come and see you, or else you could not have the heart to send me away."
"I don't want to know anything," I said a little impatiently; "you must go now, and you know it is not safe for you to be away from home at this late hour in the day."
"O lady! do let me in; I only want to say one word to you in private; please do let me in," whispered the woman, more and more pleadingly.
"Then say what you have to tell me at once, and from where you are," I replied; "there is no one here to overhear you; for I cannot let you in."
"Alas!" said the voice, plaintively, as if speaking to herself, "I would not have come all this long distance but that I heard she was a good and brave woman,—some people indeed said she was not so,—still, I thought I would try her, and now she says she cannot let me in, a poor fugitive and desolate slave-girl like me! O dear! O dear!"
"But I am afraid I cannot help you, whatever your trouble may be," I said more gently, touched by the woman's despairing tones. "The king is offended with me, and the judges know it, and I have no more influence with them now."
As I said this, the girl sprang through the window and came forward, and exhibited not only her bright eyes but her full figure and somewhat singular dress, for she was, as she had stated, not a Siamese, but a Laotian. She held her head erect, though her hands were clasped in the attitude of wild supplication. The symmetry of her form was enhanced by a broad English strap or belt which was buckled round her waist, and which had the effect of showing off her beautiful figure to the best advantage. She was unusually tall, and altogether a most pleasing-looking young woman.
The moment she stood before me she commenced talking with a volubility and an amount of action which it would be almost impossible to describe. Her face became so animated, and her tears and sobs flowed so spontaneously, that I stood bewildered, for, in truth, I had rarely seen so interesting and so natural a woman in Siam.