The door opened. Her maid entered. "You wanted me, madame?" asked the girl, in some excitement and very pale.
"Yes, what is the matter? Why so agitated?" Jasmine asked.
The maid's eyes were on the sjambok. She pointed to it. "It was that, madame. We are all agitated. It was terrible. One had never seen anything like that before in one's life, madame—never. It was like the days—yes, of slavery. It was like the galleys of Toulon in the old days. It was—"
"There, don't be so eloquent, Lablanche. What do you know of the galleys of Toulon or the days of slavery?"
"Madame, I have heard, I have read, I—"
"Yes, but did you love Krool so?"
The girl straightened herself with dramatic indignation. "Madame, that man, that creature, that toad—!"
"Then why so exercised? Were you so pained at his punishment? Were all the household so pained?"
"Every one hated him, madame," said the girl, with energy.
"Then let me hear no more of this impudent nonsense," Jasmine said, with decision.