When I rode out from the palace that afternoon, I was animated by a fervent hope that I might encounter Anuti; for I longed for the opportunity to convince him that the ideas which he had somehow formed with regard to his royal wife were as far from the truth as darkness is from light, or as the east is from the west. And, as sometimes happens, my desire was gratified; for as I rode down the valley to pay my daily visit to the wagon, I found the man obviously waiting for me at the spot where we had previously met.
Upon seeing me he pressed his heels to his zebra’s sides, and galloped forward to meet me, greeting me with the same frank friendliness as before.
“Well met, Anuti,” said I. “I have been hoping that I might see you, for I have several matters of moment that I wish to discuss with you. Will you ride with me to the end of the valley, or shall I accompany you to your house?”
“Let us ride to the end of the valley first, Chia’gnosi,” said he; “then, afterwards, if you will accompany me to my house, I shall feel myself very deeply honoured.”
“Right!” I said. “Forward, then! Now, Anuti, I wonder whether you can guess why I am so anxious to have an opportunity to converse with you?”
“I think I can,” he answered, with that frank, genial smile of his which had so favourably impressed me at our former meeting. “You want to prove to me that my ideas concerning Bimbane are all wrong, and that I, and those who regard her as I do, are doing her the utmost injustice. Is not that it?”
“Heavens, man, you must be a thought-reader!” I ejaculated in astonishment. “How did you come to guess that?”
“Oh,” he replied laughingly, “it was quite easy! I knew that by the time you next met me Bimbane would have fully convinced you that she is a wronged and grossly maligned woman; and, having thoroughly read your character at our last meeting, I was sure that no sooner would she have done that than your chivalry of feeling would urge you to espouse her cause and undertake the task of proving to me and the rest of her enemies that, in regarding her as we do, we are doing her a hideous injustice. Well, now is your opportunity to convince me—if you can. She has convinced you. Tell me, how did she do it?”
By way of reply I related in detail everything that had happened since I had last met him, repeated our conversations word for word, so far as I could recall them, and dwelt at length upon the many exalted sentiments and lofty aspirations to which the queen had given expression; asking him finally how he could possibly associate those sentiments and aspirations with a woman of such a character as he believed that of Bimbane to be.
“Quite impossible, Chia’gnosi,” he answered, “if she were sincere in their expression.”