“Oh, I don’t mean that.”
“No?”
“No. Lots of elderly men have purple faces, turned legs and roaring voices. You must know that. Sir Tiglath is peculiar in this way—he is quite elderly and yet he’s not in the least little bit silly.”
“Oh!”
“He’s a thoroughly sensible old man, the only one I ever met.”
“Your father?”
“The Chieftain can be very foolish at times. That’s why he’s always relied so on me.”
She gave this proof triumphantly. The Prophet felt bound to accept it.
“Sir Tiglath is really, as an old man, what everybody thinks I am, as a young woman. D’you see?”
“You mean?”