She decided that at all costs Jaimihr must be out of the way so that the Maharaja might be left to argue with the priests alone.

For the moment no other thought occurred to her.
The means seemed ready to her hand.

A peculiarity of the East, which is democratic in most ways under the veneer of swaggering autocracy, that servants of the very lowest caste may speak, and argue on occasion, with men who would shudder at the prospect of defilement from their touch.
There was nothing in the least outrageous in the proposition that the sweeper, waiting in a corner for the procession to emerge again so that he might curl on his mat and sleep undisturbed when it had gone, should dare to approach Jaimihr and address him.

He would run no small risk of being beaten by the guards; but, on the other hand, should he catch jaimihr's ear and interest him, he would be safe.
"Wouldst thou win Jaimihr's favor ?" asked Joanna, creeping up beside him, and whispering with all the suggestiveness she could assume.
"Who would not?
Who knows that within week he will not be ruler ?" "True.

I have a message for him.