Truly she was a beauteous sight, for she wore robes of royal purple, and on her brow a little coronet of gold, beneath which her curling hair streamed down her shapely neck and bosom.

Seeing her I guessed at once that she had arrayed herself thus for some secret end, enhancing her loveliness by every art and grace that is known to woman.

Simbri was looking at her earnestly, with fear and doubt written on even his cold, impassive features.
"What passed between you, then ?" he asked, peering at her.
"I questioned him closely as to the reason of his coming to this land, and wrung from him the answer that it was to seek some beauteous woman--he would say no more.

I asked him if she were more beauteous than _I_ am, and he replied with courtesy--nothing else, I think--that it would be hard to say, but that she had been different.

Then I said that though it behooved me not to speak of such a matter, there was no lady in Kaloon whom men held to be so fair as I; moreover, that I was its ruler, and that I and no other had saved him from the water.