Leonard looked at her curiously.

She was past middle age, but he could see that once she had been handsome, and, for a native, very light in colour.

Her hair was grizzled and crisp rather than woolly, and her hands and feet were slender and finely shaped.

At the moment he could discern no more of the woman's personal appearance, for the face was covered, as has been said, and her body wrapped in a tattered blanket.
"Mother," he said, speaking in the Sisutu dialect, "what ails you that you weep here alone ?" The stranger let drop her hands and sprang up with a cry of fear.

As it chanced, her gaze fell first upon the dwarf Otter, who was standing in front of her, and at the sight of him the cry died upon her lips, and her sunken cheeks, clear-cut features, and sullen black eyes became as those of one who is petrified with terror.