But enough of intrigue.

It was long before I guessed a tithe of it, and then largely through the Lady Om's confidences and Hendrik Hamel's conclusions.
The Lady Om was a very flower of woman.

Women such as she are born rarely, scarce twice a century the whole world over.

She was unhampered by rule or convention.

Religion, with her, was a series of abstractions, partly learned from Yunsan, partly worked out for herself.