But now she saw fit to seem indignant at the treatment I had suffered, and she made even the ranks of veiled princesses shudder as she rose and stormed at my captors, giving each word a sort of whip-lash weight.
"Shall a guest of mine suffer in my house ?" One of the women piped up with a complaint against me.

I had trodden on her foot and crushed her against a door-jamb.
"Would he had slain you!" she retorted.

"She-dog! Take her away! I will punish her afterward! Who stuck pins into him?
Speak, or I will punish all of you!" None owned up, but three or four of them who had not been able to come near enough to do me any damage betrayed the others, so she ordered all except four of them out of the room to await punishment at her convenience.

And then she proceeded to apologize to me with such royal grace and apparent sincerity that I wondered whom she suspected of overhearing her.

Wondering, my eyes wandering, I noticed the woman veiled in black.