She bade the escort tell her what was going on on the road; and so soon as they were clear of the parao she flung back the curtains and peered out, her veil a third across her face.

Her men did not eye her directly when she addressed them, and thus the proprieties were more or less observed.
A dark, sallowish District Superintendent of Police, faultlessly uniformed, an Englishman, trotted by on a tired horse, and, seeing from her retinue what manner of person she was, chaffed her.
'O mother,' he cried, 'do they do this in the zenanas?
Suppose an Englishman came by and saw that thou hast no nose ?' 'What ?' she shrilled back.

'Thine own mother has no nose?
Why say so, then, on the open road ?' It was a fair counter.

The Englishman threw up his hand with the gesture of a man hit at sword-play.

She laughed and nodded.
'Is this a face to tempt virtue aside ?' She withdrew all her veil and stared at him.
It was by no means lovely, but as the man gathered up his reins he called it a Moon of Paradise, a Disturber of Integrity, and a few other fantastic epithets which doubled her up with mirth.
'That is a nut-cut [rogue],' she said.