r more men always
insisted upon accompanying me, that I might be spared the labour of
paddling. It was always the same, no matter what the hour of day or
night that I might choose to start upon my expeditions; no surprise was
ever displayed at my eccentricity in the choice of times, but I simply
could not contrive to elude notice; and at length it was borne in upon
me that if I wished to effect my escape I must adopt tactics of a
totally different kind. I therefore very gradually curtailed my
excursions, and when I undertook them was careful that there should be
nothing in the nature of secrecy connected with my movements.

Meanwhile, without any effort on my part, I now seemed to see a good
deal of Ama, the king's daughter, who appeared to have assumed the
responsibility of seeing that my house was kept in order, and that the
servants were faithfully performing their duty. She was frequently in
and out, as often as three or four times a day, and very seldom indeed
less than twice; moreover, she seemed exceedingly anxious to become my
instructress in her own language, and as I had already felt heavily
handicapped on several occasions by my inability to converse freely with
those around me I made no demur, although I must confess that I at
length began to view with vague disquietude the extreme freedom of
intercourse thus instituted by the young woman. Yet I scarcely knew
precisely what it was that I feared, but I certainly had a feeling that
the situation was not altogether devoid of peril, one of the most
obvious of which was foreshadowed in the question which I frequently
asked myself, What would the king think of the intimacy of his daughter
with one of totally different race and views of life, should the matter
chance to come to his knowledge? Therefore I kept a very close watch
upon myself, and was careful never to allow my manner to relax in the
slightest degree from the strictest formality, although to preserve
consistently this attitude of extreme reserve was sometimes exceedingly
difficult with a companion of so amiable and altogether winsome a manner
and disposition as that of Ama.

Under the zealous and indefatigable tuition of this young damsel I made
astonishingly rapid progress as a student of the language spoken by
those around me, and was soon able to converse in it with a very fair
amount of freedom. Meanwhile I had practically abandoned my attempts to
effect my escape, for the time being at leas