have known a care, it was as much as she could do--as
she confessed to Aunt Mattie afterwards--to keep herself from hugging
them both.

"I was looking for a picture," she said, "that has a good subject--and
that's well arranged--but badly coloured."

The little old ladies glanced at each other in some alarm. "Calm
yourself, my dear," said the one who had spoken first, "and try to
remember which it was. What _was_ the subject?"

"Was it an elephant, for instance?" the other sister suggested. They
were still in sight of Lieutenant Brown.

"I don't know, indeed!" Clara impetuously replied. "You know it doesn't
matter a bit what the subject _is_, so long as it's a good one!"

Once more the sisters exchanged looks of alarm, and one of them
whispered something to the other, of which Clara caught only the one
word "mad."

"They mean Aunt Mattie, of course," she said to herself--fancying, in
her innocence, that London was like her native town, where everybody
knew everybody else. "If you mean my aunt," she added aloud, "she's
_there_--just three pictures beyond Lieutenant Brown."

"Ah, well! Then you'd better go to her, my dear!" her new friend said,
soothingly. "_She'll_ find you the picture you want. Good-bye, dear!"

"Good-bye, dear!" echoed the other sister, "Mind you don't lose sight of
your aunt!" And the pair trotted off into another room, leaving Clara
rather perplexed at their manner.

"They're real darlings!" she soliloquised. "I wonder why they pity me
so!" And she wandered on, murmuring to herself "It must have two good
marks, and----"

KNOT VI.

HER RADIANCY.

"One piecee thing that my have got,
Maskee[A] that thing my no can do.
You talkee you no sabey what?
Bamboo."

They landed, and were at once conducted to the Palace. About half way
they were met by the Governor, who welcomed them in English--a great
relief to our travellers, whose guide could speak nothing but Kgovjnian.

"I don't half like the way they grin at us as we go by!" the old man
whispered to his son. "And why do they say 'Bamboo!' so often?"

"It alludes to a local custom," replied the Governor, who had overheard
the question. "Such persons as happen in any way to displease Her
Radiancy are usually beaten with rods."

[Illustration: "WHY DO THEY SAY 'BAMBOO!' SO OFTEN?"]

The old man shuddered. "A most objectional local custom!" he remarked
with strong emphasis. "I wish we had never landed!