eemed to me that honesty was the best policy,
therefore I answered her, after seating myself at as respectful a
distance from her as the divan would allow:

"If I am indeed prejudiced at all against Your Majesty, it is because of
the story that Siluce told me."

"Ah, yes, Siluce!" retorted the queen rather bitterly. "She died in
your arms. And, before dying, she no doubt told you that the Bandokolo
are a cruel, wicked people; and that I, their queen, am the most cruel
and wicked of them all. Did she not?"

"I am told that you know all things," I returned. "If that be true, you
must be fully aware of every word which that unhappy young woman said."

"Ye-e-es," answered Bimbane slowly, "I ought to know, certainly; but it
happens that I do not. For at the moment when you encountered Siluce,
it chanced that my attention was distracted from you for a time; and
when at length I was again free to visualise you, the woman was lying
dead in your arms, and so I missed hearing what she told you. But I can
guess; and I have guessed aright, have I not?"

"Pretty nearly," I replied. And then I repeated what Siluce had said as
to the treatment which she had received, and the causes for that
treatment; and I ventured to hint that, according to the views of
civilised people, the unhappy girl had been atrociously misused.

"So that was the story Siluce told you?" remarked the queen, when I had
finished. "Now listen to mine, and judge between us.

"I am not a young woman; I am indeed old, as you have already guessed:
yet when the time of mourning for my late consort was past, many chiefs
and nobles urged me to wed again, and offered themselves as suitable
candidates for the position of spouse to the queen. I knew that these
proposals were made only because of the power, influence, and wealth
which belong to the position; yet, because I am a woman, with all a
woman's weaknesses, and the Bandokolo are a fickle, turbulent people,
impatient of restraint and difficult to govern, it seemed desirable that
I should choose another consort from among the many suitors for the
honour. And after careful consideration I chose Anuti, one of the
captains of my guard, because he seemed the most suitable for the
position, and the man most likely to be helpful to me in my difficult
task of government.

"But Siluce, who was one of the women of my household, had already seen
Anuti, and desired him as her husband, although the man would have