Others in the motley retinue were
smiling broadly.
"Speak to him in your own language, your highness, and he will be sure
to understand," ventured the patient.
"I am speaking in my--I mean, I prefer to speak in English. Please tell
him to go to a hospital," she said confusedly. Baldos gave a few jovial
instructions, and then the raggedest courtier of them all handed Beverly
into the carriage with a grace that amazed her.
"You are the most remarkable goat-hunters I have ever seen," she
remarked in sincere wonder.
"And you speak the most perfect English I've ever heard," he replied.
"Oh, do you really think so? Miss Grimes used to say I was hopeless. You
know I had a--a tutor," she hastily explained. "Don't you think it
strange we've met no Axphain soldiers?" she went on, changing the
subject abruptly.
"We are not yet out of the woods," he said.
"That was a purely American aphorism," she cried, looking at him
intently. "Where did you learn all your English?"
"I had a tutor," he answered easily.
"You are a very odd person," she sighed. "I don't believe that you are a
goat-hunter at all."
"If I were not a goat-hunter I should have starved long ago," he
said. "Why do you doubt me?"
"Simply because you treat me one moment as if I were a princess, and the
next as if I were a child. Humble goat-hunters do not forget their
station in life.
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