I know not how much of the truth he suspected, but for a moment we stood thus, I half imagining he contemplated a leap at my throat. Then his eyes fell, and he drew back with a short laugh.
"Le Diable! 'tis easy for some people to discover excuses at such a time. Still, Monsieur, as you refuse to fight I may as well lie down; having been early awake I am somewhat weary."
I watched him silently while he arranged his robes for the night.
"Before you sleep," I ventured, "it would please my curiosity to know where this pure and peerless Queen of yours makes her abode."
"Ah! would you pay her a visit?" he asked suspiciously.
"Far from it; rather that I may avoid her. Yet we are not in specially pleasant surroundings, and such information might not come amiss."
He sulked a moment over his answer, but finally relented.
"In that large hut upon the second mound."
"You spoke as if Madame de Noyan were beneath the same roof, yet you saw her not. Does the hut differ from this in being divided into rooms?"
"A partition runs through it from roof to floor. Naladi holds court in the south room, which is decorated most lavishly with things of beauty."
"Then Madame occupies the northern portion?"
"So I understood," with a sleepy yawn. "I asked little in detail; 'twas enough for me to be assured she was well."