"The Inche Maida's?" said Hilton, in a low voice. "Well no: not exactly hers, dear boy. But I say, Hilton, she is a woman and a lady; don't say hard things to her." "Hard things?" cried Hilton, angrily. "Come, I like that! Hang it, man, after this outrage she ought to be shut up in a lunatic asylum!" "Humph!" said Chumbley, slowly. "I don't know. They say love is a sort of lunacy, and people do strange things who get the disease badly. You're been an awful idiot lately!" "Chumbley, do you want me to strike you?" cried Hilton, fiercely. "No, dear boy," drawled his friend; "but you can give me a punch if it will do you good. I shan't hit you again." "Bah;" ejaculated Hilton. "There's no quarrelling with you!" "Not a bit of it dear boy; but as I was saying, seeing what stupid things you did about--" "Chumbley!" "All right: I wasn't going to mention her name. I say, seeing what stupid things you did, it was not surprising that a lady in love with your noble features and Apollo-like form--" "I declare I shall forget myself directly!" cried Hilton, between his teeth. "No: don't, old fellow; but you might let me finish my speech. It isn't often I'm flush of words, and when I am you check me. I say once more it was not so very surprising that her ladyship here should set a trap for you, catch you, and want to persuade you to accept her very eligible offers. There, sit down, man, and make the best of it! Stop that irritating walk of yours! You are like a human pendulum!" "Idiot!" muttered Hilton, between his teeth, glancing at the Princess's back, though, as she leaned in a graceful attitude against the window, with her arm through the bamboo bars. "Calling names!" said Chumbley, coolly. "Imitation's the sincerest form of flattery. Will you stop that wolf-in-a-cage walk?" "No!" "Then you're a Zoological Gardens beast! I say, why don't you utter a short howl every time you turn?" "If you cannot talk sensibly, Chumbley, pray be silent!" said Hilton, in a low, angry whisper. "You are like a big boy more than a man!" "Go on, old fellow!" said Chumbley, coolly. "If ever I marry, which isn't likely, I daresay I shall have a woman with a tongue like an arrow. What a chance she will have to shoot sharp words at my thick hide!" "Will you talk sense for a few moments before this woman goes?" "Lady." "Well, lady, then! I want to try and devise some plan for getting away." "What's the hurry?" said Chumbley. "We're caught and caged, and I have always noticed that the birds that are trapped and caged are of two kinds." "Is there much of this moral sermon to come?"