She is acting at once, and will strike quick and hard.

You have insulted her, my boy, and the blood will flow in rivers before the stain is washed away, and yours with it, if she can get hold of you.
Well, I'm off to Nyleptha.

Just you stop where you are, old fellow, and try to get your nerves straight again.

You'll need them all, I can tell you, unless I have observed human nature in the rough for fifty years for nothing.' And off I went accordingly.
I gained audience of the Queen without trouble.

She was expecting Curtis, and was not best pleased to see my mahogany-coloured face instead.
'Is there aught wrong with my Lord, Macumazahn, that he waits not upon me?
Say, is he sick ?' I said that he was well enough, and then, without further ado, I plunged into my story and told it from beginning to end.