The princess shuddered visibly.
"My wine was too strong for you!" she said, in a quavering voice; "I ought not to have let you take a full draught! Go and sleep now, and when you wake ask me what you please .-- I will go with you: come." As she preceded me up the stair,-- "I do not wonder that roar startled you!" she said.

"It startled me, I confess: for a moment I feared she had escaped.

But that is impossible." The roar seemed to me, however--I could not tell why--to come from the WHITE leopardess, and to be meant for me, not the princess.
With a smile she left me at the door of my room, but as she turned I read anxiety on her beautiful face..