led the way from one
room to another and showed them her curios in the different rooms, until
she came to rest in one of the bedrooms, when she ordered chairs to be
brought in for the guests. There were many chairs in this room, but they
were really small thrones of Her Majesty's, although they looked like
any ordinary chairs. The custom is that no matter what kind of a chair
it may be, as soon as she uses it, it is at once called her throne and
no one is allowed to sit on it thereafter unless the order is given by
her.

During the time the eunuchs were bringing in the chairs kept purposely
for foreigners to use, one of the ladies of the party made a mistake and
sat upon one of Her Majesty's thrones. I noticed her at once, and before
I had a chance to warn her, Her Majesty made a sign of annoyance to me.
I went to this lady at once and told her I wanted to show her something
and naturally she was obliged to get up. The trouble was this, although
Her Majesty felt that no one had the right to sit upon her throne, she
expected me to get this lady off the chair and at the same time not to
tell her the reason why. While I was busy interpreting for her, she said
in an undertone: "There she is again, sitting on my bed. We had
better leave this room." After this the ladies were conducted to the
refreshment room, and when they had partaken of lunch, bade Her Majesty
good-bye, leaving Miss Carl with us. As usual we reported to her that we
had seen the guests safely off. She said to me: "That was a funny lady:
first she sat upon my throne, and then upon my bed. Perhaps she does not
know what a throne is when she sees one, and yet foreigners laugh at
us. I am sure that our manners are far superior to theirs. Another
thing--did you notice that Mrs. Conger handed a parcel to Miss Carl out
in the courtyard when she came in?" I replied that I had noticed her
passing something like a parcel, but could not tell what the parcel
contained. She thereupon told me to go and ask Miss Carl what it was. At
that time I had received so many peculiar orders from Her Majesty that
I was beginning to get accustomed to them and used my own discretion in
carrying out her instructions. Therefore I did not ask Miss Carl, but
set about finding out for myself. However, when I began to look around
for the parcel, it had mysteriously disappeared and I could not find
the thing anywhere. This naturally worried me, knowing as I did that
Her Majesty liked her ins