Age had not weakened her tongue or her memory , and from a discreetly barred upper window , in the hearing of not less than a dozen servants , she paid Kim compliments that would have flung European audiences into unclean dismay . ` But thou art still the shameless beggar-brat of the parao , ' she shrilled . ' I have not forgotten thee . Wash ye and eat . The father of my daughter 's son is gone away awhile . So we poor women are dumb and useless . ' For proof , she harangued the entire household unsparingly till food and drink were brought ; and in the evening -- the smoke-scented evening , copper-dun and turquoise across the fields -- it pleased her to order her palanquin to be set down in the untidy forecourt by smoky torchlight ; and there , behind not too closely drawn curtains , she gossiped . ` Had the Holy One come alone , I should have received him otherwise ; but with this rogue , who can be too careful ? ' ` Maharanee , ' said Kim , choosing as always the amplest title , ` is it my fault that none other than a Sahib -- a polis-Sahib -- called the Maharanee whose face he -- ' ` Chutt ! That was on the pilgrimage . When we travel -- thou knowest the proverb . ' ` Called the Maharanee a Breaker of Hearts and a Dispenser of Delights ? ' ` To remember that ! It was true . So he did . That was in the time of the bloom of my beauty . ' She chuckled like a contented parrot above the sugar lump . ` Now tell me of thy goings and comings -- as much as may be without shame . How many maids , and whose wives , hang upon thine eyelashes ? Ye hail from Benares ?
I would have XXXXX there again this year , but my daughter -- we have only two sons .
barred brought chuckled drawn eat forgotten gone harangued shrilled tell