I looked at her for a second and said:
'Your Majesty, I believe.'
With a kindly smile she answered, 'Yes.'
'Will I take the water, Your Majesty?'
I was confused by the mistake I came near making, in taking the maid of
honor for the Queen.
'If you please,' she responded with the same kindly and encouraging
smile.
It didn't take me long to get over the side of that vessel, you can rest
assured. Remembering the Captain's injunction not to keep her waiting
long, I drove through all the exhibition I could give and as I clambered
aboard again the perspiration stood all over my forehead. On gaining
the deck, I bowed to the Queen again and was about to go forward. The
Queen stopped me and said:
'Captain Boyton, I am both delighted and astonished at your wonderful
work in the water; I believe that dress will be the means of saving
numbers of valuable lives.'
She asked me how old I was and many other questions. A handsome young
lady who stood at her side said:
'Don't you feel very much fatigued after such an exertion and are not
your clothes wet under your dress?'
'Oh, no, Miss, not the least.'
At this answer of mine a laugh went up from the royal group and I
suspected that I had made some mistake. I added. 'To prove to your
Majesty that I am perfectly dry underneath the suit, I am, with your
permission going to take it off.
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