ng, Chandranath fired a
parting shot. "I infer you came here fancying you can marry her, because
diluted blood of Seesodias runs in your veins. But here in India, you
will find forces too powerful militating against it."

But Roy was not to be goaded again into letting slip his self-control.
"The men of my stock, British and Rajput, are not in the habit of
discussing their womenfolk with strangers," said he--and flattered
himself he had very neatly secured the last word.

* * * * *

As for Aruna--left alone--she leaned again on the low abutment, but the
hypnotic spell was broken: only acute anxiety remained. For the lamp of
her life had made scant progress; and now she was aware of a disturbance
in the water, little ominous whirlpools not caused by wind. Presently
there emerged a long shadow, like a black expanse of rock:--unmistakably
a mugger. And in that moment she felt exquisitely grateful to the hand
that had seized her in the nick of time. The next--she wrung her own
together with a low, shivering cry.

For as the brute rose into fuller view, her chiragh rose with it--and so
remained; stranded high and dry somewhere near the horny shoulder;
tilted sideways, she judged from the slope of the flame; the oil, its
life-blood, trickling away. And as the mugger moved leisurely on, in the
wrong direction, breaking up the gold network of reflections, she had
her answer--or no answer. The lamp was neither wrecked nor shattered;
but it would never, now, reach the farther shore. Mai Lakshmi's face was
turned away in simple indifference, from the plea of a mere waverer
between two worlds, who ventured to set her lamp on the waters, not so
much in faith as in a mute gesture of despair....

She came very near despair, as she crouched sobbing there in the
shadow--not entirely for the fate of her lamp, but in simple reaction
from the mingled excitements and emotions of the evening ...

It was only a few minutes--though it seemed an age--before she felt
Roy's hand on her shoulder and heard his voice, troubled and tender
beneath its surface note of command.

"Aruna--what the--get up. Don't cry like that--you mustn't...."

She obeyed instinctively; and stood there, like a chidden child,
battling with her sobs.

"Where's the thing? What's happened?" he asked, seeming to disregard her
effort at control.

"There--over there. Look ... the mugger!"

"Mugger?" He sighted it. "Well, I'm--the thiev