ing brute!" Humour lurked
in his voice--more tonic than sympathy; yet in a sense, more upsetting.
Her tragedy had its vein of the ludicrous; and at his hint of it, tears
trembled into laughter; laughter into tears. The impact unsteadied her
afresh; and she covered her face again shaken with sobs.

"Aruna--my _dear_--you mustn't, I tell you...." More tenderness now than
command.

She held her breath--pain shot through with sudden ecstasy. For in
speaking he had laid an arm round her shoulder; just supporting her with
a firm gentle grasp that sent tingling shocks along all her sensitised
nerves.

"Listen, Aruna--and don't cry," he said, low and urgently. "No answer
always leaves room for hope. And you shall have your Dyan, I promise
you. I won't come back without him. I can't say fairer than that. So
now----" his hand closed on her shoulder. "Give over--breaking your poor
heart!"

Comforted a little, she uncovered her face. "I will try. Only
to-night--I would rather--not the Palace dinner, the fireworks. I would
rather go home with Miss Mills and the children...."

"And cry your eyes out all alone. And spoil the whole evening--for us
both. No, you don't. Remember--you are Rajputni: not to be hag-ridden by
a mere chiragh and a thieving mugger. No more tears and terrors. Look me
in the face--and promise."

As usual, he was irresistible. What matter Mai Lakshmi's
indifference--since he cared so much? "Faithfully--I promise, Roy," she
said; and, for proof of courage, looked straight into his eyes--that
seemed mysteriously to hold and draw her into depths beyond depths.

For one incredible moment, his face moved a little nearer to
hers--paused, as if irresolute, and withdrew.

So brief was the instant, so slight the movement, that she almost
doubted her senses. But her inmost being knew--and ached, without
shyness or shame, for the kiss withheld....

"You've the grit--I knew it," Roy said at last, in the level voice that
had puzzled her earlier in the evening: and his hand slid from her
shoulder. "Come now--we've been too long. Thea will be wondering...."

He turned; and she moved beside him, walking in a dream.

"Did you say much, before I came?" he asked, after a pause, "to that
fellow--Chandranath?"

"I spoke a little--thinking him a _guru_----" She paused. The name woke
a chord of memory. "Chandranath," she repeated, "that is the name they
said----"

"_Who_?" Roy asked sharply, coming out of his own dream.