rarefied content, to depths of
shyness. Things she had said and done, on that far-away hillside, seemed
unbelievable, remembered in her familiar balcony with a daylight mind:
and fear lest he might be 'thinking it that way too' increased shyness
tenfold. Yet it was she who spoke first, after all.

"Oh, it makes me angry ... to see you--like that," she said, indicating
his ankle with a faint movement of her hand.

Roy quietly took possession of the hand and pressed it to his lips.

"How do you suppose _I_ feel, seeing _you_ like that!" Words and act
dispelled her foolish fears. "Did you sleep? Does it hurt much?"

"Only if I forget and try to move. But what matter? Every time it hurts,
I feel proud because that feeble arm was able to push you out of the
way."

"You've every right to feel proud. You nearly knocked me over!"

A mischievous smile crept into her eyes. "I am afraid ... I was very
rude!"

"That's _one_ way of putting it!" His grave tenderness warmed her like
sunshine. He leaned nearer; his hand grasped the arm of her long chair.
"You were a very wonderful Aruna last night. And--you are going to be
more wonderful still. Working with Dyan, you are going to help make my
dream come true--of India finding herself again by her own genius, along
her own lines----"

He had struck the right note. Her face lit up as he had hoped to see it.
"Oh, Roy--can I really----? Will Dyan help? Will he _let_ me----"

"Of course he will. And I'll be helping too--in my own fashion. We'll
never lose touch, Aruna; though India's your destiny and England's mine.
Never say again you have no true country. Like me, you have two
countries--one very dear; one supreme. I'm afraid there are terrible
days coming out here. And in those days every one of you who honestly
loves England--every one of _us_ who honestly loves India--will count in
the scale ..."

He paused; and she drew a deep breath. "Oh--how you _see_ things! It is
you who are wonderful, Roy. I can think and feel the big things in my
heart. But for doing them--I am, after all, only a woman...."

"An _Indian_ woman," he emphasised, his eyes on hers. "I know--and you
know--what that means. You have not yet bartered away your magical
influence for a mess of pottage. Because of one Indian woman--supreme
for me; and now ... because of another, they all have a special claim on
my heart. If India has not gone too far down the wrong road, it is by
the _true_ Swadeshi spirit of