wels, she began to put them on, saying as she did
so: See! am I becoming more fit to be thy queen? And he watched her,
stupefied, like one in a dream, and all the while she bathed him with
intoxicating side glances shot like arrows from the bow of her arching
brows. And at last, she came slowly towards him, walking on tiptoe, and
attitudinising, placing herself exactly in the posture in which he had
seen her first among the poppies on the wall, with one hand on her hip.
And she said, lifting her brow, with a smile that stole his reason: Now,
then, the idol is ready for the devotee. And at that moment the door
opened, and an old Brahman entered through it. And he said slowly:
Abandoned daughter, that hast forgot thy duty in thy passion for this
King's son, become what thou hast represented, an idol of stone on the
wall of a ruined temple far away; and thou her guilty lover, fall into
another birth, and be separated from thy guilty love.

And then, Aja heard no more. The world whirled around him; the blackness
of night closed over his soul; he uttered a terrible cry, and fell to
the ground in a swoon.

VII.

And when he came to himself, he was back again among the poppies in the
_tamala_ wood. And he was lying on the ground, with Natabhrukuti bending
over him, holding him by the hand, with anxiety in her eyes. And
instantly he started up, and seizing his sword, stood gazing at her with
stupefaction. And he said to himself: Am I dead or dreaming? And what
does it all mean? Is it a delusion of the Creator, or a mirage and a
madness of the desert, out of which I have never yet escaped at all?
Aye! beyond a doubt, I am wandering still in the waste of sand, raving
mad, and dying; and haunted by phantoms that are the premonitors of
approaching death.

So as he stood, balanced in the swing of perplexity, and doubting his
own reason, Natabhrukuti looked at him fixedly, with concern and
affection and curiosity in her eyes. And she said: Surely thou art ill.
And why then dost thou shrink from me, as though I were a thing of
terror: I, who ask for nothing but to tend thee all my life? For it was
but now, as we spoke together in this wood, I looked up and saw thee
suddenly close thy eyes. And as I watched thee, wondering to see thee
sleeping as it were erect, there burst from thy lips a fearful cry, and
I had but time to catch thee falling, and let thee sink upon the ground.
And I brought thee to thyself, by fanning thee, a