owered at the sound of our joyful shouting, I saw
my wife standing beside the big carronade that commanded the roadway up
the hill. The smoking match was in her hand, but at sight of me she
stooped and smothered in the dust the spark that would have dealt out
death to the robbers had they ever gained a near approach. Descending
from my elephant, I greeted her and thanked her for the courage of
herself and all the other women, our loved ones.

"Then my friends above handed down gently into my arms the form of the
little maid. At sight of my wife's sweet and kindly countenance the eyes
of the child were lighted with joyousness. But with a quick motion wife
drew her veil completely over her features. Ere this was done, however,
I had caught a strange look in her face--a look of mingled surprise and
terror. At the same moment her old attendant and confidant, Rakaya,
flung herself at my feet, and began to babble for my forgiveness.

"'What means this?' I asked, glancing in profound amazement from the
woman's prostrate form up into my wife's eyes. There again I read the
strangely troubled expression. Puzzled, yet restraining my curiosity
before the others gathered around, I placed the wounded child in my
wife's arms, and, with a gesture to signify that she and Rakaya were to
follow, I led the way to the women's quarters.

"Once within the zenana, I told my story briefly: how the little damsel
of the glen had saved me from certain death, and then, through danger
and through pain, had been brave as the noblest-born Rajput maid could
be. After this recital, I commended the child to my wife's affections,
bidding her love the orphan as she would a daughter.

"Then was the lovely countenance of my wife, the jewel of Jhalnagor,
suffused with great joy. Hugging the child to her motherly bosom, she
exclaimed:

"'Oh, my lord, I have a confession to make, but now you will forgive me.
Do you remember our first-born babe?'

"My brow darkened. I felt the hot flush of shame on my cheeks. For our
first-born had been a girl, and I--disappointed and aggrieved, because I
was then strongly under the influence of my father's teachings, proud of
my family's position and wealth, and fearful to be impoverished in the
future--had given the word that the babe must die. This in spite of my
wife's pitiful tears and pleadings. And it was not the memory of the
deed itself that made me now ashamed, but the memory of those tears and
of how I had repel