as old India lives. Friends are better."

"Do all princesses break their promises?" he countered, meeting her eyes
steadily.

"Never yet did I break one promise, whether it was for good or evil."

"Princess," he answered, looking sternly at her, "in Jamrud Fort you
agreed to take no part again in politics, national or international in
return for a promise of personal freedom and permission to reside in
India."

"My promise was dependent on my liberty. But is this liberty--to be
forced to reside in this old palace, with the spies of the Government
keeping watch on my doings, except when they chance to be outwitted?
Nevertheless, I have kept my promise. Thou knowest me better than to
think that I need to break promises in order to outwit a government of
Englishmen!"

"Quibbles won't help, Princess," he answered. "You promised to do
nothing that Government might object to."

"Well; will they object to my religion?" she retorted, mocking him. "Has
the British _raj_ at last screwed up its courage to the point of
trespassing behind the purdah and blundering in among religious
exercises?"

No man in his senses ever challenges a woman's argument until he knows
the whole of it and has unmasked its ulterior purpose. So King sat still
and said nothing, knowing that that was precisely what she did not want.

"You must make terms with me, heaven-born!" she went on, changing her
tone to one of rather more suggestive firmness. "The _Kali-Yug_ (age of
darkness) is drawing to a close, and India awakes! There is froth on the
surface--a rising here, an agitation there, a deal of wild talk
everywhere, and the dead old government proposes to suppress it in the
dead old ways, like men with paddles seeking to beat the waves down
flat! But the winds of God blow, and the boat of the men with the
paddles will be upset presently. Who then shall ride the storm? Their
gunners will be told to shoot the froth as it forms and rises! But if
there is a wise man anywhere he will make terms with me, and will set
himself to guide the underlying forces that may otherwise whelm
everything. I think thou art wise, my heaven-born. Thou wert wise once
on a time."

"Do you think you can rule India?" King asked her; and he did not make
the mistake of suggesting ridicule.

"Who else can do it?" she retorted. "Do you think we come into the world
to let fate be our master? Why have I royal blood and royal views,
wealth, understanding and ambition, while