u should prefer death, your death could not now be of your own
choosing; for, having been chosen, there is no escape from service to
the Purpose, and though you would certainly die if courage failed you,
your death would be more terrible than life, since it would serve the
Purpose without benefiting you.

"You are both honest men," he continued, "for the one has resigned
honors and emoluments in the army for the sake of serving India; the
other has accepted toilsome service under a man who seeks, however
mistakenly, to serve the world. If you were not honest you would never
have been chosen. If you had made no sacrifices of your own free will,
you would not have been acceptable."

Yasmini clasped her hands and laid her chin on them among the cushions.
She was reveling in intellectual enjoyment, as sinfully I daresay as
some folk revel in more material delights. The Mahatma took no notice of
her, but continued.

"You have heard of the _Kali-Yug_, the age of darkness. It is at an end.
The nations presently begin to beat swords into plowshares because the
time has come. But there is yet much else to do, and the eyes of those
who have lived so long in darkness are but blinded for the present by
the light, so that guides are needed, who can see. You two shall see--a
little!"

It was becoming intolerably hot in the room with the curtains drawn and
all those lights burning, but I seemed to be the only one who minded it.
The candles in the chandelier were kept from collapsing by metal
sheaths, but the very flames seemed to feel the heat and to flicker like
living things that wilted.

"Corn is corn and grass is grass," said the Mahatma, "and neither one
can change the other. Yet the seed of grass that is selected can improve
all grass, as they understand who strive with problems of the field.
Therefore ye two, who have been chosen, shall be sent as the seeds of
grass to the United States to carry on the work that no Indian can
properly accomplish. Corn to corn, grass to grass. That is your
destiny."

He paused, as if waiting for the sand to run out of an hour-glass. There
was no hour-glass, but the suggestion was there just the same.

"Nevertheless," he went on presently, "there are some who fail their
destiny, even as some chosen seeds refuse to sprout. You will need
besides your honesty such courage as is committed to few.

"Once on a time before the _Kali-Yug_ began, when the Aryans, of whom
you people are descendan