hazy in
the level light that conjured the dusty air to gold. But contact with
human anguish, naked and unashamed--as he had not seen it since the
war--and that sudden queer encounter with Chandranath, had rubbed the
bloom off delicate films of memory and artistic impressions. These were
the drop-scene, merely: negligible, when Life took the stage. He had an
exciting sense of having stepped straight into a crisis. Things were
going to happen in Jaipur.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: Victory to thee, Maharaj!]

[Footnote 8: Loin-cloth.]

[Footnote 9: Melted butter.]

CHAPTER VI.

"God has a few of us, whom He whispers in the ear;
The rest may reason and welcome...."
--BROWNING.

"Living still, and the more beautiful for our longing."

The house of Sir Lakshman Singh, C.S.I.--like many others in advancing
India--was a house divided against itself. And the cleavage cut deep.
The furnishing of the two rooms, in which he mainly lived, was not more
sharply sundered from that of the Inside, than was the atmosphere of his
large and vigorous mind from the twilight of ignorance and superstition
that shrouded the mind and soul of his wife. More than fifty years
ago--when young India ardently admired the West and all its works--he
had dreamed of educating his spirited girl-bride, so that the way of
companionship might gladden the way of marriage.

But too soon the spirited girl had hardened into the narrow, tyrannical
woman; her conception of the wifely state limited to the traditional
duties of motherhood and household service. Happily for Sir Lakshman,
his unusual gifts had gained him wide recognition and high service in
the State. He had schooled himself, long since, to forget his early
dreams: and if marriage had failed, fatherhood had made royal amends.
Above all, in Lilamani, daughter of flesh and spirit, he had found--had
in a measure created--the intimate companionship he craved; a woman
skilled in the fine art of loving--finest and least studied of all the
arts that enrich and beautify human life. But the gods, it seemed, were
jealous of a relation too nearly perfect for mortal man. So Rama, eldest
son, and Lilamani, beloved daughter, had been taken, while the
estranged wife was left. Remained the grandchildren, in whom centred all
his hope and pride. So far as the dividing miles and years would permit,
he had managed to keep in close touch with Roy. B