ed a glance of satisfaction with the
Rajah, who leaned back among his silken cushions in an attitude of
greater comfort than he had allowed to himself during the preceding
anxious half-hour.

It only remained to instruct the young Sikh as to the course and manner
of his journey, which was to be first to Ferazpore to receive the
commands of Junda Kowr, thence to Jummoo, where Golab Singh, the
recently appointed ruler of Kashmir, held his brilliant court.

These matters satisfactorily arranged, Rajah Lal with stately ceremony
took his leave, and Atma found himself alone with his kinsman, who
proceeded to matters of not less interest.

"I am honoured," he said, "by your proposed alliance with my house," for
Atma had disclosed to her father his love for Moti. "I am honoured and
deeply moved; but I defer this consummation of my cherished wish until
all may know that among many suitors, I chose, to be the husband of my
only child, a leal soldier of the Khalsa. But your high nature will, I
perceive, count this prize lightly won by peril endured for the Khalsa.
You go to-morrow to Ferazpore, where you will meet again Rajah Lal, who
has perhaps more influence with our clever Ranee than many a better man.
He repairs thither this evening, and will no doubt prepare for you a
favourable reception, and you will," he added, laughing, "in all
probability be received with the overflowing kindness and unveiled
confidence which our British friends deprecate!"

This covert allusion was not understood by the young Sikh, in whose
thoughts all men were valiant and all women fair and good. But he
experienced a shade of annoyance on learning that he must owe anything
to the good offices of Lal Singh. An echo seemed to sound faint and far
as in a dream; "Rajah Lal," it seemed to say, "means to pluck the Rose
of Lehna Singh's garden."

CHAPTER VI.

A subdued light stole through the latticed windows of the house of Junda
Kowr, revealing a court whose hush and shadow contrasted with the busy
life that Atma had left behind him. The silence and pleasing coolness
were in harmonious unison with the gleaming alabaster arches, and the
subdued loveliness of arrangement was more agreeable to sense than Lehna
Singh's ornate magnificence. A lace-like screen hung before a lofty
recess. So plain it seemed that one wondered at seeing it motionless in
the breeze made by the silken punkah swinging slowly to and fro before
it. It was of most delicat