mind. And a little before sunset, I went out, and
moved slowly through the streets, making for the palace with unwilling
feet. And when I reached it, I stood still, opposite the palace gates,
saying to myself: There is still just time to turn back and go away.
For my reluctance grew upon me as I went, with every step, as if some
presentiment that I could not understand was warning me beforehand of
all that would come about. And I said: Now then, I will give myself
one last chance. I will stand here still, and count a hundred. And if
in the time, I do not see an elephant go by, I will go away, bidding
good-bye for ever to the Queen. And then I began to count. And
strange! at that very moment, I looked, and saw the _ankusha_ of a
_mahawat_, high up above the crowd, coming round the corner. And the
elephant on which he sat passed by the palace gates, looking at me as
it were with laughter in its little eye, and saying: I am just in
time: while yet I had fifty still to count.

So near I came, to never seeing Tarawali at all!

VII

So then at last, seeing that fate was against me, and that there was
absolutely no help for it, I gave up the struggle, and went up to the
gate. And learning who I was, the _pratihari_[22] led me away into the
palace, and I followed her through innumerable corridors and halls,
until at last we came to a high wall, in which there was a door,
screened by a curtain. And she drew aside the curtain, and opened the
door with a key. And she said: The Queen is within: knock at the door
on thy return. And I went in, and she shut the door behind me,
leaving me alone.

And I found myself in a garden, of which I could not see the end, for
it rather resembled a forest for its multitude of trees. And after a
while, I went on slowly without any guide, going wherever my steps led
me, and saying to myself as I went along: Now I wonder where the Queen
is; for as it seems, I am far more likely to lose myself than find
anything, in such a maze as this. And then, little by little, I
utterly forgot all about her, lost in my admiration of the place that
I was in, and saying to myself in wonder: After all, I did well to
come, and it was well worth while, if only for the sake of this
extraordinary wood, which cannot properly be called a garden, since it
is like absolutely nothing else in the world. For there were no
flowers to be seen at all, but only trees. And even of trees, there
were only four kinds, champak, a