ace, with feet that could hardly be
restrained from running as fast as they could go.

And at the gate the very same _pratihari_ was waiting, and she led me
away, exactly as before, to the door, and opened it, and I went in.
And I stood, listening to its sound as it shut behind me, hardly able
to believe that it was not a dream, as I found myself once more in the
garden that contained the Queen. And I stopped for a while, for my
heart was beating so furiously that I was afraid it would break. And I
said to myself, with a sigh of ineffable relief: Ah! now, then, I am
actually here, once more. And O now, very soon, comes the agonising
rapture of seeing her again. And I wonder where she is, and how I
shall find her to-night. And now I must begin to hunt for a very sweet
quarry. And suddenly I started almost running, paying absolutely no
attention to the trees at all, with eyes that were blind for
everything in the world, except one.

And then, all at once, I stopped short: for I looked and saw her, a
little way off, under a great _nyagrodha_ tree, sitting crossways in
a low swing[25] that hung down from a long bough, holding one of its
ropes in her left hand that was stretched as high as it could go, and
leaning back against the other with her head cushioned in her bent
right arm. And she had her left foot tucked beneath her, so that her
left knee stood up in the swing, while her right leg was stretched out
below, so that its foot just reached the ground, to allow her to swing
very gently, whenever her toes touched the earth. And the lovely line
of her great right hip seemed to cry for admiration, running down in a
single unbroken curve from her waist into the ground, balanced as it
were above by the slender beauty of her left arm rising from the mound
of her left breast. And the rising moon which she was watching touched
her with a faint lustre, lighting up like a lamp the great gem in her
hair, and making the champak blossom that floated in the hollow of her
bosom's wave glimmer like the foam on a midnight sea. And after a
while, I began to steal towards her on tiptoe, fearing to disturb her,
lest the lovely picture should be spoiled, yet yearning to be with her
with the whole strength of my soul. But all at once, she heard me
coming, and looked round and saw me. And instantly she left her swing,
and came towards me, walking quickly with undulating steps, as upright
as a pillar of her own tree. And I stood still, to wat