and virgin body, he delighted in the
effect of the drug upon the woman he loved.

There was no doubt about it that she suddenly awoke to the passion of
the man looking down upon her, and responded to it.

Wave after wave swept her from head to foot, causing her body,
untrammelled by whalebone, to tremble against his, and he loosened the
white cloak and let it fall, holding her pressed to him in her thin
silk dress, laughing down at her, delighting in her eyes, her mouth,
her throat.

Handsome men are an everyday sight in India, but this man was as the
gods, and Leonie, beautiful, drugged Leonie, looked at him from the
corner of her eyes as looks the wanton, and laughed.

"I will not kiss thee," he whispered, watching the colour sweep her
face at his words, and smiling at the thudding of the heart beneath his
hand. "Nay, I will not bruise thee nor cause thee blemish until the
purdah hangs between us and the world. Look not at me thus-wise, and
lift not the glory of thy lips, for I will not seize thee as a beggar
seizes upon the _pice_. I am thy king and thy slave, and I will carry
thee to the gate. Nay, move not thy body for fear I throw thee upon
the ground and set my seal upon thee. Lie still! and yet--why not, why
_not_! perchance _has_ the hour struck."

The man was crazed with love, and the girl intoxicated with the drug,
and they were perched up there above the world alone, in the stillness
of the Indian night.

He hastily wrapped her in the cloak, and taking her into his arms, hid
her face against his shoulder, and stood for a moment staring out
towards the spot from whence had come the ill-omened jackal cry.

"Not yet," he whispered. "Not yet!"

Sure-footed as a goat he carried her down the winding stairs out into
the moonlight, and across the terrace, and up the marble steps, and
placed her upon the wide marble seat, and sat sideways upon it behind
her, unwitting of the miserable wretch who watched from between the
cypress trees.

Leonie sat quite still until the mystery of the place, or whatever it
is, entered into the innermost recesses of her being; and she held out
her arms to the light burning day and night above the dead lovers, and
sobbed.

Madhu Krishnaghar laid his hand upon hers on the cold marble of the
seat, and lost himself in ecstasy at the tears which welled into the
strange gold-green eyes and fell, then opening the collar of the white
linen coat, he lifted a necklace of pricel