yes when a coal-black stallion,
guided only by the pressure of its rider's knees, came to a stand
directly beneath him in the shadow of the wall, having scrambled and
slithered, jumping like a deer, climbing like a goat down the
rock-strewn road which leads to the village from the great house at its
rear; one of those abominable roads allotted to the calloused native
foot, honoured for the first time in this instance by the passage of
the prince's son and heir.

An arresting picture the rider and his horse made as the man bent low
in the saddle and salaamed, then raised his turbaned head and sat
motionless, gazing at the holy man.

Minutes passed before, with arms filled with offerings and garlands of
marigolds and jasmin swinging from his wrists, he slid from the saddle
to the ground, and took his way up the narrow tortuous path which Fate
had marked out for him through all time.

High caste, high born, as slender and delicate and as pressed with life
as a budding branch in spring, Madhu Krishnaghar stood beside the
priest in the incongruous setting of the mud walls.

A coat of fine white linen with broad orange waistband came to just
below the knees; white trousers fastened tight about the ankle fitted
almost like a stocking from ankle to knee; the slender, narrow feet
were shod in native slippers, the white turban with its regulation
folds outlined the pale bronze face with the sign of the man's religion
traced between the eyebrows; diamond solitaires sparkled in the ears,
and one necklace of great pearls hung about his neck.

"Usual large gentle eye, hawk nose, mobile mouth and small-boned oval
face" would doubtlessly have been the flippant comment of any
occidental passer-by; "meet 'em everywhere, gambling at the street
corner, or squatting in the bazaar, or riding elephants."

Yes! but--is not India's future history writ large upon that
small-boned oval face for those who, having the vision, read as they
walk warily.

For those who run hastily past life's signposts cannot and will not see
that, like the fresh green grass which hides the dug pit, those gentle
luminous eyes draw attention from the subtle cruelty of the mouth,
through which gleam the pitiless perfect teeth.

Glorying in his bull-neck and massive chin, and blinded by his insular,
inherited upbringing, the European will exclaim "Pah!" at sight of the
thin cheek and delicate oval face, failing utterly to notice the set of
the ears on the head;