hey make me mad. I
cannot bear it. Look!" he cried, "he should have died out in my
country, where we would have laid him on sweet scented woods, and
baskets of spices and gums, and there, where the sun shines and the palm
trees wave, I, his old servant, would have fired the pile, and he would
have risen up in the clouds of smoke, and among the pure clear flames of
fire, till nothing but the ashes was left. Yes, yes, that would have
been his end," he cried, with flashing eyes, as he seemed to mentally
picture the scene; "and then thy servant could have died with thee. Oh,
Sahib, Sahib, Sahib!"

He clasped his hands together, the fire died from his eyes, which became
suffused with tears, and as he uttered the last word thrice in a low
moaning voice, he stood rocking himself to and fro.

The two women looked horrified and shuddered, but the piteous grief was
magnetic, and in the deep silence that fell they began to sob; while the
butler blew his nose softly, coughed, and at last laid his hand upon the
old servant's shoulder.

"Shake hands, Mr Ramo," he said huskily. "Fifteen years you and me's
been together, and if we haven't hit it as we might, well, it was only
natural, me being an Englishman and you almost a black; but it's this as
brings us all together, natives and furreners, and all. He was a good
master, God bless him! and I'm sorry he's gone."

The old Indian looked up at him half wonderingly for a few moments.
Then, taking the extended hand in both of his, he held it for a time,
and pressed it to his heart, dropped it, and turned to go.

"Won't you take something, Mr Ramo?"

"No--no!" said the Indian, shaking his head, and he glided softly out of
the servants' hall, went silently, in his soft yellow leather slippers,
down a long passage and up a flight of stone stairs, to pass through a
glass door, and stand in the large gloomy hall, in the middle of one of
the marble squares that turned the floor into a vast chess-board, round
which the giant pieces seemed to be waiting to commence the game.

For the faint light that came through the thick ground-glass fanlight
over the great double doors was diffused among black bronze statues and
white marble figures of Greek and Roman knights. In one place, seated
meditatively, with hands resting upon the knees, there was an Indian
god, seeming to watch the floor. In another, a great Japanese warrior,
while towards the bottom of the great winding staircase, whos