waves is upon him, but there is no
answering surge in the tide of my soul. In my heart he sees the world
golden and white and flashing with laughter. In his heart I see the
world grim and drab and haggard and seamed with tears. For--generous,
fair, unstinting--he is also selfish and foolish, being a man unwise in
the tortuous, glorious ways of love. Daily he tells me that I am the
well of his love. But never does he ask me if his love is the stone of
my contentment."

"Perhaps he does not dare," cackled the old nurse.

"Being modest?"

"Yes."

"Only the selfish are modest, caring naught for the answering spark in
the heart of the loved one. And the love of woman is destroyed by humble
selfishness as the religion of a Brahmin by serving kings, the milk of a
cow by distant pasturage, and wealth by committing injustice. There is
no worth in such wealth--nor in such love. This is Veda-truth."

And in a high, proud voice she added:

"I love Madusadan, captain of horse. I will kiss his red, mocking lips
and bend to the thrill of his strong body. Pure he is to all the world,
to all women--so the bazaar gossip says--but I, and I alone, shall light
the lamp of passion in his heart. Free am I! But the unsung music in his
heart shall be a loved fetter around mine. Clasped in his arms, life and
death shall unite in me in an unbreakable chain.

"I will bury my hands deep in the savage, tangled forest that is his
soul and follow therein the many trails. I will read the message of his
hooded, brown eyes, the trembling message of his great, hairy hands. His
heart is a crimson malati-flower, and mine the tawny orchid spotted with
purple that winds around its roots."

"Gray is the hair on his temples. He is the king's senior by ten years."

"Years of wisdom," laughed Vasantasena. "Years of waiting. Years of
garnering strength."

"He is not as kindly as Vikramavati, nor as great, nor as generous."

"But he is wise--wise! He knows the heart of woman--the essence, the
innermost secret of woman."

"And that is--"

"Patience in achieving. Strength in holding. Wisdom in--_not_ demanding
unless the woman offers and gives sign."

And she went out into the garden that stretched back of the palace in
wild, scented profusion, bunching its majestic, columnar aisles of
banyan figs as a foil for the dainty, pale green tracery of the
nim-trees, the quivering, crimson domes of the peepals bearded to the
waist with gray and orange moss