been closed from the outside, and I was left alone among'
the ghosts of long-dead emperors and their gay courtiers,
the tiny sparks of light could be still seen through the
lattice work, and short bursts of song told me that the
Mahant was keeping his vigil.
“What gift, Huzur, for my beautiful prayers?
asked my devotional friend next morning, as he presented
me with a fresh bouquet. X proffered a small
gift. “Was my husband a colonel or general SaMb,”
he asked, “ they would have given more.” “ No,” I
answered; “ I give for myself; no colonel or officer
Sahib pays my debts.” “ That was hard, he considered
in sympathetic tones. “ In. that case the gift was
sufficient, but many officers and commissioner Sahibs
had thought very highly of his efforts, and given him
much backsheesh; but he was glad too of the matches,
a whole box, and would not forget the ‘ Presence.’ He
trusted she would be lucky in her walk, and her life
blessed with health and prosperity.” We mutually-
salaamed, and the lonely guardian of a forsaken Hindu
shrine returned to his devotions and his unshared
worship.
CHAPTER Y
Glowworm-like the daisies peer,
Roses in the thickets fade,
Grudging every petal dear,
Swinging incense in the shade;
The honeysuckle’s chandelier
Twinkles down a shadowy glade.
—Davidson.
Aching blisters and scented blossoms — Ancient palaces and
living princes—A visit to neglected shrines and a savoury
supper.
P r o m Vemag I determined to push on to Atchibal, in
spite of the fact that I was hardly able to put my feet
to the ground, the result of the rough, scorched tracks;
in such a, condition were they that they might have
been correctly described “ as blisters and a sandal.” The
sparkle in the air, however, and the early freshness,
the soft green of the wayside trees, the tranquil beauty
of the villages, set about with vast clumps of the great
sweet-smelling iris, purple, mauve, and white, would
have succeeded in putting heart of grace into a stone.
I was soon oblivious to all small discomforts, and as
thoroughly at one with my surroundings as if my whole
existence had been passed between a rose bush and an