Page 173 (1/2)

There is an old saying in Rajput that woman and the four winds were

born at the same time, of the same mother: blew hot, blew cold,

balmily, or tempestuously, from all points at once Perhaps

In the zenana of the royal palace there was a woman, tall, lithe, with

a skin of ivory and roses and eyes as brown as the husk of a water

chestnut On her bare ankles were geold, round her neck a rope of pearls and

emeralds and rubies and sapphires And still she was not happy

Frolossy black

hair and the whites of her great eyes glistened She bit her lips to

keep back the sobs crowding in her throat She pressed her hands

together so tightly that the little knuckles cracked

"Ai, ai!" she wailed softly

She paced the confines of her chaainst the wall, her face hidden in her arainst the cool marble of the lattice

Human nature is e coolly to plan est it, why must we be

troubled with reainst the

silly impulse to tell the first we meet e have done? Remorse:

what is it?