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I arrived to find her there beforeat the passers-by She was certainly looking for ht!

It is not necessary, my dear child, that I should describe the details of our love-, for my present purpose is not merely to interest you, but rather to acquaint you with certain occurrences which I now deem it wise you should know Time only intensified our love for each other, and for several months all ell One serious obstacle to our union presented itself,--that of caste Her people, Lona said, would never permit her to marry outside her own station in life, besides which there was another ground upon which we ht be equally sure of their opposition They had already chosen for her and she was betrothed to Raobah It is of this man that I have chiefly to speak By birth he was of the same Vaisya caste as Lona Early in life his lot had fallen a fakirs and he had acquired all their secrets This did not satisfy his a the rishis or adepts, and subjected himself to the most horrible asceticism to qualify himself for adeptship His indifference to physical pain was truly es over hundreds ofsands! He had held his hands clinched until the nails had worn through the palm and out at the back of the hand He had at one time maintained for weeks a slow fire upon the top of his head, keeping the skin burned to the skull

When he caid asceticism hadknives into his body until she would sicken at the blood, a condition of affairs which, she said, afforded hiantic build and ith His features were heavy and forbidding You are familiar with pictures of Nana Sahib If I had not known this fiend to have died while beset in a swaobah for hi that Lona was betrothed in spite of the loathing her parents knew she felt for hiht at our accustomed tryst on Malabar Hill We had chosen to meet here on account of the beauty of the place and the seclusion it offered There, on bright hts, with the sea and the city below me, the "Tower of Silence" in the Parsees' burial plot ablaze with reflected glory, the ently in the soft sea breeze, while Lona nestled close beside arden less welcoht with years of bliss would pass as if but pulse-beats In the world of love the heart is the only true tiht she had been follohen coe dislike for a little cavelike recess in the rocks just back of the tree by which we sat I tried on one occasion to reassure her by telling her it was so shallow that, with theinto it, I could see clear to the back wall, and arose to enter it to convince her there was no one there, but she clung to o! Don't leave me! I was foolish to mention it I cannot account for htened tone, "there is a shaft at the back of the cave that has, they say, no bottooes down, --down,--down,---hundreds of feet to the sea?" It is useless, as you know only too well, to strive to reason down a presentiht to make use of her fear in the accoed, "cos? Let us be brave, darling, in our loves Your people have chosen another husband for you,--my people another wife for me; but we are both quite able to choose for ourselves We have done so, and it is our most sacred duty to adhere to and consummate that choice Let us, I beseech you, do so without further delay Dearest, ht prepared for a journey We will take the late train for Matheron Station, where I have friends who can be trusted We will be married immediately upon our arrival, and can co away frolad to welcome us with open arms"