Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/139

 life? Was she, with a woman's smiling cruelty, probing his unhealed wound? Was she seeking to wring from him a cherished secret which his lips would not utter? Noren replied humbly, but firmly:

"A boy dreams dreams, great lady, which it ill beseems a man to dwell upon. A soldier has hopes and disappointments which it ill beseems your ladyship to listen to."

"Keep them to yourself, noble youth, I will not seek again to learn what perhaps pains you to tell. I have led you to some risk and danger by calling you here, and you have boldly ventured on a hazardous deed to meet my wishes. Accept this ring as a token of our meeting from a friend who will trust in you and will perchance claim hereafter help and services from the chivalrous Lord of Birnagar."

Mihr-un-Nissa, rose from her seat. Noren knelt before the veiled and queenly figure, and his hand once more felt the touch of delicate fingers when the signet ring was presented.

"Rise, young Chief," she said at last, "and depart. Something my woman's eyes have read on your face which your lips have not uttered, and a woman's heart can respect one for cherishing a feeling which he may not tell. If it be that some disappointment has darkened your life, such grief hath power to strengthen a man's character. And if it be that the influence of some true woman has touched your early life, such influence hath power to purify a man's life. Trust me, young man, he that is mighty and powerful and great, but has never felt in his heart the soft but deep influence of a woman, mother or sister, loved one or daughter, is but half a man. The Great Alla hath forgotten to make him perfect."