Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/37

 by looks. I have watched him morning and evening these few years, and a woman seldom misreads a man's secret thoughts."

"Few thoughts can I read in his face except silly ideas of pride."

"But hast thou not seen that proud, defiant young man become gentle as a lamb before our Hemlata, doing her bidding as a slave, courting her smiles with eagerness, willing to sacrifice everything to spare her a tear?"

"Why, what nonsense is all this? I have seen him hanging on the skirts of our little girl more constantly than I would like. I wish thou wouldst keep a watchful eye on the boy."

"He is now a young man, my husband, and a young man's ideas fill his heart. He would follow Hemlata to the world's end to wed the girl, and such a happy union would unite Birnagar and Debipur, and cast on thee a higher glory than thy ancestors ever won."

"And is that thy idea, my august lady? Dost thou, being my wife, forget the rivalry that divides these Houses? Dost thou think, because I am serving at Birnagar for a while, that I have forgotten the traditions of our house? And canst thou imagine that I would wed my daughter to this stripling, and thus make over our Debipur estate to Birnagar after we have stood apart for three hundred years?"

"I follow thee not, my lord," said the lady, in a voice that brooked no contradiction. "I have cherished the thought that the two estates can be united, though they have stood apart for three