United States or Luxembourg ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"Now see here," began Amber, designedly continuing his half of the conversation in English far too much misunderstanding had already been brought about by his too-ready familiarity with Urdu. He paused a little to collect his thoughts, then resumed: "Now see here, you're Salig Singh, Maharana of Khandawar?" This much he recalled from his conversation with Labertouche a couple of hours gone.
Of course I know as well as you do that at the first shot Dulla Dad would slip out to the lake and leave me here to die like a rat in a corner." "Thou knowest, lord, that no man in Khandawar would do thee any hurt. Thy person is sacred " "That's all bosh. You don't expect me to believe that you still stick to that absurd fiction of yours that I'm Rutton?"
And she laughed chidingly. "From the railway in the north to the railway in the south, all the land is Khandawar, Beloved: thine inheritance thine for the taking ... even as I am thine, if thou wilt take me.... Look upon it, thy father's kingdom, then upon me, thy queen.... Yea!" she cried, throwing back her head and meeting his gaze with eye languorous beneath their heavy silken lashes.
"See here," said Labertouche, with pardonable impatience; "I'm presuming that you know enough of Indian history to be aware that the Rutton dynasty in Khandawar is the proudest and noblest in India; it has descended in right line from the Sun. There's not a living Hindu but will acknowledge its supremacy, be he however ambitious.
"Who can fathom a Hindu's mind?" grunted Farrell. "I daresay there's some scandalous native intrigue at the bottom of it. Eh, Raikes?" The Resident shook his head. "Don't come to this shop for information about what goes on in Khandawar. I doubt if there's another Resident in India who knows as little of the underhand devilment in his State as I do.
What to us women in whose bodies runs the blood of royalty, is an edict of your English Government? What, the Sirkar itself to us in Khandawar?" She laughed bitterly. "I am a Rohilla, a daughter of kings: my dishonour may be purged only by flame. Arre! that I should live to meet with such fate I, Naraini, to perish in the flower of my beauty.... For I am beautiful, am I not?"
"Madam," he said with an absurdly formal bow, "I am not your husband." She opened her arms with infinite allure. "It is so little that is asked of thee only to ascend thy father's throne and be honoured of all Bharuta, only to wield the sceptre that is thine by right, only to reign an undisputed king in two kingdoms Khandawar and thy Naraini's heart!"
He was for the time being not ill-pleased with this phase of his adventure; he had a notion that this must be a sort of very private pleasure-ground of the rulers of Khandawar, and that very few, if any, white people had ever been permitted to inspect it.
As the moonlight fell upon him, Amber recognised the uniform the man wore as that of the Imperial Household Guard of Khandawar, while the horses seemed to be the stallions he had seen in the palace yard, with another but little their inferior in mettle or beauty. "Now," announced the woman in tones of deep contentment, "we will ride!"
Thou art only Salig Singh, Maharana of Khandawar, but I am Naraini, a free woman." "Thou !" Rage choked the Rajput. "Thou," he sputtered "thou art " "Softly, Heaven-born, softly lest I loose a thunderbolt for thy destruction. Is it wise to forget that Naraini holds thy fate in the hollow of her hands?" She sat forward, speaking swiftly and with malice.
Word Of The Day