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Therefore it was a not wholly unwelcome diversion when, late on an August afternoon, she saw the thick laurels of the hedge near her part a little and the form of Ram Juna stand in the cleft, snowy white from turban to slippers save for the gleaming ruby and the polished bronze face. He looked like the day itself, glowing, sultry, indolent.
Percival thinks I can't afford it, the rubies are worth more than I paid for them anyway." "You are reasonable. Hold it. I trust you while I go to see Mr. Early, and return. The necklace is yours, beautiful lady." Ram Juna was awakened from his usual serenity and full of tiger-like restlessness. Again he plunged through the hedge, and Lena saw the white turban flying toward the house. Even Mr.
"The necklace, now," said Ram Juna, and he leaned over and twisted it about her arm as he seemed to hesitate, "I would give you that for five thousand dollars and you can see that it is worth ah, I know not how many times that sum. I do not understand these things." "But my husband is away, and I have not any thing like that sum. Besides, I could not buy it without asking him, you know.
"Well, if I were in your place, I should have it traced back," said Dick, the practical. "Of course I shall," exclaimed Mr. Early. "Of course I shall. I shall put it in the hands of the police at once, for I'm sure of one thing, if it helps to root out any sinners, Swami Ram Juna won't be among them.
She kissed each lump of sugar as she put it in and laughed at her own conceit; and she brought the cup over to his chair and rubbed her apple blossom of a cheek against his with a little purr. "I'm afraid you think me very silly, Dick," she laughed. "I do not seem to get a bit wiser or better behaved, do I, for all Mrs. Appleton and Ram Juna, and even your lovely high-bred mother?
As though giving instruction in elementary arithmetic, Swami Ram Juna began to sketch the adventures of the soul as it flies from one existence to another. His words were vivid and definite. At this point Dick Percival's lips began to move with the cynical amusement of youth. "Pretty positive, isn't he, about the things no mortal knows?" he whispered to Norris.
All the ladies are crazy about him, but I never happened to see him before." "That is Ram Juna. He has been with me now for two months, and is to stay indefinitely. He is engaged on a work that will, I am convinced, add one more to the sacred books of the world. We need such men in this age of materialism, do we not? And I feel gratefully the beneficent effect of such a presence in my house."
Lena quietly ate her dinner, and listened to the well-bred calm voice of her mother-in-law as she wondered what Dick was doing, and when he would be at home again. But Lena wondered what Ram Juna was doing, and whether she should ever see him again.
Still Lena stared blankly at him, but as he did not return her gaze, her eyes followed his to the other side of the room where Miss Elton bent over a table, with Mr. Early on one side of her and Dick Percival on the other. "Oh!" she said with a little gasp. "Oh!" And Ram Juna looked back at her and smiled again.
"See here!" said the proprietor to his single other customer, "ain't this picture in the paper the very image of that black feller that just skipped?" "Say, it's him!" "We'd ought to look this up. There's a big reward offered." While Ram Juna slept, lying in all his day clothes, some subtle subconsciousness kept watch, became aware of disturbance, and roused his body to attention.
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