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Dearest-Lady had, he said, pled his, Kumran's, cause well, and he, Humâyon, was ready to forgive for the sake of the dead woman who had loved them both, whom they both loved, and who had died with a smile. But such softer feelings did not, could not linger long in a mind that had no fixed belief in anything.
Wise, and gentle, and good, and clever all this and more. She was the sort of Dearest-Lady who lived so long in the hearts of those who knew her, that, years after she was dead they would say, if there was any difficult point to be settled "We wonder what Dearest-Lady would have said?"
Meanwhile notice of Her Highness Dearest-Lady's arrival had reached Kumran's wife and she hastened to little Akbar's prison room. But once more Dearest-Lady was bold and took the first word. "I came to bid the boy farewell, content to trust him to thy kind care, my niece," she said; "and also to leave with him this Râjput singer, who has the art of amusing the child and other folk also.
What he saw there was such a tissue of lies and deceit that he could find no clear decision; so, as usual, he temporised. "It is worth a trial," he murmured. "I might ask for much." "Ask for all and everything," said Dearest-Lady, who felt she had gained her point; "I make but one condition. The child must remain unharmed until I return." Again Kumran hesitated. Again he looked in his own heart.
Boldness succeeded, as it always does, and she was shown into a room where she found little Prince Akbar playing contentedly with Down the cat, who was running about after a ball like a young kitten. She stopped when she saw Dearest-Lady, and giving an apologetic miaow, as who should say, "I was obliged to amuse him somehow," settled herself down on the rug and began as usual to purr.
She was old, of course, for she was Babar the Brave's elder sister; the sister to whom he had been devoted, who had always been to him also "his Dearest-One." Now, when you come to think of it, boys and girls, that is a nice sort of fame to have to remain for let me see how many hundred years? nearly four Dearest-Lady, or Dearest-Gentleman to all the world.
Mother was like you, and she told me I had the mark of Kingship strong enough, for all the rebels might say " As he spoke, he drew down his loose garments, and there upon the clear olive of his breast, just above the heart, showed a small dark stain. Dearest-Lady bent close to look at it. "What is't?" she asked.
This Dearest-Lady was, of course, the Heir-to-Empire's grand-aunt, and the mere sound of her name was enough to calm Foster-father's fears. Even Head-nurse, though she sniffed a little and said she had heard tell that the Khânzâda Khânum was a trifle careless of ceremonials, was satisfied. There was no doubt that she was the Highest-Born-in-the-Land.
"Mother said it was the sign of uttermost truth, and that we all had it," he replied, speaking dreamily. "But who were we?" persisted Dearest-Lady, her kind eyes on the lad's.
And he did; indeed, in the history books he takes great credit to himself for having found it out. But then he was a boaster. Then did Dearest-Lady really bind Kumran by an oath not to harm the Heir-to-Empire until she returned?
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