when it is known that I am back in my palace Gungadhura will set extra
spies on me, and will double the guard at all the doors to keep me
from getting out again. He will not trust Tom Tripe this time, but will
give the charge to one of the Rajput officers. But he will have been
told that I was at the commissioner sahib's house this morning, and
therefore he will not dare to have me strangled, because the commissioner
sahib might make inquiries. I have also made other precautions--and
a friend. But tell Gungadhura, lest he make altogether too much trouble
for me, that I applied to the commissioner sahib for assistance to go
to Europe, saying I am weary of India. And add that the commissioner
sahib counseled me not to go, but promised to send English memsahibs
to see me." (She very nearly used the word American, but thought
better of it on the instant.)

"He will ask me how I know this," said the Brahman, turning it all over
slowly in his mind and trying to make head or tail of it.

"Tell him I came here like himself for priestly counsel and made a clean
breast of everything to thee! He will suspect thee of lying to him; but
what is one lie more or less?"

With that final shaft she gathered up her skirts, covered her face, nudged
the giggling maid and left him, turning the key in the lock herself and
flitting out through gloom into the sunlight as fast as she had come.
The carriage was still waiting at the edge of the outer court, and once
again the driver started off without instructions, but tooling his team this
time at a faster pace, with a great deal of whip-cracking and shouts to
pedestrians to clear the way. And this time the carriage had an escort
of indubitable maharajah's men, who closed in on it from all sides, their
numbers increasing, mounted and unmounted, until by the time Yasmini's