For a moment Sundari wavered where she stood, but she held
herself and was rigid as the dead.
"Tha-du! Well done!" she said with an awful smile. "The tree is
broken, the roots cut. And now for us women - our fate, 0
master?"
"Wait here," he answered. "Let not a hair of their heads be
touched. Both are fair. The two for me. For the rest draw lots
when all is done."
The uproar surged away. The two stood by the dead boy. So swift
had been his death that he lay as though he still slept - the
black lashes pressed upon his cheek.
With the heredity of their different races upon them, neither
wept. But silently the Queen opened her arms; wide as a woman
that entreats she opened them to the Indian Queen, and
speechlessly the two clung together. For a while neither spoke.
"My sister!" said Maya the Queen. And again, "0 great of heart!"
She laid her cheek against Sundari's, and a wave of solemn joy
seemed to break in her soul and flood it with life and light.
"Had I known sooner!" she said. "For now the night draws on."
"What is time?" answered the Rajput woman.
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