Then with fine paste
they painted the Symbol between her dark brows, and, rising, she
shone divine as a nymph of heaven who should cause the righteous
to stumble in his austerities and arrest even the glances of
Gods.
(Ahi! that the Transient should be so fair!)
II
Now it was the hour that the Rana should visit her; for since the
coming of the Lotus Lady, be had forgotten his other women, and
in her was all his heart. He came from the Hall of Audience where
petitions were heard, and justice done to rich and poor; and as
he came, the Queen, hearing his step on the stone, dismissed her
women, and smiling to know her loveliness, bowed before him, even
as the Goddess Uma bows before Him who is her other half.
Now he was a tall man, with the falcon look of the Hill Rajputs,
and moustaches that curled up to his eyes, lion-waisted and lean
in the flanks like Arjoon himself, a very ruler of men; and as he
came, his hand was on the hilt of the sword that showed beneath
his gold coat of khincob. On the high cushions he sat, and the
Rani a step beneath him; and she said, raising her lotus eyes:-
"Speak, Aryaputra, (son of a noble father)-what hath befallen?"
And he, looking upon her beauty with fear, replied,-
"It is thy beauty, 0 wife, that brings disaster.
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