Now it was the hour that the Rana should visit her; for since the coming
of the Lotus Lady, he 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?”