RADHARANI
enough—I gave to the girl. I intended to have returned next morning to make more particular enquiries concerning my new friends. But that very night tidings reached me that my father was grievously ill at Benares. It was a year and more before I returned from the Sacred City. When I reached home I sought out the little cottage, but mother and daughter were gone."
"May I now beg you," continued the girl, "to tell me why you seem to have so strong an affection for this little Radharani? You will excuse a woman's natural curiosity in such a matter. I gather that in the storm and tempest of which you speak, soaked with rain and buffeted with the wind, you took shelter in your young friend's cottage. May I ask how long you stayed there?"
"A few moments only," he replied. "The girl bade me wait while she kindled a light. I took the opportunity to slip away to the adjacent bazaar to buy her a change of raiment."
"Did you make her any other gift?"
"What else could I give her? Yes, I
91
