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150
THE GARDEN OF INDRA

may be as well for her not to know whom it comes from.”

Subsequently Lambert learned by an underground channel that the girl had been persuaded that the jewels were crown jewels originally deposited in the mosque for safe keeping, and that she was performing a virtuous act in restoring them by the hand of her lover, Dunkar Rao’s son, who intended to appropriate them to his own use. Finally when he came to deliver the state automobile in all its splendor, he heard that the mullah’s daughter was about to marry a young Mohammedan noble, which indicated that she had wisely set aside all thoughts of the worthless Dunkar Rao’s son in favor of a better man. Once when Lambert was passing through the bazaar a veiled figure brushed by him closely. He looked up to recognize part of the face from which the veil had apparently fallen by accident. The return glance said much that was gratifying to Lambert. As she passed on a flower fell from her hand, but she did not turn again. Lambert picked up the flower and laid it away carefully in his pocketbook. Soon after the ramshackle tonga climbing the crest of a hill gave him a last view of the glistening dome against a pale blue sky and the terraced roofs of Aurungnugur.