Part 48 (1/2)
”If he comes,--kill him! D'ye understand? Kill him! There--there's the turban for you to lie on an' roas the answer, and Tom TripeAnnie Rooney, lest some too enthusiastic watcher knife him out of a shadow
”When I am maharanee,” said Yasmini, ”Tolish approve of it or not!”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Creator caused flowers to bloom in the desert and buried jewels in the boso in delights they have, instead of acquiring merit in the search for beauty that is out of reach --Eastern Proverb
”Making one hundred exactly”
Technically, Yasmini was as much maharanee of Sialpore as she would ever be, the un salute boonize aprince isHindu, can have one wife or as many as he pleases Utirupa and Yasmini claimed to have married themselves by Gandharva rite, and, had she chosen, she could have gone to live with him thatrun The priests, for instance, whoed into life-long en,” she told Tess, ”to determine to be rid of cobras; but another to spurn theain, it would not have suited her to slip quietly into Utirupa's palace and assu it She proposed taking uttere of the purdah custom that protects women in India frolish almost impossible But she intended, too, to force the Indian Governnition of her
”If they acknowledge me, they lock swords with every woman in the country Let them deny me afterward, and all those swords will quiver at their throats! A woman's sword is subtler than a th in all the years that followed
It was never possible to bring her quite to bay, because the wos for her in the sphere that is above and below the reach of governments) So she moved back into her own palace, where she received only Tess of all the Anglo-Saxon wolish wo?”
Tess asked her But Yasht a tiger by going down on all-fours with hi teeth and claws? Or do you keep your distance, and use a gun?”
”But the English woh at thele coolies can attend to well! But if I adlish women into my palace, they will come out of curiosity And out of pity, or compassion or some such odious e an exhibition of me to their friends Should I be one of them? Never!
Would they admit other Indian women with me? Certainly; any one I cared to recoe us to try to beco away in front of us and beckoning, we striving, and they flattered No! I will reverse that
I will have the English wo to enter our society! They shall wake up one day to discover there is so that is out of reach Then see the commotion! Watch the alteration then!
Today they say, when they trouble to think of us at all, 'Coood; ill not hurt you; co,' as the children call to a kitten in the street Then they will say, 'We have this and that to offer We desire your good society Will you adifts?' That will be another story, but it will take time”
”More than tienius That is why I know too much to declare war on the priests
I shall have a proper wedding, and priests shall officiate, I despising them and they aware of it That will be their first defeat They shall cos coain if they fawn too eagerly! They will not dare refuse to coht prove to people how unnecessary priests are But they are lish A fat hypocrite like Jinendra's high priest is like a carp to be caught with a worm, or an ass to be beaten with a stick; but there are others--true ascetics--lusting for influencefor the outside of the power if they hold the nut-- nothing for the petals, if they hold the seed Those men are not easy
For the present I shall seem to play into their hands, but they know that I despise the And when Samson heard that Yasusted, even to satisfy Yasmini, as no ade, as he explained the circu, was almost epic
”damn the woman! And damn hi me why on earth I permitted it They'll want to knohy I didn't caution Utirupa and warn hi to parade through the streets under overnone on record as sponsor for Utirupa I've assured the, and I specifically undertook to see that he married wisely But it was too early yet to speak to his this offense on ht with Si up the treasure and they'll recooing!”