Some quarter of an hour afterwards Alicia, blushing under her long white veil, returned to the place where she had left Robin.
“How absurd I must look in this dress!” she observed, glancing shyly at her brother.
“Lovely as an angel,” thought Robin, “and going on the errand of an angel;” but he only said aloud, “I admire you more in that white satin now than I did on the first day that you wore it. Come, Alicia; your doli is ready in the veranda.”
“I hate being seen, even by the kahars; and how can I pass through the city so strangely attired?”
“We will draw down the blind on either side; no one shall see you.”
“My satin will be utterly crushed in that box,” cried Alicia, lifting up the rich folds which swept the veranda.
“I’ll help to pack in the satin; and if the worst comes to the worst, a crushed dress is better than a crushed life like Premi’s.”
“Robin, you must go with me; I feel myself in such an absurd position,” said Alicia, as she with difficulty settled herself in the cramped space of the doli.
“I will go as far as I may, and wait outside as long as I can,” was Robin’s reply.
Robin walked by the side of the doli, playfully prompting, encouraging, supplying his sister with Urdu words, throwing the light of his own joyous spirit over the little expedition, till Alicia caught his own love of adventure. There was nothing so terrible to encounter, nothing so extravagant to do, nothing so difficult to accomplish. Alicia was certainly going beyond missionary rules and regulations, but so peculiar a case had never been contemplated by those who had framed them. Alicia was full of brightness and hope by the time that she arrived at the outer door of the fort.