“Silence!” he commanded, “would it be well that the flippant public who pass near at hand on the pavement should know that there are such treasures in this thicket?”
“I did not know that there was so much splendor in the world,” whispered Lena in admiration.
“Rubies—all rubies! They were the stones beloved of my ancestors. This dangled once on the neck of a maha-ranee, more beautiful than itself, only, unfortunately, she lost her neck, murdered by a rival queen.”
He twisted the string of gems about her arm, bare to the elbow, and Lena gasped with pleasure.
“Let me add this bracelet—a serpent. See of curious carved gold the scales, and the eyes again two wicked rubies to beguile men’s souls. Yet it becomes the arm, does it not? Look, at your pleasure, at the rest of the box.”
He pushed the case toward her and Lena began to finger its profuse contents with occasional sighs of envious delight and glances at her white flesh enhanced by its ornaments. Ram Juna sat in silence.
“How do you dare to carry such things around with you?” she asked.
“Not much longer,” he answered with a shrug. “To me they are delusions inappropriate. I see that is your thought. Is it not so? What have I to do with necklaces and rings of princesses? I had forgotten that I had them, until a chance thought recalled it. I had long since meant to sell them and give the money to the great cause for which I labor. That is my treasure, is it not? I shall never take them back to India. I must hasten to get rid of them, for I purpose to return there at once.”
“Why, are you going away?”
“To-morrow I leave this city. My work here is done. It is the last of work. Hereafter I shall find some solitary spot and end my life in meditations. And the rubies—I might give them away; but perhaps the trifle I should receive for them would help the Brothers in their service. I shall not expect or wish their value.”