“‘Oh,’ cried the terrified girl, ‘I could not!’
“‘You could not?’ repeated the other with chilling emphasis. ‘Ha, ha! you could not! But you will submit to the advances of this monster!
“‘Believe me, you are not the sole object of his regard.
“‘There have been others caged within these walls who have been less obdurate than you, or whose resistance has availed them nothing.’
“‘Alas!’ exclaimed Lal Lu with an inexpressibly melancholy accent, as she considered the empty pedestal from which her ideal had fallen, and recalled with a shudder the caress which she had permitted and bestowed in that fervid interview with the prince. ‘Can this be true?’
“‘Aye!’ exclaimed the woman with savage affirmation. ‘Do not doubt it. Sooner than submit to the embraces of that wretch I would turn that weapon against myself.’
“‘Oh!’ exclaimed Lal Lu with a superb gesture and the light of unmistakable resolution in her eyes, ‘that I can do; but the other——’ And the poor girl trembled at the spectacle pictured in her mind.
“‘Well,’ exclaimed the woman, ‘I will leave this dagger here; do as you will; I have done for you what I could,’ and she turned to depart, unmindful, apparently, of Lal Lu’s tremulous ‘And I am grateful to you.’
“When the prince arrived at the apartment in which he accorded his audiences, if the attention he bestowed upon the meager assemblages which presented themselves occasionally can be dignified by that description, he found awaiting him a Hindoo, whom he recognized at once, and whose presence invariably preceded the recital of important information.