"You have no rights!" cried the guru, a definite challenge in his voice.
"That remains to be seen," replied Ananda shortly, as though he grudged the precious moments wasted in speech with any one but his wife. He turned to her again. "Beloved! There is no reason why you should not come to me now."
Hot words of desperate pleading fell from his lips. He had no more regard for the presence of the swami than for a yellow lizard on the wall. Dorama listened with charmed ears, her lips apart in a smile that set her husband's pulses throbbing. She too under the magical influence of long deferred love was unconscious of the presence that overshadowed them.
She had promised faithfully to plead the cause of Hinduism, but religion was forgotten. Love and love alone was paramount. Nothing else mattered. Her eyes shone with a light that spoke volumes to both men, bringing joy and hope to Ananda but misgiving to the guru. He had not calculated on the turn events had taken. The warm impulsive greeting between husband and wife had been out of his reckoning. The magical effect of touch had been undreamed of.
Another factor that had not been considered was Ananda's matured manhood. The timid boy whom the guru had instructed in the old days with fatherly authority was gone, and in his place stood an individual of strong character developed in the hard school of persecution. It was not easy for the guru to obtain a hearing. He seized upon a pause when the husband having made his appeal waited for his wife's reply.
"Woman!" he cried, in a rough overbearing voice. "Tell your husband under what conditions you will consent to join him."
Dorama gave the swami a frightened glance, and began in a faltering voice as though she were repeating a half-learned lesson.
"If my lord will consent to the rites being performed——"
"Beloved wife! light of my eyes! joy of my heart! the ceremonies that made me your husband were long ago performed. They need not be repeated!"
"She means——" began the guru in a still louder voice than he had addressed Dorama.