"'Something that belonged to you.'
"'To me? What do you mean?'
"'The day you left she stole that little box which the prince had given you; it was found in her hands.'
"'What box are you talking about?'
"'The box covered with shells.'
"'But I gave it to her.'
"The Hindoo looked at me with stupefaction, and then replied: 'Well, she declared with the most sacred oaths that you had given it to her, but nobody could believe that you could have given a king's present to a slave, and so the rajah had her punished.'
"'How was she punished? What was done to her?'
"'She was tied up in a sack and thrown into the lake from this window, from the window of the room in which we are, where she had committed the theft.'
"I felt the most terrible grief that I ever experienced, and made a sign to Haribadad to go away so that he might not see my tears. I spent the night on the gallery which looked on to the lake, on the gallery where I had so often held the poor child on my knees, and pictured to myself her pretty little body lying decomposed in a sack in the dark waters beneath me.