"I have waited several years. Do you not see that when I strike I must succeed?"
"But these warnings to Umballa?"
"He is not molesting me, is he?" returned Ramabai calmly.
"Well, it is more than I could stand."
"Ah, you white people waste so much life and money by acting upon your impulses! Trust me; my way is best; and that is, for the present we must wait."
"God knows," sighed Bruce, "but I am beginning to believe in the colonel's guru."
"Who can say? There are some in this land who possess mighty wills, who can make man sleep by looking into his eyes, who can override and destroy weaker minds. I know; I have seen. You have heard of suspended animation? Well, I have seen examples of it; and so have my people. Can you wonder at their easiness in being swayed this way and that? But these men I refer to do not sit about in the bazaars with wooden bowls for coppers. It is said, however, that all curses die with their makers. It depends upon how old the Colonel Sahib's guru is. I know priests who are more than a hundred years old, and wrinkled like the bride of Hathi, the god of elephants."
"But a child could see through all this rigmarole."
"Can Bruce Sahib?" Again Ramabai smiled. "My people are sometimes children in that they need constant amusement. Have patience, my friend; for I understand. Do I not love Pundita even as you love the Mem-sahib?"
"What do you mean?" demanded Bruce roughly.