“I don’t know why it should be. But you belong to a dissatisfied race. Your people always want to be masters, and if they can’t get their wishes they commence to whine. The fact is, if you sit brooding in this way all day you will die.”
“I hope so,” she cried suddenly, and with an animation that slightly startled him. “I hope so,” she repeated. “I have prayed fervently to Heaven that I may die. If it will only quicken the coming of that event, I will bless you if you will curtail even the limits of the limited space I have. Confine me to the floor of my room. Shut out the light and air. Do what you like, so that you will but end my sufferings. I can assure you I am not afraid to meet death.”
But though Miss Meredith spoke the sentiments of her mind, those sentiments were not to be gratified. The King did not intend that she should be sacrificed yet. He had another object in view. So Moghul Singh answered—
“These views are morbid ones. You are melancholy. I will try and obtain you a little more freedom.”
“You need not; that would be but mockery,” she cried.
But Moghul only laughed as he withdrew. He at once sought the King his master, and represented that he was likely to lose his captive if he kept her in too close confinement.
“Then let her out a bit—let her out a bit,” mumbled the puppet monarch. “Let her have the freedom of our private garden. Her walk there will be circumscribed, and escape will be impossible, as the grounds are well guarded by our sentries. And stay, Moghul”—as the man was about to depart—“let it be distinctly understood, however, that should this Feringhee woman escape by any means from the grounds, every sentry then on duty shall suffer instant death.”
“Your Majesty’s orders shall be obeyed,” Moghul answered, as he bowed and withdrew.
When this concession on the part of the King was made known to Flora, she refused to avail herself of it, saying it would be but the torture of Tantalus. And she preferred to die quickly, to lingering long in hopeless agony. Moghul Singh, however, managed to overrule her objections after some difficulty, and Flora consented to walk in the garden.