The Raja went to her at once, and bent as he said, “I apologize, Madam, for the manners of my people. Their fanaticism is beyond my control.”
She met his eyes, but she did not speak.
At a word from him her chair was lowered steadily to the ground. And the Raja did not intervene when Traherne held out his hand to steady her as she stepped from the palanquin—but as the European hands met he smiled.
“How long have we left?” Traherne asked, as the men were taking the empty palanquin away.
Rukh answered at once, “Till the sun’s rim touches the crest of the mountains. A blast of our great mountain-horn will announce the appointed hour, and you will be led out to the sacred enclosure. You saw the colossal image of the Goddess out yonder?” he pointed behind him.
As the chair-carriers had borne the Englishwoman in, four priests—it had needed four—had pulled aside the heavy tapestries at the hall’s far end. Beyond the opening two broad steps led to a wide tribune or balcony. Over the balustrade that backed it loomed, some fifty yards away, the head and shoulders of a colossal image of the Green Goddess. On the tribune itself was, on a dais of two steps, a wide, gorgeous and fantastic throne formed of barbaric filigrees, enormous elephants’ tusks heavily jeweled, great writhing gold and silver snakes with grinning monkey heads, and far-spread tails of gem-made peacocks’ feathers. The throne-seat itself was low and cushioned, not much more than a great, wide cushion, with other cushions for arms; and for back—it had no other—another figure of the Goddess carved in high relief, with barbaric traceries about her, behind her, and on her robes. From great, flat brow to square, rectangular feet she was green—a violent, virulent, hideous green—but in her great, rough-hewn ornaments, her massive crown and in the squirmed and unsymmetrical traceries there were touches of gold—wide daubs and swathes some, some but glimmering hair-lines. A low brazier rested on the ground fronting the throne, and an acrid odor came from the light green smoke that curled up from the brazier.
Traherne barely glanced to where the Raja pointed. The woman neither turned her head nor moved her eyes—they did not leave Traherne’s face.
“Will you grant us one last request?” the Englishman asked.
“By all means,” was the native’s instant, suave reply, “if it is my power. In spite of your inconsiderate action of yesterday—”
“Inconsiderate—?” Traherne blurted.