But the memory was no longer strong enough.

He bowed his head in assent.
"In Calcutta ?" "Yes." "Your Highness shall point her out to me one evening as she drives in the Maidan," said Ahmed Ismail, and again Shere Ali answered-- "Yes." But he caught himself back the next moment.

He flung away from Ahmed Ismail with a harsh outburst of laughter.
"But this is all folly," he cried.

"We are not in the days of the uprising," for thus he termed now what a month ago he would have called "The Mutiny." "Cawnpore is not Calcutta," and he turned in a gust of fury upon Ahmed Ismail.

"Do you play with me, Ahmed Ismail ?" "Upon my head, no! Light of my life, hope of my race, who would dare ?" and he was on the ground at Shere Ali's feet.