Chapter I: A Haunted Beauty (3)

And all at once, there arose a great hubbub, and an outcry in the King's palace. And the women ran hither and thither, wailing and screaming and crying out: Haha! haha! the daughter of the King is gone. And they hunted in all directions, but could not find her anywhere: and they went and told the King. But he, when he heard it, came running just as he was in his night clothes, and hurried about with all the women, looking into every corner, and finding nothing. So after turning the palace upside down, he stopped short. And he said: What if she should have followed her lover up on to the city wall, and shared his fate! For beyond a doubt, like all his predecessors, he has vanished never to return.

Then they all went up the winding stair, the King going first. And he stepped out on to the wall. And instantly, with a piercing cry, he fell to the ground in a mortal swoon.

Then terror seized on all those women, and they stood exactly where they were, looking at each other with pale faces, not daring to advance. But at last, after a long while, supporting each the other, they pushed forward and looked out. And they saw the King's body, lying on that of his daughter; and a little further off, Aja, lying upon his face.

Then they went out, and took up those three bodies, and carried them in, and examined them. And after a while, they said: Doubtless the heart of the old King broke, when he saw his daughter lying dead. But as for the other two, one snake has evidently bitten both. And yet, this is a wonderful thing. For she has been bitten on the foot, but her lover upon the lips. What then? Was he trying to kiss the snake, that it should bite him upon the lips? For how could even the biggest snake reach up so high, as this great Rajpoot's mouth?

* * * * *

A Selection from the
Catalogue of

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

Complete Catalogue sent
on application

Books by F. W. Bain

_Translated from Original Manuscripts_

A Digit of the Moon
And Other Love Stories from the Hindu

_Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Net, $1.50_

A Draught of the Blue
together with
An Essence of the Dusk

_Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Net, $1.50_

An Incarnation of the Snow

_Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Net, $1.25_

A Mine of Faults

_Crown 8vo. Illustrated. Net, $1.25_

The Ashes of a God

"Mr. Bain's stories are full of wistfulness and beauty. There is a tenderness, a richness of color, a warmth of passion, and an elemental understanding of men and women.... They seem to me to place Mr. Bain on an eminence isolated and unique.... No words that I can write can fittingly express the fascination of these books."--Mr. E. V. Lucas in the _London Bookman_.

"Charming love stories that will be absolutely novel to most readers. They are delicate, vivid, and told in beautiful English. They show Hindu life and thought in the true light, a thing worth doing in view of the mushy mysticisms and theosophical gibbering that have obscured it in this country."--_N. Y. Sun_.

* * * * *

"Reading this book is like breathing strong refreshing air."--_N. Y. Evening Sun_.

Bawbee Jock

By Amy McLaren

Author of "The Yoke of Silence," etc.

"Amid delightful Highland scenes and charming Highland people a very pretty love duet is sung in Bawbee Jock.... A refreshing contrast to most novels written nowadays."--_New York Sun_.

"One of the most delightful love stories of the year, as fresh as the breath of heather on the Scottish hills."--_Columbus Journal_.

"Idealistic? Very. In a way that makes one glad that stories such as it still appear."--_Chicago Inter-Ocean_.

Fifth Impression. $1.35 net. By mail, $1.50

* * * * *

_The Most Popular Books in the
United States_

By Florence L. Barclay

_Over 350 Thousand Sold_

The Rosary

Popular Edition. Cr. 8vo. $1.35 net. ($1.80 by mall.) Holiday Edition, with Illustrations in Color by Blendon Campbell, and Decorations and Cover Design by Margaret Armstrong. Handsomely printed and bound. Uniform with the Holiday Edition of "The Mistress of Shenstone." 8vo. $2.50 net.

"An ideal love story--one that justifies the publishing business, refreshes the heart of the reviewer, strengthens faith in the outcome of the great experiment of putting humanity on earth. _The Rosary_ is a rare book, a source of genuine delight."--_Syracuse Post-Standard_.

_Over 550 Thousand Sold_

The Mistress of Shenstone

Popular Edition. Cr. 8vo, $1.35 net. ($1.50 by mail.) Holiday Edition, with 8 illustrations in Color by F. H. Townsend, and Decorations and Cover Design by Margaret Armstrong. Handsomely printed and bound. Uniform with the Holiday Edition of "The Rosary." 8vo. $2.50 net.

"An optimistic novel of true love, related with sincerity.... A worthy successor to The Rosary."--_Phila. Press._

_First Printing 90 Thousand Copies_

The Following of the Star

With Frontispiece by F. H. Townsend. Cr. 8vo.

$1.35 net. ($1.50 by mail)

A beautiful Christmas love story, instinct with the same depth of feeling, glowing imagery, and refinement of literary art as "The Rosary," and is told with all the power and sweetness which won for Mrs. Barclay's earlier books their place in the front rank of recent fiction.

* * * * *

_By the author of "The Country House"_

FRATERNITY

BY JOHN GALSWORTHY

Author of "THE MAN OF PROPERTY," "VILLA RUBEIN," ETC.

"The foundation of Mr. Galsworthy's talent, it seems to me, lies in a remarkable power of ironic insight combined with an extremely keen and faithful eye for all the phenomena, on the surface of the life he observes. These are the purveyors of his imagination, whose servant is a style clear, direct, sane, illumined by a perfectly unaffected sincerity. It is the style of a man whose sympathy with mankind is too genuine to allow him the smallest gratification of his vanity at the cost of his fellow creatures, ... sufficiently pointed to carry deep his remorseless irony, and grave enough to be the dignified vehicle of his profound compassion. Its sustained harmony is never interrupted by those bursts of cymbals and fifes which some deaf people acclaim for brilliance. Mr. Galsworthy will never be found futile by anyone and never uninteresting by the most exacting."

MR. JOSEPH CONRAD in _The Outlook_.

_Crown 8vo. Fixed price, $1.35 net. (By mail $1.50)_

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK LONDON

* * * * *

By F. W. BAIN

_Translated from the Original Manuscripts_

A Digit of the Moon
And Other Love Stories from the Hindu

A Draught of the Blue
together with
An Essence of the Dusk

An Incarnation of the Snow

A Mine of Faults

The Ashes of a God