Behind him the forest crept up almost to the edge of the water, and before him rose the Wat, outlined sharply against the sky, and casting a shadow that, enveloping him, traced a huddle of grotesque shapes against the serried ranks of trunks and branches. Between the child and the threshold of the temple lay the moat, placid and shining as a shield of bronze, reflecting with startling vividness the inverted cones and curiously wrought gables of the topmost shrines; and beyond it again was an open space, grown upon sparsely by grass and weed and underwood, and littered with big fragments of grey sandstone. No work was going forward on this side of the building, and the boy was utterly alone, with the mysterious, still forest, lapped in slumber, behind him, and the immense, silent bulk of the Wat rising in front to face and overshadow him.
He was a daintily fashioned little creature, and the skin of his body was an even, pale brown, without spot or blemish. His head, small and shapely, set erect upon the slender column of his throat, was covered by a shock of fine, black hair, that hung curtain-wise across his brows, about his ears, and to the nape of his neck. His forehead was high and cleanly cut, his nose straight with slightly drooping nostrils, his cheek-bones rather prominent, his chin firm and beautifully modelled, and the thin lips pouted prettily. His hands and feet were at once strong and delicate, though the palms of
