with their water-prone branches, had formed a dark fringe round the tank. In it Shaibalini’s face was floating as a lotus. At the further end a golden swan was gliding along, and on the bank a white boar was roaming about. The swan had caught her fancy and she was anxious to get at it, but it turned off and moved along, while the boar prowled about on the bank to catch the lotus(Shaibalini). The face of the swan could not be seen, but that of the boar gave an idea as if it resembled Foster. Shaibalini wanted to get at the swan, but her feet stuck in the water like the stalk of the lotus—her locomotion had gone. Here again, the boar had been crying out to her, “come to me, I will get you the swan.” At the first report of the gun Shaibalini’s slumber was broken. Then she heard the splash of the sentry’s fall. In the opiate fumes of unfinished and interrupted slumber, she could not collect her wits for a while, the swan and the boar coming back to her with recurrent persistency. The second gunshot and a great clamour roused her completely. She came to the outer cabin and looked out. Yet she could not make out anything. Then she returned to her own cabin. A lamp was burning there, and Parvati had also got up. Shaibalini asked her,——
“Do you understand what is going on there?”
“Not much,” said Parvati. “It appears from the men’s talk that the boat has been set upon by pirates-the Englishman has been killed. This is the consequence of our folly.”
“How can the death of the Englishman be the consequence of our folly? Surely it is his, if anybody’s.”
“When the pirates have attacked, ours is the danger.”
“What is the danger? Hitherto we had been in the company of one set, now it will be another. If we can
