THE SLAVE GIRL OF AGRA
restore to him the estate of his fathers, and a million tongues in Bengal will bless thy name. Pardon, sire, a woman pleading for the absent, but I have known him from childhood."
Hemlata blushed at the last words until her cheeks and her brow were on flame. She wiped a tear and bent her head.
"Why, this is true poetry, my loved Salima, is it not?" whispered Akbar to his Queen. "Thinkest thou, my beloved Queen, thou couldst plead more eloquently with thy verses for thy erring husband than this Eastern lady with her tears?"
Then the Emperor turned to Hemlata, still kneeling, and said, in a voice which shook with tremor:
"Arise, fair sister from Bengal. I have ever found Norendra Nath a true soldier and a true man; his years of devoted service are known to me; his recent work in Rajasthan claims fresh recognition. Thy suit, fair lady, accords well with our own wishes, and our royal orders will seat him on his grandfather's estate with added honours. And tell him, when thou seest him again, that an Emperor on his throne may well envy a humble soldier whose life claims the interest of a lady so true, so gentle, so lovely in her tears."
Hemlata blushed to the roots of her hair and bowed again to the ground. But the Emperor was gone.
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