"No, I haven't seen the Taj. It's a frightful confession to make, isn't it?"
He reflected upon the question and decided:
"It's rather jolly to find some one who's traveled in India without seeing the Taj. Sort of different. But I forgot to ask where you wanted to go. For some reason I took it for granted that you're staying at the Grand."
"That's almost clairvoyant; I am stopping there."
When he had instructed the _gharry-wallah_, she asked:
"My home is the world." Then, specifically, "I live in London. I represent a diamond firm."
Before she spoke he knew quite well what she was going to say.
"Jewels always fascinate me. Isn't it frightful about the gems that were stolen?"
"Just fancy losing all those jewels!" she went on. "My brother said they are worth millions or _lakhs_ and _lakhs_ of rupees, to be proper. I suppose it's the work of this Chavigny who's reported to be at large. You've heard of him, haven't you?"
He answered in the affirmative and, inwardly, expressed relief that they were nearing the end of the ride.
"I can't ever thank you enough," she told him as they left the gharry and entered the hotel.
In the better light he saw her eyes for the first time and explored a new dimension of strength and dignity. He felt as though he looked into the rich glow of autumn forests, spaces of warmth and color and spirit--an initiation into the sense of discovery and lofty exhilaration that Balboa must have known when he gazed upon the shining expanse of an unknown sea. It was a glimpse into some high arcanum--to him new, but to the world as ancient as the tale of Cana of Galilee.
"I hope I'll see you before I leave," she said in a way that would have made it impossible for him to misunderstand, had he been inclined to do so. "Good night."
He watched her go.... And when he reached his room and examined the silk-wrapped papers Li Kwai Kung had given him, she persisted in cleaving through his thoughts, in appearing from the pages before him and distracting him; and after a few minutes he re-wrapped the packet and placed it in his trunk.
Long after he plunged the room into darkness he lay thinking--thinking of Kerth in Bombay, of his Excellency Li Kwai Kung sitting in his shadowy room, like a yellow-bellied spider, and of the Order of the Falcon. The _Manchester_ was to sail Saturday; it was Thursday now. Two days, an interlude; then the Bay, Rangoon and--