lack of high tragedy in the records of Chitor--Queen of cities--thrice
sacked by Moslem invaders; deserted at last, and left in ruins--a sacred
relic of great days gone by.

This morning Rajputana held the field. Lilámani, with a thrill in her
low voice, was half reading, half telling the adventures of Prithvi Raj
(King of the Earth) and his Amazon Princess, Tara--the Star of Bednore:
verily a star among women for beauty, wisdom, and courage. Many princes
were rivals for her hand; but none would she call "lord" save the man
who restored to her father the Kingdom snatched from him by an Afghan
marauder. "On the faith of a Rajput, _I_ will restore it," said Prithvi
Raj. So, in the faith of a Rajputni, she married him:--and together, by
a daring device, they fulfilled her vow.

Here, indeed, was Roy's 'beautiful marry,' fit prelude for the tale of
that heroic pair. For in life--Lilámani told them--marriage is the
beginning, not the end. That is only for fairy tales.

And close against her shoulder, listening entranced, sat the child Tara,
with her wild-flower face and the flickering star in her heart--a
creature born out of time into an unromantic world; hands clasped round
her upraised knees, her wide eyes gazing past the bluebells and the
beech-leaves at some fanciful inner vision of it all; lost in it, as Roy
was lost in contemplation of his Mother's face....

And this unorthodox fashion of imbibing knowledge in the very lap of the
Earth Mother, was Lilámani Sinclair's impracticable idea of 'giving
lessons'! Shades of Aunt Jane! Of governess and copy-books and rulers!

Happily for all three, Lady Roscoe never desecrated their paradise in