The Washington times., 1902-09-21
BEYOND THE PALE,

Love heeds not caste nor sleep broken bed
| went in search OF love and lost myself
Hindu Proverb.
| A MAN should, whatever happens
II keep his own castle. race, and
1 \ breed. Let the White go to the
White and the Black to the
| Black. Then, whatever trouble falls is
in the ordinary course of things-neither
sudden, alien, nor unexpected.
This is the story of a man who will
fully stepped beyond the safe limits of
decent everyday society, and paid for it
heayilt.
| He knew too much in the first in
second. He took too deep an interest in
native life: but he will. never 10 SO
again.
Deep away In the heart Of the city,
behind Jitha Megji's bustee, lies Amir
Maths Gully, which ends in dead wall
pierced by one grated window. At the
head of the Gully is a big cowbyre, and
the walls on either side Of the Gully are
without windows. Neither Suchet
Singh nor Gaur Chand approve of their
women folk looking into the world. II
Durga Charan had been of their opin-
ion, he would have been a happier man
today and little Bisesa would have been
able to knead her own bread. Her room
looked out through the grated window
into the narrow dark gully where the
sun never came and where the buffaloes
wallowed in the blue slime. She was
widow, about fifteen years old. and she
prayed the gods, day and night. to send
her a lover; for she did not approve Of
living alone.
One day, the man-Trejaro his name
was-came into Amir Mathis gully en-
an aimless wandering; and, after he
had passed the buffaloes, stumbled ever
big heap of cattle food.
Then he saw that the Gully ended in
trap, and heard a little laugh from
behind the grated window. 1t was
pretty little laugh, and Trejago, know
ing that, for all practical purposes, the
old Arabian Nights" are good guides,
went forward to the window. and whis-
pered that verse of 1.-The Love Song of
Her DyaT' which begins:
Can man stand upright in the face OF the
naked Sun; or a Lover in the Presence OF his
Beloved?
II my feet fail me Heart of my Heart, am
to blame, being blinded by the glimpse Of
your beauty?
There came the faint tchinks Of a
woman's bracelets from behind the
grating, and little voice went on with
the song at the fifth verse:
Alas! alas! Can the Moon tell the Lotus OF
her love when the Gate of Heaven is shut and
the clouds gather for the rans2
They have taken my Beloved, and driven
her with the pack horses to the North.
There are iron chains on the feet that were
set on my heart
Call to the bowmen to make ready
The voice stopped suddenly, and Tre-
jago walked out of Amir Mathis Gully.
wondering who in the world could have
capped 1.-THE Love Song of Har Dyal' so
neatly.
office, an old woman threw packet into
his dog-cart. In the packet was the
half of a broken glass bangle, one flower
of the blood-red dhak. pinch of bhusa
or cattle food, and eleven cardamoms.
That packet was letter-not clumsy
compromising letter. but an innocent un-
intelligible lovers epistle.
Trejago knew far too much about
these things, as l have said. No Eng
lishman should be able TO translate OBJ
ject letters. But Trejago spread all the
trifies ON the lid of his Office box and
began to puzzle them out
A broken glass bangle stands for a
Hindu widow all India over; because
when her husband dies woman's
bracelets are broken on her wrists. |
Trejago saw the meaning of the little
bit OF glass. The flower of the dhak