Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-11-12
CHAPTER vIII-Continued.

Something clutched at his heart as with
a hand of ice. He could never forget.
dared not remember what he could not
believe yet dared not deny. To him,
reared as he had been, the barrier of
mixed blood rose between them. a thing
surmountable only at the cost of caste:
the shadow of that horror lay upon his
soul like ink-as black as the silhouetted
rails and masts and rigging OF the
Poonah on her dead white decks. He
could win her heart only to lose his
world. And still he loved. still pursued
his steadfast way toward her, knowing
that were he to find her and his passion
To- be returned. death alone could avert
their union i'm marriage. He might not
forget but he loved. With him the
high wind of romance was living gale.
leveling every obstacle between him and
the desire of his heart.
This is to be borne in mind-it was the
mans first love. Heretofore the habits of
a thinker had set his feet in paths apart
Tom those OF other men. Pretty women
lir had always admred-from discreet
distance: that distance abridged. he had
Always found himself a little afraid OF
and dismayed by them. They were the
worlds disturbing element; they took
mems lives I'm the rosy hollows of their
palms and nodded them as they would.
While Amber had desired to mold his
own life. The theme of love that runs
golden thread through the drab fabric of
existence had To him been illusion
a hallucination to which others were
subject. from which he was happily. IL
unaCcountably, exempt. But that had
been yesterday: today
In the afternoon the Poonah touched at
Diamond Harbor. landing the majority of
her passengers. Amber was among those
few who remained aboard
When the steamer OF from the
jetty and. now aided by a favorable tide.
resumed her progress up the river. he re
placed his notice on the bulletin board
with one offering a hundred guineas for
the return of the photograph before they
docked i'm the port OF Calcutta: the offer
of fifty guineas for Its return TO the
Great Eastern Hotel remained unaltered.
His anticipatiOnS were not disappointed:
positively nothing came of IL. All after
noon the Poonah plodded steadily on to-
ward the pail OF smoke that hemmed the
northern horizon. The reedy river banks
narrowed and receded. gorgeous with
color. unvaryingly monotonous. revealing
"otning. Behind walls of rank foliage.
dense green curtains almost impenetrable
.en to night tire nat and spongy delta OF
the Ganges lay decOrously screened III
now and again the hangtngs parted they
disclosed nothing more than a brief vista
Of half-stagnant water or a little clearing.
half overgrown. with the crumbling red
brick walls of some roofiess and aban-
idoned dwelling.
In the lavender and gold and scarlet of
a MINDLESS sunset. Calcutta lifted sudden
IS up before them, a fairy city. mystic
and unreal. with its spires and domes
and minarets a-glare with hot color be-
hind a hedge of etched black masts and
funnels-ali dimmed and made indefinite
by heavy dun haze of smoke-lifted up
in glory against the evening sky and was
blotted out as II by magic by the swoop-
! .; night: then lived again In a myriad
hts pin pricked upon the dense blush
| tckness.
rhe Poonah slipped in to her dock
under cover of darkness. Amber. disem-
tarking with Doggott climbed into an
open ghari on the landing stage and was
driven swiftly to his hotel
As he alighted and. leaving Doggott tC
settle with the ghariwalah. crossed the
sidewalk TO the hotel entrance, a beggaI
slipped through the thronG of wayfarers
whining at his elbow:
Give, - give. Protector of the Poor
nsaaccuaied. Amber hardlX heard ant