Even the noblest dame would hardly have hesitated to mate with a man who was so universally admired and reverenced. Indeed, rumour averred, that offers of marriage were by no means a rare occurrence with him, for woman’s privileges extended to this departure from ancient usage by this time. But Swami resisted the tender advances of his fair customers, for his life was so entirely devoted to the profession he loved that marital cares had no charm for him. Moreover, he had never met with the woman who could hold empire over him; whose soul-energy, could mingle with his, and fill his whole being with rapturous emotion, giving his life new charms, new hopes, and new aspirations. Until that being came into his life he was determined to live secluded and solitary, for, making no intimates of his customers, the pleasures of friendship were unknown to him. One soft spring afternoon, a few days previous to that appointed for the Great Test Tournament, there came rolling up to his residence the royal carriage, drawn by prancing horses, and who should alight therefrom but the Emperor Felicitas himself. The dark servants trembled at the approach of such a mighty potentate, for Eastern ideas of the power of princes are not easily overcome, but Swami himself received the monarch with that easy and gentle courtesy he extended to everybody. ‘What doth the Emperor of so many dominions require of me?’ he asked, with a touch of his native Eastern politeness. ‘Indeed,’ cried the Emperor impetuously, ‘I wish my crown anywhere but on my head! What good is power if it leave one craving for that which he most desires?’ ‘I want that, Swami, which I am denied, and which my heart is bursting for—the love of a woman—there! If thou hast magic power, as I am told thou possessest greatly, tell me how I can attain this?’ ‘Is she so perverse?’ asked Swami quietly. ‘Perverse isn’t the word for it—she is ice, adamant—immovable as a rock! Yes,’ returned the Emperor despondently, ‘she is as cold as she is beautiful; and I have put her in prison! And, oh, I am utterly miserable. Believe me, Swami, I cannot sleep, eat, or work, for I am intensely, hopelessly miserable.’ ‘I am truly sorry to see thy Majesty in such a plight,’ remarked Swami kindly. ‘But why didst thou place the lady thou lovest in a prison? It seems a high-handed way of dealing with a subject; truly a mighty strange method of inducing her love?’ ‘I was put in a quandary,’ replied Felicitas candidly, for he knew there was no good gained by attempting to deceive the thought-reader; ‘I was suddenly surprised by visitors as I was attempting to detain her, when a craven spirit entered me, and I denounced her as a would-be murderer.’ ‘Did she endeavour to harm thee?’ inquired Swami eagerly. ‘Yes, truly she raised her ebony life-preserver to strike me if I touched her.’ ‘But she did it in self-defence, evidently,’ retorted Swami, while a bright light illumined his usually dreamy eyes.