India -- History -- 1526-1765 -- Fiction; Maratha (Indic people) -- History -- Fiction
Need her figure be described? Being younger than Tara, there was not
the same development of form. The arms and throat were less rounded,
yet the lines were as graceful and full of promise of perfection as
hers. Eventually they would be about the same height--Radha, perhaps,
a shade taller, and both slighter than Anunda ever had been. Her hands
and feet were small and beautifully formed, more so, perhaps, than
Tara's; they were indeed, remarkable features in her figure--so much so
that, as Tara was bathing her one day, and washing them, she had held
them to her lips and kissed them in succession involuntarily.
It was difficult to tell her age. Her "birth letter" told the Shastree
she was not yet twelve. Had she exceeded much that age, to their
knowledge, Anunda would have objected to the marriage; indeed, she
could not have been married at all. But she was in reality fourteen,
nay more. Sometimes, when her features relaxed, her eyes soft and
dreamy, her mouth smiling, and her whole face assuming a loving
tenderness of expression, she appeared hardly the age she was said to
be; but when there was any change, and the rigid look already noticed
took its place, she appeared considerably older.
Now, Anunda was by no means desirous of a very young girl for
her husband's new wife. Many had been offered of very tender age
indeed, whom she had invariably declined. She could not be troubled
with a child; and if a thought that Radha might be older than she
was represented to be, ever crossed her mind, a bright smile, a
tender caress from the girl at once removed the doubt, and restored
confidence. As to her figure, it did but furnish earnest of mature
development. And were not many girls precocious? She had been so
herself. Yes, Radha was very beautiful; and, as day after day passed,
Anunda longed the more for the time when she should be able to clothe
her in one of those gorgeous dresses, to deck her with flowers and
jewels, and to present her to her husband a bride worthy of him--worthy
of her own affection--the most precious gift she could make to him.
We have said that Radha was older than she was represented--and perhaps
a brief sketch of her previous history is needful. She had been an
indulged and precocious child, of a vain, weak, but beautiful mother.
Her father, one of the hereditary Josees, or astrologers, of Wye,
had died some years before, and her mother shortly after him. Moro
Trimmul, on succeeding to the care of the house, had given charge of
his sister to his aunt, and betaken himself to the company of certain
wild associates, with whom, from his powers of learning, he had become
an especial favourite. The head of these was the Rajah Sivaji, whose
rapid career to independence was one of the remarkable events of the
times; and the wild exploits of the young prince, his raids against
the Moghuls and Mahomedans in general, had long since enlisted the
sympathies of the Mahratta people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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