On the night after the reconciliation with her husband, the night also after her search for a slave in the palace, the Lady Ahalya went to bed in a temper, without having roused Neila, her maid. During the night, while she slept, some subtle change surely worked upon the brain and heart of the Ranee; for she herself, and Neila too, knew afterward that this night was, with her, the beginning and the end of all things. For the next three or four days Neila’s life was made miserable; but Ahalya did not attempt to account even to herself for the freaks, moods, and whims which changed with such rapidity that, before human power could gratify one, the next had made the work all to do over again. Not for an entire week did the long-suffering attendant get an inkling of what was really the trouble; and then she went into a state of consternation that Ahalya made no attempt to lessen. For the Ranee’s secret mind was running continually now, perhaps without her own volition, on the most dangerous of topics:—how she might see the Asra again. This was not a matter so absolutely impossible as Fidá deemed it. Life in the Indian zenanas was not quite that of the harems of Arabia; though, as Ragunáth knew, this one was certainly well guarded. By degrees, however, Ahalya approached her end. How it came about, who could say? But Neila found herself presently acting in the character of a spy. This eunuch and that she questioned; now and then she ventured into the great courtyard or, more warily, into the palace itself: observing, listening, asking a question of one slave or another, till Fidá’s daily habits had become familiar to her. Then, after so much patience, opportunity arrived. One afternoon at the very end of the month, after the Rajah had partaken of his afternoon meal and gone to rest, Neila herself saw the slave Fidá set out alone into the fields, along the old temple road. This incident being duly reported to her mistress, Ahalya’s face lighted like a child’s. “I, too, am going to walk on the temple road! Yes, yes, Neila, I am going! Seek not to detain me. I am going to gather the late poppies in the temple field to make a rouge for my face. Come, prepare me!” The unhappy Neila protested violently, all her courage failing. Gradually she had been drawn into Ahalya’s madness; but now, brought face to face with possible consequences, she rebelled. There was a scene between her and her mistress such as had never been known before. But while Neila wept on the border of hysterics, Ahalya, the power of her great malady holding her above such things, remained dry-eyed, firm, commanding. What wonder that Neila in the end submitted? Nevertheless, one thing the maid insisted on. She and Kasya must follow their lady, as indeed many times before they had followed her unconventional rambles; or Ahalya should leave the zenana only over her, Neila’s, body.