“I do not perform _tricks_ with the daughter of Shiva.” “But you said you were rehearsing the day Mr. Riordan and I looked in on you?” “You knew that I was not speaking the truth.” As he talked he went on about his duties. There was in his attitude toward her nothing of the servant. He did not pronounce her name once, but spoke as one speaks to an equal. “Why should I think that you were speaking anything but the truth? If you were not telling the truth I must speak to Miss Mayfield. I don’t think she would like the idea of having a snake in the house.” He put down the cup in his hand and turned to her. “Miss Mayfield is well aware that the daughter of Shiva is with me. She has been with me since my birth and was with my father before me, and she is sacred.” “George, you ought to be ashamed to believe all that superstition—an educated—” she stopped, the word nigger on her lips—“man like you. It’s nothing short of idolatry.” She was trying to talk to him as she would have scolded at one of her mother’s coloured servants. “You prefer the mythology of the Hebrews?” asked George. Ruth decided to ignore this. “And now you’ve frightened poor Amy so that she is leaving. That ought to concern you, for it may be some time before Miss Mayfield can find any one to take her place.” “That is of no importance, for on the first of the year the house will revert to its original owner and she will not need servants. She will be travelling with her new husband.” “Her what?” Ruth forgot that she was talking to George. She stared at him wide eyed, unwilling to believe that she had heard him rightly. His blue lips curled up in a thin smile: “Certainly—wait and you will see that I am right. She herself does not know it, but she will marry Prince Aglipogue on the first of the new year.” “She will do nothing of the sort—she can’t—he’s fat!” Ruth was protesting not to George but to herself, for even against her reason she believed everything George said to her. He shrugged his shoulders, still smiling at her, and it seemed to her that the iris of his eyes was red, concentrating in tiny points of flame at the pupils. “You are speaking foolishly out of the few years of your present existence; back of that you have the unerring knowledge of many incarnations and you know that what I say is true. Has she not already had three husbands? I tell you she will have one more before she finally finds her true mate. She has suffered, but before she knows the truth she must suffer more. Through the Prince she will come to poverty and disgrace, and when these things are completed she will see her true destiny and follow it.”