The low cough that takes the place of a knock at the door throughout the curtained East sounded just outside in the corridor. And when she went to investigate she found herself looking into the wrinkled, inscrutable face of the woman she had, with such good reason, come to dread—the old rani.“May I speak with you a moment?” It was a command rather than a request, and before Stella could demur the old woman had stepped over the threshold. “It is some time now since we met and talked together.”“And yet, Your Highness—” Stella met those hooded, glittering eyes without visible tremor “—I seem to have been conscious all the while of your presence near me.”Just for an instant the old queen’s fierce gaze wavered, then recovering herself she went on hardly, “Time was when I was rani of Kotpura State. Now my realm is shrunk to a few meager square yards—the women’s quarter of Bhindi Palace. And even here my authority is challenged.”There seemed no suitable reply to make to this assertion, and Stella remained silent.
