148 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
her father was maintaining with all that vindictive- 
ness of spirit so frequently and fearfully verified in 
the Rajpoot chronicles. 
The old Hara, who had been sufficiently near to 
perceive what had happened,, approached his child 
with a gloomy austerity of countenance, to the cause 
of which she was no stranger. He too had distin- 
guished the Rahtore : his grim silence and the stern 
composure of his features sufficiently expressed that 
he had recognized her deliverer. Not a word was 
exchanged. The Rajpoot did not express, even by 
a look, his satisfaction at his child’s escape, and she 
with an aspect of calm but haughty indifference, 
mounted a camel and accompanied her parent home 
without the interchange of a word. She could not, 
however, efface from her mind the image of the 
young Rahtore. His manly bearing, his strength and 
dexterity, fired her imagination. He was perpetually 
present in her dreams, and the sole object of her 
waking thoughts. His fine muscular frame, the clear 
rapid gleam of his eye, the haughty bend of his brow 
and animated expansion of nostril, the grace with 
which he rode, his prowess and skill in the use of the 
tulwar, or scimitar — all rose to her view in rapid 
succession, imbued with the colourings of an ardent 
prepossession, and she determined, at whatever cost, 
to behold the object which had thus irresistibly 
entranced her imagination. Her resolution was a 
bold one, and therefore her unbending soul main- 
tained it with the greater pertinacity. 
For some time she failed in all her efforts to ob- 
tain a sight of her deliverer. Her father watched 
