THE RAJPOOTNI BRIDE. 
153 
On the following morning the old man visited 
his daughter ; there was somewhat less of asperity in 
his manner than on the previous day, nevertheless, 
he could not speak of the Rahtore without betraying 
the excitement under which he laboured. 
“ Forget him, girl,” he cried sternly; <e his sha- 
dow never can darken this portal as a member of our 
house. As he has eaten my salt, the vengeance of 
the Hara is appeased, but the feud is not extinguished, 
and my withering hate must fall like a blight upon 
him still. We are under bond of eternal enmity. It 
stands in indelible characters upon the dark record of 
my inheritance, and a testamentary obligation at once 
so sacred and so binding is never to be cancelled 
while the heart has a perception or the soul an im- 
pulse. I would sooner behold the tiger an inmate of 
these walls than the man whom you desire to wed. 
It must not be — forget him !” 
“ The saviour of my life,” replied the daughter in 
a tone of calm, measured energy indicating an un- 
alterable resolve, “ has a claim to my gratitude, and 
that claim can only be justly rendered by giving 
him what most he covets, especially since it is the 
boon which I would the most willingly bestow upon 
him. He won my affection when he won my admi- 
ration, and my esteem has since been added to both. 
His soul is as gentle in the areka grove as it is 
mighty in the dark forest, where the tiger skulks or 
the lion prowls. It melts as sweetly at the sound 
of the sittar* as it nobly swells at the blast of 
the war-trump.' — My love is irrevocable. I may 
* A kind of guitar. 
