Why did
she marry this man? Had she not heard of the fate of Kalee? Had she not
seen the Cradle (still standing in the hollow of the hill)? No doubt;
but woman will go through worse storms than man's passion to get to the
goal of wealth and honour. Then there is a frenzy in woman, Aminadab.
She is like the boys, who seek danger for its own sake, and will skim on
skates the rim of the black pool that descends from the film of ice down
to the bubbling well of death below. Women have an ambition to tame wild
men; ay, even wild men have a charm for them, which the tame sons of
prudence and industry cannot inspire. So it was: they were married, and
he took her to India."
[note *: Afterwards, as I have heard, the wife of Milne of
Milneford. She lived till nearly a hundred.]
"'So the Lord did lead him; and there was no strange god with them.'"
"Ay, but there was a God _before_ him, lad."
"What mean you, Janet?"
"Do you not recollect of Brahma?"
"Do not mention that strange figure, Janet. My blood runs cold."
Janet laughed.
"Runs cold, lad, at what? Brahma was just one of the Nawab's great men,
whom he sent over here to watch the fate of his daughter.
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