Then Our Acquaintance Was
Limited To Two Conversations; Their Unexpectedness, Their Gravity,
And Even Severity, Produced A Strong Impression On Me Then; But,
In The Course Of Time, Like Many Other Things, They Sank Into
Oblivion And Lethe.
About seven years ago he wrote to me to
America, reminding me of our conversation and of a certain promise
I had made.
Now we saw each other once more in India, his own
country, and I failed to see any change wrought in his appearance
by all these long years. I was, and looked, quite young, when I
first saw him; but the passage of years had not failed to change
me into an old woman. As to him, he appeared to me twenty-seven
years ago a man of about thirty, and still looked no older, as if
time were powerless against him. In England, his striking beauty,
especially his extraordinary height and stature, together with his
eccentric refusal to be presented to the Queen - an honour many a
high-born Hindu has sought, coming over on purpose - excited the
public notice and the attention of the newspapers. The newspapermen
of those days, when the influence of Byron was still great, discussed
the "wild Rajput" with untiring pens, calling him "Raja-Misanthrope"
and " Prince Jalma-Samson," and in-venting fables about him all the
time he stayed in England.
All this taken together was well calculated to fill me with consuming
curiosity, and to absorb my thoughts till I forgot every exterior
circumstance, sitting and staring at him in no wise less intensely
than Narayan.
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