to my cooking-pots. Come again, O people of good will. Holy One and disciple, come again. The room is always prepared; the welcome is always ready … See the women do not follow thy chela too openly. I know the women of Kulu. Take heed, chela , lest he run away when he smells his Hills again … Hai! Do not tilt the rice-bag upside down … Bless the household, Holy One, and forgive thy servant her stupidities.”
She wiped her red old eyes on a corner of her veil, and clucked throatily.
“Women talk,” said the lama at last, “but that is a woman’s infirmity. I gave her a charm. She is upon the Wheel and wholly given over to the shows of this life, but none the less, chela , she is virtuous, kindly, hospitable—of a whole and zealous heart. Who shall say she does not acquire merit?”
“Not I, Holy One,” said Kim, reslinging the bountiful provision on his shoulders. “In my mind—behind my eyes—I have tried to picture such an one altogether freed from the Wheel—desiring nothing, causing nothing—a nun, as it were.”