And this one was that little Prince Akbar should choose his own mother! It would be rather a hard task for a child who had not seen her for two years and a half, and who was but a baby of less than eighteen months old when he had parted from her! But Humayon was convinced that _his_ son would remember; and anyway, even if he did not, no harm would be done and it would be very amusing.

So orders were given for a huge entertainment in the Arta Gardens just outside Kabul.

They were the most beautiful gardens, not close cropped and orderly like English gardens, but with wide, bare, marble-paved walks and squares, big marble-stepped tanks full of waterlilies, all set in tangles of widespread roses and jasmine and gardenia.

And here Humayon's fancy set up a Mystic Palace of three Houses: The House of Pleasure; The House of Fortune, and the House of Power.

Never was such a beautiful Palace.