_Maitreya._ Yes, with your pretty bows you two have knocked your heads together, till they look like a couple of rice-fields. I also bow my head like a camel colt"s knee and beseech you both to stand up. [_He does so, then rises._]
_Charudatta._ Very well, let us no longer trouble ourselves with conventions.
_Vasantasena._ [_To herself._] What a delightfully clever hint! But it would hardly be proper to spend the night, considering how I came hither. Well, I will at least say this much. [_Aloud._] If I am to receive thus much of your favor, sir, I should be glad to leave these jewels in your house. It was for the sake of the jewels that those scoundrels pursued me.
P. 45.14]
_Charudatta._ This house is not worthy of the trust.
_Vasantasena._ You mistake, sir! It is to men that treasures are entrusted, not to houses.
_Charudatta._ Maitreya, will you receive the jewels?
_Vasantasena._ I am much indebted to you. [_She hands him the jewels._]
_Maitreya._ [_Receiving them._] Heaven bless you, madam.
_Charudatta._ Fool! They are only entrusted to us.
_Maitreya._ [_Aside._] Then the thieves may take them, for all I care.
_Charudatta._ In a very short time--
_Maitreya._ What she has entrusted to us, belongs to us.
_Charudatta._ I shall restore them.
_Vasantasena._ I should be grateful, sir, if this gentleman would accompany me home.
_Charudatta._ Maitreya, pray accompany our guest.
_Maitreya._ She walks as gracefully as a female swan, and you are the gay flamingo to accompany her. But I am only a poor Brahman, and wherever I go, the people will fall upon me just as dogs will snap at a victim dragged to the cross-roads.
_Charudatta._ Very well. I will accompany her myself. Let the torches be lighted, to ensure our safety on the highway.
_Maitreya._ Vardhamanaka, light the torches.
_Vardhamanaka._ [_Aside to Maitreya._] What! light torches without oil?
_Maitreya._ [_Aside to Charudatta._] These torches of ours are like courtezans who despise their poor lovers. They won"t light up unless you feed them.
[25.23. S.
_Charudatta._ Enough, Maitreya! We need no torches. See, we have a lamp upon the king"s highway.
Attended by her starry servants all, And pale to see as a loving maiden"s cheeks, Rises before our eyes the moon"s bright ball, Whose pure beams on the high-piled darkness fall Like streaming milk that dried-up marshes seeks. 57
[_His voice betraying his pa.s.sion._] Mistress Vasantasena, we have reached your home. Pray enter. [_Vasantasena gazes ardently at him, then exit._] Comrade, Vasantasena is gone. Come, let us go home.
All creatures from the highway take their flight; The watchmen pace their rounds before our sight; To forestall treachery, is just and right, For many sins find shelter in the night. 58
[_He walks about._] And you shall guard this golden casket by night, and Vardhamanaka by day.
_Maitreya._ Very well. [_Exeunt ambo._
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 30: During the mating season, a fragrant liquor exudes from the forehead of the elephant. Of this liquor bees are very fond.]
[Footnote 31: The most striking peculiarity of Sansthanaka"s dialect--his subst.i.tution of _sh_ for _s_--I have tried to imitate in the translation.]
[Footnote 32: Red a.r.s.enic, used as a cosmetic.]
[Footnote 33: Here, as elsewhere, Sansthanaka"s mythology is wildly confused. To a Hindu the effect must be ludicrous enough; but the humor is necessarily lost in a translation. It therefore seems hardly worth while to explain his mythological vagaries in detail.]
[Footnote 34: A name of Krishna, who is perhaps the most amorous character in Indian story.]
[Footnote 35: Cupid.]
[Footnote 36: The five deadly sins are: the slaying of a Brahman, the drinking of wine, theft, adultery with the wife of one"s teacher, and a.s.sociation with one guilty of these crimes.]
[Footnote 37: These are all epithets of the same G.o.d.]
[Footnote 38: Which look pretty, but do not rain. He doubtless means to suggest that the cloak, belonging to a strange man, is as useless to Vasantasena as the veil of autumn clouds to the earth.]
ACT THE SECOND
THE SHAMPOOER[39] WHO GAMBLED
[_Enter a maid._]
_Maid._
I am sent with a message to my mistress by her mother. I must go in and find my mistress. [_She walks about and looks around her._] There is my mistress. She is painting a picture, and putting her whole heart into it. I must go and speak to her.
[_Then appear the love-lorn Vasantasena, seated, and Madanika._]
_Vasantasena._ Well, girl, and then--
_Madanika._ But mistress, you were not speaking of anything. What do you mean?
_Vasantasena._ Why, what did I say?
_Madanika._ You said, "and then"--