Part 16 (1/2)

_Vasantasena._ Find out, Karnapuraka, whether the mantle is perfumed with jasmine or not.

_Karnapuraka._ Mistress, the elephant perfume is so strong that I can't tell for sure.

_Vasantasena._ Then look at the name.

_Karnapuraka._ Here is the name. You may read it, mistress. [_He hands her the mantle._]

_Vasantasena._ [_Reads._] Charudatta. [_She seizes the mantle eagerly and wraps it about her._]

_Madanika._ The mantle is very becoming to her, Karnapuraka.

_Karnapuraka._ Oh, yes, the mantle is becoming enough.

_Vasantasena._ Here is your reward, Karnapuraka. [_She gives him a gem._]

_Karnapuraka._ [_Taking it and bowing low._] Now the mantle is most wonderfully becoming.

_Vasantasena._ Karnapuraka, where is Charudatta now?

_Karnapuraka._ He started to go home along this very street.

_Vasantasena._ Come, girl! Let us go to the upper balcony and see Charudatta. [_Exeunt omnes._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 39: Perhaps ma.s.seur would be more accurate.]

[Footnote 40: That of Mathura, the keeper of the gambling house.]

[Footnote 41: A humorously exaggerated reference to Indian ascetic practices.]

[Footnote 42: See note on page 33.]

[Footnote 43: The shampooer, whose transformation is astonis.h.i.+ngly sudden.]

ACT THE THIRD

THE HOLE IN THE WALL

[_Enter Charudatta's servant, Vardhamanaka._]

_Vardh._

A master, kindly and benevolent, His servants love, however poor he be.

The purse-proud, with a will on harshness bent, Pays service in the coin of cruelty. 1

And again:

A bullock greedy for a feast of corn You never can prevent; A wife who wants her lord to wear a horn You never can prevent; A man who loves to gamble night and morn You never can prevent; And blemishes[44] that with a man are born You never can prevent. 2