So pure are you that surely you can tell me?

_Kol._ O holy one, the people call it love.

_Rishyas._ Then is love better than all other bliss My father's meditations ever bring.

And I will seek thro all the lapse of lives To hold you thus, And have your arms about me, As vines about the asoka clingingly.

Happy am I that you have found me out, And never shall you leave me.

_Kol._ No--for ever!

[_More pa.s.sionately._

But unto the city you shall go with me And there with Brahmin rites be made my husband.

_Rishyas._ Which is--I know not what--yet will I be Husband and more to you. For now it seems That not the tiger in his jungle-might, Nor any incarnation terrible, Could tear you from me.

_Kol._ Then come quickly, now, And I will be for you a champa-flower, Swung sweetly and forever to your breast.

And often will I dance for you and sing And love you, Rishyas, as a deva-queen!

Come quickly, one is waiting in the wood To guide us.

_Rishyas._ Yes, O yes! (_remembering_) But stay! my father!

First I will tell him I have won this wisdom.

_Kol._ No, no!

_Rishyas._ Yes! (_calls_) Father! father!

_Kol_ (_in terror_). Rishyas, no!

But come, come with me quickly.

_Rishyas_ (_astonished_). Do you fear?

_Kol._ He is so old!... You guess not what you do.

Haste, or he will forbid.

_Rishyas._ You know him not.

For I will tell him you are a holier saint To guide my steps, Then will he bid me go.

Ho! father! ho!

_Vishwamya_ (_heard off_). My son, you call? I come.

_Kol._ O, I must flee--

_Rishyas_ (_dazed_). I do not understand.

_Kol._ Sunandi! Speak, Sunandi!--Ah, he comes.

[_VISHWAMYA enters and seeing her stops amazed. SUNANDI enters behind unseen. Deep suspense._

_Rishyas_ (_uncomprehendingly_).

Do you see, father, I have found one here Holy, and fairer than the Apsaras.

And I shall follow her, she is some G.o.ddess.

For I desire only to be with her, And she has taught me this desire is love.

O and I love her, And tho yet I know Not well what miracle love is in me, Yet it is better than this hermitage.

For it has made me seem.... But what burns in you?

_Vishwamya._ My son, you are beguiled. Let go her hand That leads you on to ruin. Do you not Behold what manner of creature you so clasp?

_Rishyas._ Yes, yes--a deva!

_Vishwamya._ Deva! This is a woman, And women like the wind are full of wiles, And tempt saints to abandon Swerga's rest.

He who would rule his mind has naught with them.

Let go her hand and send her away.

_Rishyas_ (_amazed_). Away!

Never shall she go from me and without me.

If women are evil, as you say, she is not, Therefore she is no woman.

_Vishwamya._ O vain boy!

In pa.s.sion's jungle! Break from her at once!

_Rishyas._ I will not. Her I worship, holily.

And she has given me a drink of heaven That has diffused deity in my limbs.

_Vishwamya._ And death, and an eternity of births!-- These flowers (_on his neck_) and her feigning have bewitched you!

[_Seizes them._

I tear them off and trample them to earth.

_Kol._ Rishyas! Rishyas!

_Rishyas._ Be not afraid, my Kol; He is my father And he knows you not, For did he, he would clasp you, as I clasp.

Or it may be that he is little pleased Because I find you holier than he.

O father, peace. Control your mind. Farewell.

I go with her.

_Vishwamya._ Beguiled boy! you shall not.

Thro all these years I have not, from its lair, Unloosed black anger.

But this evil one And your desire to follow ways of flesh Compel me. Come, come from her!

_Rishyas._ I will never.

_Vishwamya._ Then must I drag you--and drive her away.

[_Strikes KOL._

Away, l.u.s.t-thing! away!

_Rishyas._ Oh, oh! Oh, oh!