_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 astonishingly 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

It is some time since Charudatta went to the concert. It is past midnight, and still he does not come. I think I will go into the outer hall and take a nap. [_He does so._]

[_Enter Charudatta and Maitreya._]

_Charudatta._ How beautifully Rebhila sang! The lute is indeed a pearl, a pearl not of the ocean.

Gently the anxious lover's heart befriending, Consoling when true lovers may not meet, To love-lorn souls the dearest comforts sending, It adds to sweetest love its more of sweet. 3

_Maitreya._ Well then, let's go into the house.

_Charudatta._ But how wonderfully Master Rebhila sang!

[44.1. S

_Maitreya._ There are just two things that always make me laugh.

One is a woman talking Sanskrit, and the other is a man who tries to sing soft and low. Now when a woman talks Sanskrit, she is like a heifer with a new rope through her nose; all you hear is "soo, soo, soo." And when a man tries to sing soft and low, he reminds me of an old priest muttering texts, while the flowers in his chaplet dry up. No, I don't like it!

_Charudatta._ My friend, Master Rebhila sang most wonderfully this evening. And still you are not satisfied.

The notes of love, peace, sweetness, could I trace, The note that thrills, the note of pa.s.sion too, The note of woman's loveliness and grace-- Ah, my poor words add nothing, nothing new!

But as the notes in sweetest cadence rang, I thought it was my hidden love who sang. 4

The melody of song, the stricken strings In undertone that half-unconscious clings, More clearly sounding when the pa.s.sions rise, But ever sweeter as the music dies.

Words that strong pa.s.sion fain would say again, Yet checks their second utterance--in vain; For music sweet as this lives on, until I walk as hearing sweetest music still. 5

_Maitreya._ But see, my friend! The very dogs are sound asleep in the shops that look out on the market. Let us go home. [_He looks before him._] Look, look! The blessed moon seems to give place to darkness, as she descends from her palace in heaven.

_Charudatta._ True.

The moon gives place to darkness as she dips Behind the western mountain; and the tips Of her uplifted horns alone appear, Like two sharp-pointed tusks uplifted clear, Where bathes an elephant in waters cool, Who shows naught else above the jungle pool. 6

P. 89.1]

_Maitreya._ Well, here is our house. Vardhamanaka, Vardhamanaka, open the door!

_Vardhamanaka._ I hear Maitreya's voice. Charudatta has returned.

I must open the door for him. [_He does so._] Master, I salute you.

Maitreya, I salute you too. The couch is ready. Pray be seated.

[_Charudatta and Maitreya enter and seat themselves._]

_Maitreya._ Vardhamanaka, call Radanika to wash our feet.

_Charudatta._ [_Compa.s.sionately._] She sleeps. Do not wake her.