All too soon, Somadatta and Medini came forth from the temple. The saintly woman wished to reveal the future to us also now, but Vasitthi shrank from the thought.
"How should I bear it," she exclaimed, "if a future menacing disaster were to be unveiled?"
"But why then just menacing disaster?" said the well-meaning old woman, whose life experiences, presumably as the result of her sanctity, had probably been happy ones. "For the servant also, happiness waits," she added, with a look fraught with promise.
But Vasitthi was not to be allured; sobbing, she clung around my neck.
"Ah! my only love!" she cried, "I feel as though the future with inexorable face were looking down upon us. Oh! I feel it—I shall never see thee more."
Although these words caused an icy chill to creep over me, I tried to reason her out of this groundless fear; but, just because it was groundless, my most eloquent words availed little or nothing. The tears rolled in an unbroken stream over her cheeks; with a look of divine love, she caught my hand and pressed it to her breast.
"Yet if we should nevermore see each other in this world, we shall still remain faithful; and when this short and painful life on earth is ended, we shall find one another in Paradise, and, united there, for ever enjoy the raptures of heaven.… O Kamanita, promise me that. How much more will that upraise and strengthen me than any words of comfort! For these are as powerless against the inevitable stream of Fate, already surging towards us, as the reeds against the floods of waters. But all-powerful, bringing forth new life, is sacred, deep-seated resolution."
"If it depends only upon that, beloved Vasitthi, how
