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THE NÁGÁNANDA.
31

Girl (with despair, to herself).

Her impatience is regardless even of her very life. (Aloud.) O lady! has not Manohariká gone to him? Perhaps, then, your brother Mitrávasu is on his way here.


Then enters Mitrávasu.

Mitrávasu.

I am thus bidden by my father, "My child Mitrávasu, this Jímútaváhana, by living so near us, has been well observed; therefore he is a suitable son-in-law. Let, then, our child Malayavatí be given to him." As for myself, through my dependence on her affection, I suffer a variable state of feeling; for, on the one hand, this young man is the ornament of the race of Vidyádhara kings, is clever, approved by the good, unrivalled in beauty, endowed with valour, is wise and modest; but, on the other hand, he would readily give up his life, through pity, on behalf of any living creature. Thus, when yielding up my peerless sister to such an one, I feel both satisfaction and sorrow. I have heard that Jímútaváhana is in the sandal-creeper bower, adjoining the grove of Gaurí. This is that bower, so I will enter.

[Enters.

Vidúshaka (seeing him, with excitement).

O friend! cover over with this plantain leaf, that girl you have just drawn in the picture. Here, surely, is Mitrávasu, the young prince of the Siddhas, just arrived. Perhaps he will see it.

[The hero covers it with the plantain leaf.