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SACONTALA;

Pri. Let us hear the words; and then I will mark them with my nail on this lotos leaf, soft and green as the breast of the young paroquet; it may easily be cut into the form of a letter.—Repeat the verses.

Sac. " Thy heart, indeed, I know not: but mine, Oh! cruel, love warms by day and by night; and all my faculties are centered on thee."

Dushm. [Hastily advancing and pronouncing a verse in the same measure.] "Thee, O slender maid, love only warms; but me he burns; as the day star only stifles the fragrance of the night flower, but quenches the very orb of the moon."

Anu. [Looking at him joyfully.] Welcome, great king; the fruit of my friend's imagination has ripened without delay.

[Sacontalá expresses an inclination to rise.

Dushm. Give yourself no pain. Those delicate limbs, which repose on a couch of flowers, those arms, whose bracelets of lotos are disarranged by a slight pressure, and that sweet frame, which the hot noon seems to have disordered, must not be fatigued by ceremony.

Sac. [Aside.] O my heart, canst thou not rest at length after all thy sufferings?

Anu. Let our sovereign take for his seat a part of the rock on which she reposes.

[Sacontalá makes a little room.
Dushm. [Seating himself.] Priyamvadá, is not