This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
66
THE ENCHANTED PARROT


he is thinking of going back home, you say that you want to go with him, and that if he leaves you, you will drown yourself — and so on. I daresay he would give you anything you liked to ask for." Kalâvatî answered, " My dear mother ! don't put it in that way: I care nothing for his money without him, and it has been said —

" ' Do not set your heart on riches gained by wickedness, or from an enemy whom you have humiliafed.' "

Her mother answered: " Not at all, my daughter; riches are the cause of death or life. It has been said —

" ' A man who acts with energy is sure to prosper; for energy in all matters is the road to fortune.

Those who have not revealed secrets; who have done no evil; who have not slain without cause; they attain glory.

Fate is the cause of justice and injustice: the cause of honour and of dishonour. Fate makes a man both a giver and an asker.'

" You do as I have told you," continued her mother, " I will manage all the rest." So she listened to the advice her mother had given, and the end of it was, that the merchant's son gave her all his money, and after she had got hold of several millions