Page:Bengal Fairy Tales.djvu/111

Rh into which in disgust he threw the sword and the banyan leaf. He then directed his steps homewards.

Just about the same time Pushpamala, persuaded by her mother, came down to bathe, and fate led her to the same tank. On finding the leaf floating, she took it up, and read what was written on it, and so intense were her feelings that she swooned away. One of the maids attending on her ran into the palace with the intelligence, and the king and the queen hastened to the spot. Restoratives were administered with success, and the princess was taken home. She remained silent and sullen, however, for the rest of the day, and spent a sleepless night.

Next morning, both she and the kotál's son went to the pathshala and took their respective places. The tutor, finding something unusual in their demeanour, asked them to explain it, at which Pushpamala showed him the leaf, and both of them asked his advice. He said that as the contract it contained had been entered into by their fathers, and as their mothers had also bound themselves by a promise, they must fulfil it. At this the princess left her throne to her lover, and sat on the floor at his feet; and though there were no lessons that day, they remained there till the usual hour of dismissal, when each of them, making valuable presents to the guru, went home with the mutual understanding that they would leave the country together during the ensuing night. It was arranged therefore that the kotál's son should wait at the foot of a particular tree, whence he was to give the signal of his presence by playing on a flute. The night came, and the princess was subject to such feelings as generally work in the mind of one going to take so serious a step as that of leaving her parents and her home, with all its dear associations. Her heart palpitated and her whole body trembled. The last duty she thought of performing for her parents and the other inmates of the palace was to cook the best dishes for them, and to serve them with her own hands; and her mother, unable to divine her motive, attributed her self-denial to a