Page:Durgesa Nandini.djvu/60

 Ashmani. "And where's the harm, I pray? What is not allowable in love?"

The Brahmin was silent.

Ashmani. "Eat, I pray you."

Diggaja. "I have sipped the gandusha, I have risen from my seat, moreover you have touched me—shall I eat again?"

Ashmani. "You must;—nay, you must eat after I eat of the dish." Saying this, Ashmani took up a handful from the dish, and ate a mouthful.

The Brahmin was struck dumb.

Ashmani returned into the dish the quantity of rice that remained after filling her mouth, and said,

"Come, eat."

The Brahmin was rendered speechless.

Ashmani. "Fall to; listen", here Ashmani said something in Gajapati's ear.

The Brahmin cut a caper high in the air.

"Hey! then I must eat," exclaimed Diggaja and began to gulp down the defiled rice like a very cow. The dish vanished in a twinkling. He then demanded,

"My fair one, now?"

Ashmani. "Confound you! In unwashed mouth?"

"Yes, yes. I'm going to wash my mouth," said he, and thereupon fell to washing his mouth in a blind hurry;—some parts of it were washed, while the others remained untouched by water. One bushel of rice remained deposited in the openings between his teeth.

"Where, my fair one, where is the nectar of your lips?"

Ashmani. "Ill betide you! first wipe your mouth."