Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/684

 644 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. worn by maids, sounded the musical notes to con- summate the event. Thus Vidya and Sundara met every night. The maids connived, and nothing was known about the marriage by the Raja or his queen. Even in day- time they met, for Vidya had a compartment in the palace all reserved for herself, and her parents visited her only occasionally, and when they did so they generally sent previous informations of their visit. Chapter after chapter is devoted by Bharata Chandra to describing the mancevres of the husband and wile to give pleasure to each other by surprise- visits and by every form of play imaginable in which the young couple indulged to their heart's content. Raja Vira Sinha continued now and then to send information to his daughter about the ascetic till waiting as suitor for her hand, but Vidya would not listen to it. She declared that she would lead the holy life of a nun and had despaired of marriage as no prince could yet defeat her in scholarship. The ascetic, as I have said, was no other than Sundara himself, who passed his days in the city in the garb of an ascetic, with the object of avoiding attention as he was ostensibly without any occupation. The prince and the princess in the meantime both insisted whenever they met Hira, the flower woman, on her helping them to have an interview with each other, and the poor woman was at her wit’s end to devise some plan for their doing so. She was completely ignorant of the affair that was going on sudbrosa. The maids of Vidya were alarmed to find that the princess was enceinte so that the fact of her marriage could not be longer concealed from