Page:Indira and Other Stories.pdf/148

 we were forbidden to wear our rings during five years. This much I understand, but the rest is still a mystery to me."

"Surely you comprehend," replied the raja, "why your father on receiving this communication suspended the negotiation for your marriage with Purandar, and why Purandar himself in despair undertook the voyage to Ceylon. Meanwhile Ananda Swami was making enquiries for a suitable and auspicious bridegroom. His search was successful. On examining the young man's horoscope, he found that he was destined to reach the age of eighty years, if he should escape a risk of death at the age of twenty-eight. By his learned calculations he ascertained that before the youth had attained to that age, and within five years of his marriage, he would incur a terrible risk of dying in his nuptial couch. But the stars showed plainly that if he could survive these fateful five years, he would live to a good old age.

"It was therefore settled that the marriage should take place when the bridegroom was