Page:Katha sarit sagara, vol2.djvu/639

 having arranged with her attendants every detail of her scheme, that young Bráhman lady assumed the name of Sumangalá, And her servants proclaimed everywhere, " A hetœra named Sumangalá has come from Kámarúpa, and her goodwill is only to be procured by the most lavish expenditure."

Then a distinguished hetœra of Ujjayiní, named Devadattá, came to her, and gave her her own palace worthy of a king, to dwell in by herself. And when she was established there, my friend Śaśin first sent a message to her by a servant, sayings " Accept a present from me which is won by your great reputation." But Sumangalá sent back this message by the servant, " The lover who obeys my commands may enter here: I do not care for a present, nor for other beast-like men." Śaśin accepted the terms, and repaired at night-fall to her palace. And when he came to the first door of the palace, and had himself announced, the door-keeper said to him, " Obey our lady's commands Even though you may have bathed, you must bathe again here; other- wise you cannot be admitted." When Śaśin heard this, he agreed to bathe again as he was bid. Then he was bathed and anointed all over by her female slaves, in private, and while this was going on, the first watch of the night passed away. When he arrived, having bathed, at the second door, the door-keeper said to him, " You have bathed; now adorn yourself appropriately." He consented, and thereupon the lady's female slaves adorned him, and meanwhile the second watch of the night came to an end. Then he reached the door of the third zone, and there the guards said to him, " Take a meal, and then enter." He said " Very well," and then the female slaves managed to delay him with various dishes until the third watch passed a way. Then he reached at last the fourth door, that of the lady's private apartments, but there the door-keeper reproached him in the following words, " Away, boorish suitor, lest you draw upon yourself misfortune. Is the last watch of the night a proper time for paying the first visit to a lady? " When Śaśin had been turned away in this contemptuous style by the warder, who seemed like an incarnation of untimeliness, he went away home with countenance sadly fallen. In the same way that Bráhman's daughter, who had assumed the name of Sumangalá, disappointed many other visitors. When I heard of it, I was moved with curiosity, and after sending a messenger to and fro I went at night splendidly adorned to her house. There I propitiated the warders at every door with magnificent presents, and I reached without delay the private apartments of that lady. And as I had arrived in time I was allowed by the door-keepers to pass the door, and I entered and saw my wife, whom I did not recognise, owing to her being disguised as a hetœra. But she knew me again, and she advanced towards me, and paid