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102 no man's wife." "Then lovely maiden," said the king, "wed me and be Queen of Ayodhya." The damsel at first would not answer, but blushing looked shyly at the ground and then at the tall figure of the king. At last after King Parikshit had pressed her repeatedly for an answer she said: "O king, I can only be your queen on one condition." "I readily agree," said the king, "to any condition that you name, if only you will be my bride." "My condition is this," continued the maiden gravely; "never let me look at water on the ground." The king agreed and wedded her at once according to the rites of the Gandharva marriage. After the marriage was completed the royal attendants, who had been following the tracks of the king, came up. And King Parikshit showed them his royal bride and all the attendants paid her their homage. The king entered a palanquin with his bride and its porters carried them back to the city of Ayodhya. When King Parikshit reached the palace, such was his love for the beautiful forest maiden that he shut himself with her inside his own private rooms and would not receive any of his ministers or his officers of state. The chief minister, fearing for the safety of the kingdom, made secret enquiries of the women who waited on the new queen and asked them what kind of a woman she was. "O minister," said the palace women, "we do not ourselves know what sort of a woman she is. In beauty no maiden equals her. But she has exacted a strange promise from our lord, namely, that he should never allow her to look at water on the ground. Beyond this we know nothing." The chief minister went home. Next morning he gathered labourers together, and made a beautiful pleasure garden not far from the city. In it he planted noble trees