Page:Vikram and the vampire; or, Tales of Hindu devilry (IA vikramvampireort00burtrich).pdf/317

 'Overwhelmed with grief, thou most guileless Yuva Raja (young prince)!' ejaculated the Vampire.

Raja Vikram reproved his son for talking about thing of which he knew nothing, and the Baital resumed.

They turned pale and wept, and they wrung their hands, and they begged and argued and refused obedience. In fact they did everything to make the king revoke his order.

'The virtue of a woman,' quoth Sita, 'is destroyed through too much beauty; the religion of a Brahman is impaired by serving kings; a cow is spoiled by distant pasturage, wealth is lost by committing injustice, and prosperity departs from the house where promises are not kept.'

The Raja highly applauded the sentiment, but was firm as a rock upon the subject of Sita marrying the treasurer's son.

Chandraprabha observed that her royal father, usually so conscientious, must now be acting from interested motives, and that when selfishness sways a man, right becomes left and left becomes right, as in the reflection of a mirror.

Subichar approved of the comparison; he was not quite so resolved, but he showed no symptoms of changing his mind.

Then the Brahman's daughter-in-law, with the view of gaining time — a famous stratagem amongst feminines — said to the Raja: 'Great king, if you are