ng to himself: Can I really be only
the last of many lovers? And all the while, Natabhrukuti watched him,
devouring him as it were with her eyes. And at last, she said again:
Sweet boy, thou art too young and too honest to cope with women, who
were framed by the Creator to deceive. But Aja said angrily: Thou art
thyself a woman, seeking at this very moment to deceive me: and as for
thy age, it is less than my own. And she said: Nay, nay: I am older, for
I am wiser than thyself. For when I see my husband, I remember him, but
me thou hast utterly forgotten, thy true and only wife. Ah! foolish one,
thou hast forgotten. And thou resemblest one, who casts away a costly
jewel, for the sake of a bit of glass, shining only in the sunlight of
thy ignorance, and trodden by the foot of every passing stranger. What!
can I do nothing to rouse thy recollection? Look at me well! look hard,
and it may be, something of me will touch as it were a chord in thy
soul.

And she came up close to him, so that the warmth and fragrance of her
beauty enveloped him like an atmosphere of intoxication. And she joined
her hands, looking up into his face, as it were compelling his reluctant
admiration by her humble submission to his will. And she said: Hast
thou, hast thou indeed forgotten all? And as he gazed at her, two huge
drops of crystal welled into her eyes, and hung poised before they fell
on the net of her long dark lashes. And she said: Thou sayest, I am
seeking to deceive thee. I love thee, and where is the deception? Is it
not rather thou that art the deceiver in this matter? Is it any fault
of mine if another has stepped in to defraud me of thyself? Or am I to
be blamed, if thy beauty still beguiles me as it did long ago? And yet,
dost thou accuse me as if I were a criminal? O blue black bee, what is
this behaviour, that thou seekest as it were to pick a quarrel with the
poor red lotus who loves thee but too well? And she smiled through her
tears, and exclaimed: Ah I but in spite of thee, I will adore thee,
whether thou wilt or no. Ha! and I will compel thee to remember, and
force my way through every barrier and obstacle till I reach the
recollection[26] in the bottom of thy heart. O canst thou not remember
the days of long ago, when my now despised beauty was a joy to thee, and
my hair a very net to snare thy willing soul, and my eyes were more to
thee than any diamonds, and these two arms were thy prison and thy
chain, and this agitate