ss, the elephant perfume is so strong that I
can't tell for sure.

_Vasantasena._ Then look at the name.

_Karnapuraka._ Here is the name. You may read it, mistress. [_He
hands her the mantle._]

_Vasantasena._ [_Reads._] Charudatta. [_She seizes the mantle eagerly
and wraps it about her._]

_Madanika._ The mantle is very becoming to her, Karnapuraka.

_Karnapuraka._ Oh, yes, the mantle is becoming enough.

_Vasantasena._ Here is your reward, Karnapuraka. [_She gives him
a gem._]

_Karnapuraka._ [_Taking it and bowing low._] Now the mantle is
most wonderfully becoming.

_Vasantasena._ Karnapuraka, where is Charudatta now?

_Karnapuraka._ He started to go home along this very street.

_Vasantasena._ Come, girl! Let us go to the upper balcony and see
Charudatta. [_Exeunt omnes._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 39: Perhaps masseur would be more accurate.]

[Footnote 40: That of Mathura, the keeper of the gambling house.]

[Footnote 41: A humorously exaggerated reference to Indian ascetic
practices.]

[Footnote 42: See note on page 33.]

[Footnote 43: The shampooer, whose transformation is astonishingly
sudden.]

ACT THE THIRD

THE HOLE IN THE WALL

[_Enter Charudatta's servant, Vardhamanaka._]

_Vardh._

A master, kindly and benevolent,
His servants love, however poor he be.
The purse-proud, with a will on harshness bent,
Pays service in the coin of cruelty. 1

And again:

A bullock greedy for a feast of corn
You never can prevent;
A wife who wants her lord to wear a horn
You never can prevent;
A man who loves to gamble night and morn
You never can prevent;
And blemishes[44] that with a man are born
You never can prevent. 2

It is some time since Charudatta went to the concert. It is past
midnight, and still he does not come. I think I will go into the
outer hall and take a nap. [_He does so._]

* * * * *

[_Enter Charudatta and Maitreya._]

_Charudatta._ How beautifully Rebhila sang! The lute is indeed a
pearl, a pearl not of the ocean.

Gently the anxious lover's heart befriending,
Consoling when true lovers may not meet,
To love-lorn souls the dearest comforts sending,
It adds to sweetest love its more of sweet. 3

_Maitreya._ Well then, let's go into the house.

_Charudat