ing to fear from me, and I will be
thy father and thy mother till he returns to free thee in the morning.
So dry thy tears, and I will return to thee in a moment to make thee
laugh.

And he led me away out at the door, and shut it behind him. And he
said: Shall I tell thee the name of thy very pretty deposit? Dost thou
think I do not know what thou art endeavouring so clumsily to hide?
Nectar when she turns towards thee: poison when she turns away?

And as I started, staring at him in stupefaction, he said with a
laugh: Ha! thou hast heard it before? Didst thou not betray to me thy
secret unawares, repeating it before? What! dost thou not know, it is
the Queen's verse, which all the people in the city sing of every man
who dooms himself by becoming the Queen's lover? I could have told
thee, even without seeing Chaturika at all, that it was Tarawali
herself who was thy nectar, and is going to be thy poison; and well I
understand who is the friend or foe to whom thou art just about to go.
It is the Queen.

And he took me by both hands, and looked straight into my eyes. And he
said: Fool! and art thou actually hoping still for the nectar that is
gone? Thy hope will be in vain. I told thee, without naming her, to
hold her very cheap, if ever thou wouldst have her hold thee dear. It
was useless to restrain thee, for thou wouldst not have believed me,
no matter what I said. There was but a single chance. For the moment
that she sees that her fascination works, and that her lover lies
gazing without reason or senses at her terrible beauty, she is
satisfied, and throws him away: whereas had he only the strength to
resist it, she might against her will fall in love with him herself
for sheer exasperation at her impotence, in his case alone. But she
swept thee clean away like a straw in a flood, and thou art lost. Thou
hast been playing unaware with a queen-cobra, that has smitten thy
soul with the poisonous fascination of its magnificent hood and its
deadly eyes, and bitten thy heart with its venomed fang; and now all
remedies are worse than useless, and come too late. I can see death
written on thy brow, and almost smell its odour in the air. Beware of
Narasinha!

And he went in, and shut the door upon himself and Chaturika, leaving
me alone in the street.

XXIV

And I stood in the street, staring at the door as it shut behind him,
as motionless as a tree. And I murmured to myself: Nectar when she
turns towards thee: