hiding behind her as a screen, issued orders that I was to be shut out
of her garden and banished from her presence, whether she would or
not. And my heart swelled with resentment and indignation, and I said:
O Tarawali, Narasinha may shut his eyes, or not, as he chooses, but I
am very different, and will not take orders as to thee, from him or
anybody else. Thou art my mistress and not his. And she shook her
head, and she said, very gently: Nay, thou dost not understand. I am
not anybody's mistress. I am my own mistress, and do exactly as I
please, whether he or any other like it or not. There lives not the
man who shall say to me: Here is a line, and over it, thou shalt not
step. And whatever I do, I do, of my own free will, not of obedience,
but of my own consent. I have given my body and soul away, but my will
is mine.

And I said with emphasis: I have bought thee at the price of a
kingdom, and become a beggar on thy account, and mine thou art, by
right. Dost thou actually tell me, I am to lose my kingdom, and get
absolutely nothing in exchange? And she said, always with the same
sweet and quiet voice, whose tone never varied, adding by the very
charm of its gentle music fire to the exasperating sting that lay in
the words it said: I have nothing at all to do with thy kingdom, and
if thou hast lost it, I am very sorry: yet blame not me for its loss,
but thyself alone, for the choice was thine. And moreover, I am not
for sale. I give myself, or part of me, to anyone I choose. It is for
dealers and merchants to bargain. I never bargain. I am a Queen. And I
said in wrath: Thou shalt give thyself no longer to anyone but me.
Thou hast already cheated me by making me the loser in a bargain where
I lose all, gaining nothing in exchange. But I will have either my
kingdom or thyself: and if not the kingdom, which is gone, then thee.
And she said quietly: Say nothing rash, or harsh, or ill-considered.
It is not I that have cheated thee out of thy kingdom: it is no one
but thyself.

And I exclaimed: What! didst thou not cheat me by telling me thou
didst love me long ago? And she broke in instantly, and said: I said
nothing of the kind: it is thy own imagination. I never told thee
anything so false as that I loved thee. And I said: Nay, not in words,
but in a language deeper far than any words. What woman ever gave a
man what thou hast given me, without telling him very plainly, he was
the object of her love? And she said qu