f such a
one as me, even in a dream, as an object of affection? And yet, if
not, how is her behaviour to be explained? For I might perhaps believe
that she was merely playing with me for her own amusement, were she
any other woman than exactly the one she is: but as it is, no one
could believe it that had ever seen her for an instant: and she needs
no other argument in her defence than every glance at her supplies.
And it may be, after all, that she took up with Narasinha merely out
of pique, at being so unceremoniously slighted and cast off as a thing
of no value by her booby of a husband, and, as it were, also out of
gratitude to find herself appreciated at her true value, which she
must very well understand notwithstanding all her own beautiful
self-depreciation, which is an extra charm enhancing all her other
charms: and afterwards, it may be, she has changed her mind, as women
do, about Narasinha, without being willing to admit it, even to
herself; and come, only the other day, suddenly on me. Aye! beyond a
doubt, this would be the true conclusion, and the answer to the
riddle, but for one consideration that makes it utterly impossible,
that I am only I.

And so as I debated with myself, all at once I heard my own name
called aloud in the air. And I looked up, and lo! there was my old
friend Haridasa,[26] on a camel. And he said: Ha! Shatrunjaya, art
thou thyself indeed, or another exactly like thee, or hast thou lost
thy senses and thy ears? For here have I been calling to thee, all
along the street, without succeeding in waking thee from thy dream,
till now. And what can it be, that can so fill thy mind as to stop up
all its entrances?

And I exclaimed in delight: Ah! Haridasa, thou art come in the very
nick of time, the very man, at this moment, that I need most. Get off
thy camel, for a while, and come and sit beside me, and find me, if
thou canst, an answer to a question that I cannot find myself. And so
he did. And as soon as we were seated by the roadside, I said to him:
Haridasa, listen. Thou knowest me well. Now tell me thy opinion: am I
one that a woman might choose out of many for a lover?

And Haridasa began to laugh. And he looked at me shrewdly, and he
said: Aha! Shatrunjaya the lute-player, so this was thy preoccupation?
Art thou one to catch a woman's fancy? O Shatrunjaya, why not? For art
thou not a musician, famous in the world, and a man among men, into
the bargain? All women love a giant, su