PRIYAMVADÁ AND ANASÚYÁ
Alas! what are we to do? We are unused to such splendid decorations, and are at a loss how to arrange them. Our knowledge of painting must be our guide. We will dispose the ornaments as we have seen them in pictures.
[S']AKOONTALÁ
Whatever pleases you, dear girls, will please me. I have perfect confidence In your taste.
[They commence dressing her.
Enter KANWA, having just finished his ablutions.
KANWA.
This day my loved one leaves me, and my heart
Is heavy with its grief; the streams of sorrow,
Choked at the source, repress my faltering voice,
I have no words to speak; mine eyes are dimmed
By the dark shadows of the thoughts that rise
Within my soul. If such the force of grief
In an old hermit parted from his nursling,
What anguish must the stricken parent feel—
Bereft for ever of an only daughter.
[Advances towards [S']AKOONTALÁ