‘Either hold your tongue or go on with your story,’ cried the warrior king, in whose mind these remarks awakened disagreeable family reflections.
‘Hi! hi! hi!’ laughed the demon; ‘I will obey your majesty, and make Madan-manjari, the misanthropical jay, proceed.’
Yes, she loved the hunchback; and how wonderful is our love! quoth the jay. A light from heaven which rains happiness on this dull, dark earth! A spell falling upon the spirit, which reminds us of a higher existence! A memory of bliss! A present delight! An earnest of future felicity! It makes hideousness beautiful and stupidity clever, old age young and wickedness good, moroseness amiable, and low-mindedness magnanimous, perversity pretty and vulgarity piquant. Truly it is sovereign alchemy and excellent flux for blending contradictions is our love, exclaimed the jay.
And so saying, she cast a triumphant look at the parrot, who only remarked that he could have desired a little more originality in her remarks.
For some months (resumed Madan-manjari), the bride and the bridegroom lived happily together in Hemgupt’s house. But it is said:
Never yet did the tiger become a lamb;
and the hunchback felt that the edge of his passions again wanted blunting. He reflected, ‘Wisdom is exemption from attachment, and affection for children, wife, and home.’ Then he thus addressed my poor young mistress:
‘I have been now in thy country some years, and I have heard no tidings of my own family, hence my mind is sad. I have told thee everything about myself; thou must now ask thy mother leave for me to go to my own city, and, if thou wishest, thou mayest go with me.’
Ratnawati lost no time in saying to her mother, ‘My husband wishes to visit his own country; will you so arrange that he may not be pained about this matter?’
The mother went to her husband, and said, ‘Your son-in-law desires leave to go to his own country.’