KANWA.—Come, my beloved child, one parting embrace for me and for thy companions, and then we leave thee.
ŚAKOONTALÁ.—My father, must Priyamvadá and Anasúyá really return with you? They are very dear to me.
KANWA.—Yes, my child; they, too, in good time, will be given in marriage to suitable husbands. It would not be proper for them to accompany thee to such a public place. But Gautamí shall be thy companion.
ŚAKOONTALÁ [embracing him].—Removed from thy bosom, my beloved father, like a young tendril of the sandal-tree torn from its home in the western mountains,[[40]] how shall I be able to support life in a foreign soil?
KANWA.—Daughter, thy fears are groundless:—
Soon shall thy lord prefer thee to the rank
Of his own consort; and unnumbered cares
Befitting his imperial dignity
Shall constantly engross thee. Then the bliss
Of bearing him a son—a noble boy,
Bright as the day-star—shall transport thy soul
With new delights, and little shalt thou reck
Of the light sorrow that afflicts thee now
At parting from thy father and thy friends.
[Śakoontalá throws herself at her foster-father's feet.
KANWA.—Blessings on thee, my child! May all my hopes of thee be realized!
ŚAKOONTALÁ [approaching her friends].—Come, my two loved companions, embrace me—both of you together.
PRIYAMVADÁ AND ANASÚYÁ [embracing her].—Dear Śakoontalá, remember, if the King should by any chance be slow in recognizing you, you have only to show him this ring, on which his own name is engraved.