I will tell him--[_Aside_ to have
nothing more to do with this courtezan. [_Exit._

_Vasantasena._ Take these jewels, girl. Let us go and bring cheer
to Charudatta.

_Maid._ But mistress, see! An untimely storm is gathering.

_Vasant._

The clouds may come, the rain may fall forever,
The night may blacken in the sky above;
For this I care not, nor I will not waver;
My heart is journeying to him I love. 33

Take the necklace, girl, and come quickly. [_Exeunt omnes._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 50: A name of Kama, the god of love.]

[Footnote 51: Used as a refrigerant.]

[Footnote 52: That is to say. You are now a legal wife, while I am still
a courtesan.]

[Footnote 53: "Rams in India are commonly trained to fight." WILSON.]

[Footnote 54: Virtuous souls after death may become stars; but when
their stellar happiness equals the sum of their acquired merit, they
fall to earth again.]

[Footnote 55: The choristers of heaven.]

[Footnote 56: The nymphs of heaven.]

[Footnote 57: The god of wealth.]

[Footnote 58: This shows the excellence of Vasantasena's education.
Women, as an almost invariable rule, speak Prakrit.]

[Footnote 59: A gesture of respectful entreaty.]

ACT THE FIFTH

THE STORM

[_The love-lorn Charudatta appears, seated._]

_Charudatta._ [_Looks up._]

An untimely storm[60] is gathering. For see!
The peacocks gaze and lift their fans on high;
The swans forget their purpose to depart;
The untimely storm afflicts the blackened sky,
And the wistful lover's heart. 1

And again:

The wet bull's belly wears no deeper dye;
In flashing lightning's golden mantle clad,
While cranes, his buglers, make the heaven glad,
The cloud, a second Vishnu,[61] mounts the sky. 2

And yet again:

As dark as Vishnu's form, with circling cranes
To trumpet him, instead of bugle strains,
And garmented in lightning's silken robe.
Approaches now the harbinger of rains. 3

When lightning's lamp is lit, the silver river
Impetuous falls from out the cloudy womb;
Like severed lace from heaven-cloaking gloom,
It gleams an instant, then is gone forever. 4

Like shoaling fishes, or like dolphins shy,
Or like to swans, toward heaven's vault that fly,
Like paire