thavaraka._ Everything will be replaced--except me.

_Sansthanaka._ Let the whole thing go to pieces. Drive in over the
wall.

_Sthavaraka._ Then break, cart, break with your driver. There will
be another cart. I must go and present myself to my master. [_He
drives in._] What! not broken? Master, here is your cart.

_Sansthanaka._ The bullocks not shplit in two? and the ropes not
killed? and you too not killed?

_Sthavaraka._ No, sir.

_Sansthanaka._ Come, shir. Let's look at the cart. You are my
teacher, shir, my very besht teacher. You are a man I reshpect,
my intimate friend, a man I delight to honor. Do you enter the
cart firsht.

_Courtier._ Very well. [_He starts to do so._]

_Sansthanaka._ Not much! Shtop! Is thish your father's cart, that
you should enter it firsht? I own thish cart. I 'll enter it firsht.

_Courtier._ I only did what you said.

[119.8. S.

_Sansthanaka._ Even if I do shay sho, you ought to be polite enough
to shay "After you, mashter."

_Courtier._ After you, then.

_Sansthanaka._ Now I 'll enter. Sthavaraka, my little shon, my
shlave, turn the cart around.

_Sthavaraka._ [_Does so._] Enter, master.

_Sansthanaka._ [_Enters and looks about, then hastily gets out in terror,
and falls on the courtier's neck._] Oh, oh, oh! You're a dead
man! There's a witch, or a thief, that's sitting and living in my
bullock-cart. If it's a witch, we 'll both be robbed. If it's a thief,
we 'll both be eaten alive.

_Courtier._ Don't be frightened. How could a witch travel in a
bullock-cart? I hope that the heat of the midday sun has not
blinded you, so that you became the victim of an hallucination
when you saw the shadow of Sthavaraka with the smock on it.

_Sansthanaka._ Sthavaraka, my little shon, my shlave, are you
alive?

_Sthavaraka._ Yes, sir.

_Sansthanaka._ But shir, there's a woman sitting and living in the
bullock-cart. Look and shee!

_Courtier._ A woman?

Then let us bow our heads at once and go,
Like steers whose eyes the falling raindrops daze;
In public spots my dignity I show;
On high-born dames I hesitate to gaze. 15

_Vasantasena._ [_In amazement. Aside._] Oh, oh! It is that thorn in
my eye, the king's brother-in-law. Alas! the danger is great. Poor
woman! My coming hither proves as fruitless as the sowing of a
handful of seeds on salty soil. What shall I do now?

_Sansthanaka._ Thish old shervant is afraid and he won't loo