d first seen
Kadali-Garbha, Dridha-Varman at once guessed that she was the lovely
woman. But he did not tell the barber so; for he was so proud of his
dear wife's beauty that he liked to hear her praised, and wanted the
man to go on talking about her. He just said: "What is she like? Is
she tall or short, fair or dark?" The barber answered the questions
readily. Then he went on to say that it was easy to see that the lady
was as clever as she was beautiful; for she knew not only all about
animals but also about plants. "Every day," he said, "she gathers
quantities of herbs, and I have been told she makes healing medicines
of them. Some even go so far as to say she also makes poisons. But,
for my part, I do not believe that; she is too beautiful to be wicked."

The king listened, and a tiny little doubt crept into his mind about
his wife. She had never told him about the herbs she gathered, although
she often chattered about her friends in the forest. Perhaps after
all it was not Kadali-Garbha the barber was talking about. He would
ask her if she knew anything about making medicines from herbs. He did
so when they were alone together, and she said at once, "Oh, yes! My
father taught me. But I have never made any since I was married."

"Are you sure?" asked the king; and she answered laughing, "Of course,
I am: how could I be anything but sure? I have no need to think of
medicine-making, now I am the queen."

Dridha-Varman said no more at the time. But he was troubled; and
when the barber came again, he began at once to ask about the woman
who had been seen in the woods. The wicked man was delighted, and
made up a long story. He said one of the waiting women had told him
of what she had seen. The woman, he said, had followed the lady home
one day, and that home was not far from the palace. She had seen her
bending over a fire above which hung a great sauce-pan full of water,
into which she flung some of the herbs she had gathered, singing as
she did so, in a strange language.

"Could it possibly be," thought the king, "that Kadali-Garbha had
deceived him? Was she perhaps a witch after all?" He remembered that he
really did not know who she was, or who her father was. He had loved
her directly he saw her, just because she was so beautiful. What was
he to do now? He was quite sure, from the description the barber had
given of the woman in the forest, that she was his wife. He would
watch her himself in future, and say n