poison when she turns away! So then, it is the
Queen's verse, sung of others and sung of me! And this was the meaning
all the time! And this is what Chaturika was thinking of, every time
she said it, laughing at me in her sleeve, as beyond a doubt she has
laughed at many another man before! And this is what the people say!
And all the time I thought myself exceptional, I was only being made a
fool, and one of a large number, and a laughing-stock for the whole
city, and branded, as it were, with ridicule and ignominy as a
plaything of the Queen, and going about unconsciously with her label
round my neck: Nectar when she turns towards thee: poison when she
turns away!

And suddenly, rage rushed into my heart in such a flood that it felt
as if it were about to burst. And from motionless that I was, I began
all at once to run in the direction of the palace, as though about to
wreak my vengeance on the Queen without waiting for a single instant.
And then I stopped abruptly and began to laugh. And I exclaimed: Am I
actually going mad, for as yet it is still day, and I cannot even get
into the garden till the sun has set. And after thinking for a moment,
I went away to the river bank to wait till the sun was down. And there
I threw myself down at full length upon the ground, with my chin upon
my hands.

And then, strange! as I lay, little by little my heart began to cool,
and all its fury ebbed gradually away. For as I thought of Tarawali,
it seemed as it were to say to me: I cannot find room, on second
thoughts, for any rage at all, since I belong absolutely to the Queen.
And all my rage turned slowly into such unutterable longing that her
image seemed to grow dim, seen through the mist of eyes that were
suffused with tears, as recollection brought her back to me saying:
This is how she looked when she saw thee first, and this again, is how
she lay in the swing, and this again, when she stood up before thee,
as a _cheti_, in the moonlit boat. And I exclaimed in desperation:
Alas! O Tarawali, must I then condemn thee, whether I will or no? For
they all say the same of thee, and as it might seem, it must be true,
and yet no matter, for I absolutely cannot either hate thee or
believe them, when I think of thee as I saw thee myself. And my heart
laughs in scorn at all the efforts of my reason, never wavering for an
instant from thy side, like an incorruptible ally, that cannot be
induced by any bribe whatever to abandon its al