Putraka’s voice was so gentle, and it seemed to Patala so wonderful that a man could fly and make himself invisible, that she was full of curiosity to see him and find out all about him.  So she gave her consent, and immediately afterwards the young king stood within the room, looking so noble and so handsome that she too fell in love at first sight.  Putraka told her all about his life and adventures, which interested her very much.  She was glad, she said, that he was a king; but she would have loved him just as well, whoever he might have been.

After a long talk, Patala begged him to leave her for fear her attendants should discover him and tell her father about him.  “My father would never let me marry you,” she declared, “unless you were to come with many followers as a king to ask my hand; and how can you do that when you are only a wandering exile?”

25.  Was there any reason to fear that Putraka would be discovered when he could make himself invisible at any moment?

26.  What do you think would have been the right thing for Putraka and Patala to do when they found out that they loved each other?

CHAPTER XIV

It was very difficult to persuade Putraka to go, but at last he flew away.  Every night after that, however, he came to see Patala, spending the days sometimes in one place, sometimes in another, and using his magic bowl to supply himself with food.  Alas, he forgot all about the dear old woman to whom he owed all his happiness, and she slowly gave up hope of ever seeing him again.  He might quite easily have flown to her cottage and cheered her with his presence; but he was so wrapped up in his love for Patala that everything else went out of his head.  This selfishness on his part presently got him into serious trouble, for he became careless about making himself invisible when he flew up to the princess’ window.  So that one night he was discovered by a guardian of the palace.  The matter was at once reported to the king, who could not at first believe such a thing was possible.  The man must have seen a big bird, that was all.  The king, however, ordered one of his daughter’s ladies to keep watch every night in an ante-room, leaving the door open with the tapestry, in which there was a slit, drawn carefully over it, and to come and tell him in the morning if she had seen or heard anything unusual.

Now the lady chosen loved the princess, and, like many of her fellow-attendants, thought it was very cruel of the king to punish his own child for being so beautiful, by shutting her up as he did.  It so happened that the very first night she was on guard, Putraka had flown a very, very long way, not noticing where he was going, because he was thinking so earnestly of Patala.  When at last he flew in at her window, he was so weary that he sank down on a couch and fell fast asleep.  The princess too was tired, because she had lain awake talking to her lover so many nights running that she had had hardly any rest.  So when the lady peeped through the slit in the tapestry, there, by the light of the night lamp, she saw the young king lying unconscious, whilst the princess also was asleep.