Now amongst these ladies was a very wise woman who could see what was going to happen; and she knew that there would be troubles for the young queen in the palace, because many would be jealous of her happiness.  She was very much taken with the beautiful innocent girl, and wanted to help her so much that she managed to get her alone for a few minutes, when she said to her:  “I want you to promise me something.  It is to take this packet of mustard seeds, hide it in the bosom of your dress, and when you ride to the palace with your husband, strew the seed along the path as you go.  You know how quickly mustard grows.  Well, it will spring up soon; and if you want to come home again, you can easily find the way by following the green shoots.  Alas, I fear they will not have time to wither before you need their help!”

Kadali-Garbha laughed when the wise woman talked about trouble coming to her.  She was so happy, she could not believe she would want to come home again so soon.  “My father can come to me when I want him,” she said.  “I need only tell my dear husband to send for him.”  But for all that she took the packet of seeds and hid it in her dress.

7.  Would you have done as the wise woman told you if you had been the bride?

8.  Ought Kadali-Garbha to have told the king about the mustard seed?

CHAPTER V

After the wedding was over, the king mounted his beautiful horse, and bending down, took his young wife up before him.  Holding her close to him with his right arm, he held the reins in his left hand; and away they went, soon leaving all the attendants far behind them, the queen scattering the mustard seed as she had promised to do.  When they arrived at the palace there were great rejoicings, and everybody seemed charmed with the queen, who was full of eager interest in all that she saw.

For several weeks there was nobody in the wide world so happy and light-hearted as the bride.  The king spent many hours a day with her, and was never tired of listening to all she had to tell him about her life in the forest with her father.  Every day he gave her some fresh proof of his love, and he never refused to do anything she asked him to do.  But presently a change came.  Amongst the ladies of the court there was a beautiful woman, who had hoped to be queen herself, and hated Kadali-Garbha so much that she made up her mind to get her into disgrace with the king.  She asked first one powerful person and then another to help her; but everybody loved the queen, and the wicked woman began to be afraid that those she had told about her wish to harm her would warn the king.  So she sought about for some one who did not know Kadali-Garbha, and suddenly remembered a wise woman named Asoka-Mala, who lived in a cave not far from the town, to whom many people used to go for advice in their difficulties.  She went to this woman one night, and told her a long story in which there was not one word of truth.  The young queen, she said, did not really love the king; and with the help of her father, who was a magician, she meant to poison him.  How could this terrible thing be prevented, she asked; and she promised that if only Asoka-Mala would help to save Dridha-Varman, she would give her a great deal of money.