[17] That is, marry her.

And he took her hand, as she lay in his arms, and touched it with his lips.

V.

And instantly, as though his kiss had been to her like sandal and like palm-leaf fans, she came back to herself.  And when she saw who held her, she started up, and stood, blushing the colour of her own lips, with eyes cast upon the ground.  And the King said:  O daughter, what is this?  Does it become a high caste maiden outwardly to exhibit her inward feelings, and abandon the straight line of virgin modesty by behaviour that betrays her heart?

And then, Yashowati sighed deeply.  And she looked for a while in silence, first at her father, and then at Aja:  and all at once, she stood erect, like one seized by sudden resolution, and she clapped her hands together, and exclaimed, in a voice that shook and quivered with emotion:  Ha! who can hide a forest fire by covering it over with a little straw, or what does maiden conduct matter, in the ruin of the three worlds!  Aye! the fire of grief consumed me, to see this noble son of a king, and to think that he escaped the desert only to meet his death from me.  Now has my punishment come upon me in the form of this tall and splendid youth.  For I grieved for the fate of my former suitors, and yet I saw them for all that go, one by one, to their useless doom, and still myself remained alive.  Long ago, beyond a doubt, I ought myself to have left the body, and perished of my own accord, rather than consent to live, the cause of death to so many others:  and by putting myself to death, I should have cut in two the fatal chain of their succession, and saved their lives by the substitute of my own.  And now, instead, I have been as it were their murderess, and a death to them all in female form.  And now the Deity has avenged them, by sending to me at last the God of Love in human shape, whose death will be a grief to me a hundred fold more awful than any death I could have died.  And I myself shall not survive him.  Then why waste time in chiding one who has but one more day to live?  For as soon as night arrives, he must go like the rest to meet his doom:  and certain it is, that I shall not live to see the sun rise again without him.

And as she spoke, they gazed at her, astonished.  For she seemed like one that has burst the bonds of all restraint, and thrown all consideration to the eight quarters of the world.  But as soon as she stopped, the old King uttered a doleful cry.  And he exclaimed:  Yashowati, O daughter, what words are these?  Is it any fault of thine that thou art beautiful?  And wilt thou talk of abandoning the body?  Then what will become of the family, of which thou art the only hope?  But Aja laughed:  and he said:  O lovely lady, waste not thy grief on such a thing as I am:  and O father-in-law, cease from bewailing calamities that are only the shadows of thy own fears cast upon the dark curtain of the future.  For many are they that are doomed to die, yet never perish after all.  And I have not escaped the sand, to perish lightly in any other way.  Be assured that the lamp of thy race is burning still with a steady flame, not to be extinguished by a little puff of wind.  To-morrow we will laugh together over these idle apprehensions, which the rising sun will dissipate together with the mists of night.