In the royal gardens stands an asoka tree whose bloom is retarded.  To hasten it, the tree must be touched by the decorated foot of a beautiful woman.  The queen was to have done this, but an accident has injured her foot and she has asked Malavika to take her place.  While the king and his adviser are walking in the garden they see Malavika all alone.  Her love has made her wither like a jasmine wreath blighted by frost.  “How long,” she laments, “will the god of love make me endure this anguish, from which there is no relief?” One of the queen’s maids presently arrives with the paints and rings for decorating Malavika’s feet.  The king watches the proceeding, and after the maiden has touched the tree with her left foot he steps forward, to the confusion of the two women.  He tells Malavika that he, like the tree, has long had no occasion to bloom, and begs her to make him also, who loves only her, happy with the nectar of her touch.  Unluckily this whole scene has also been secretly witnessed by Iravati, the second of the king’s wives, who steps forward at this moment and sarcastically tells Malavika to do his bidding.  The viduschaka tries to help out his confused master by pretending that the meeting was accidental, and the king humbly calls himself her loving husband, her slave, asks her pardon, and prostrates himself; but she exclaims:  “These are not the feet of Malavika whose touch you desire to still your longing,” and departs.  The king feels quite hurt by her action.  “How unjust,” he exclaims,

“is love!  My heart belongs to the dear girl, therefore Iravati did me a service by not accepting my prostration.  And yet it was love that led her to do that!  Therefore I must not overlook her anger, but try to conciliate her.”

Iravati goes straight to the first queen to report on their common husband’s new escapade.  When the king hears of this he is astonished at “such persistent anger,” and dismayed on learning further that Malavika is now confined in a dungeon, under lock and key, which cannot be opened unless a messenger arrives with the queen’s own seal ring.  But once more the viduschaka devises a ruse which puts him in possession of the seal ring.  The maiden is liberated and brought to the water-house, whither the king hastens to meet her with the viduschaka, who soon finds an excuse for going outside with the girl’s companion, leaving the lovers alone.  “Why do you still hesitate, O beauty, to unite yourself with one who has so long longed for your love?” exclaims the king; and Malavika answers:  “What I should like to do I dare not; I fear the queen.”  “You need not fear her.”  “Did I not see the master himself seized with fear when he saw the queen?” “Oh, that,” replies the king, “was only a matter of good breeding, as becomes princes.  But you, with the long eyes, I love so much that my life depends on the hope that you love me too.  Take me, take me, who long have loved you.”  With these words he embraces her, while she tries to resist.  “How charming is the coyness of young girls!” he exclaims.