--Do you understand the meaning of the words?
KING [_smiling_].--She means to reprove me, because I once paid her
great attention, and have lately deserted her for the queen Vasumati.
Go, my dear fellow, and tell Hansapadika from me that I take her
delicate reproof as it is intended.
MATHAVYA.--Very well. [_Rising from his seat_.] But stay--I don't much
relish being sent to bear the brunt of her jealousy. The chances are
that she will have me seized by the hair of the head and beaten to a
jelly. I would as soon expose myself, after a vow of celibacy, to the
seductions of a lovely nymph, as encounter the fury of a jealous woman.
KING.--Go, go; you can disarm her wrath by a civil speech; but give her
my message.
MATHAVYA.--What must be must be, I suppose. [_Exit._
KING [_aside_].--Strange! that song has filled me with a most peculiar
sensation. A melancholy feeling has come over me, and I seem to yearn
after some long-forgotten object of affection. Singular, indeed! but,
Not seldom in our happy hours of ease,
When thought is still, the sight of some fair form,
Or mournful fall of music breathing low,
Will stir strange fancies, thrilling all the soul
With a mysterious sadness, and a sense
Of vague yet earnest longing.
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