--I did; but when she saw that I had a despatch in my hand for
your Majesty, she turned back.
KING.--The Queen has too much regard for propriety to interrupt me when
I am engaged with state-affairs.
VETRAVATI.--So please your Majesty, your Prime Minister begs
respectfully to inform you that he has devoted much time to the
settlement of financial calculations, and only one case of importance
has been submitted by the citizens for his consideration. He has made a
written report of the facts, and requests your Majesty to cast your eyes
over it.
KING.--Hand me the paper.
[_Vetravati delivers it_.
KING [_reading_].--What have we here? "A merchant named Dhanamitra,
trading by sea, was lost in a late shipwreck. Though a wealthy trader,
he was childless; and the whole of his immense property becomes by law
forfeited to the King." So writes the minister. Alas! alas! for his
childlessness. But surely, if he was wealthy, he must have had many
wives. Let an inquiry be made whether any one of them is expecting to
give birth to a child.
VETRAVATI.--They say that his wife, the daughter of the foreman of a
guild belonging to Ayodhya, has just completed the ceremonies usual upon
such expectations.
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