SUDARSHANA. What, Kanchi had to make the King understand all this! Woe is me, to-night’s festival has opened wide for me the doors of ignominy and shame! What else could I expect? Leave me alone, Rohini; I want solitude for a time. [_ROHINI goes out._] A great blow has shattered my pride to atoms to-day, and yet . . . I cannot efface from my mind that beautiful, fascinating figure! No pride is left me-I am beaten, vanquished, utterly helpless. . . . I cannot even turn away from him. Oh, how the wish comes back to me again and again—to ask that garland of Rohini! But what would she think! Rohini!
SUDARSHANA. What reward do you deserve for your services to-day?
ROHINI. Nothing from you—but I had my reward from the King as it should be.
SUDARSHANA. That is no free gift, but an extortion, of reward. I do not like to see you put on what was given in so indifferent a manner. Take it off—I give you my bracelets if you leave it here. Take these bracelets, and go now. [_ROHINI goes out._] Another defeat! I should have thrown this necklace away,—but I could not! It is pricking me as if it were a garland of thorns—but I cannot throw it away. This is what the god of the festival has brought me to-night—this necklace of ignominy and shame!
[_GRANDFATHER near the door of the Pleasure House. A Company of Men_]
GRANDFATHER. Have you had enough of it, friends?
FIRST MAN. Oh, more than that, Grandpa. Just see, they have made me red all over. None has escaped.
[_Author’s note:_ During the spring festival in India people throw red powder on each other. In this play this red powder has been taken to be the symbol of the passion of love.]
GRANDFATHER. No? Did they throw the red dust on the Kings too?
SECOND MAN. But who could approach them? They were all secure inside the enclosures.
GRANDFATHER. So they have escaped you! Could you not throw the least bit of colour on them? You should have forced your way there.
THIRD MAN. My dear old man, they have a different sort of red specially to themselves. Their eyes are red: the turbans of their guards and retinue are red too. And the latter flourished their swords about so much that a little more nearness on our part would have meant a lavish display of the fundamental red colour.