And then, as the King seized the flower with avidity, and put it to his
lips, looking at her with longing eyes, she looked back at him for a
single instant with the shadow of a smile trembling on the very corner
of her lips: and then all at once, it vanished, and she dropped her
eyes, and just a very little colour came into her cheek. And so, for a
while, they remained silent; she with her eyes fixed upon the ground,
and he with his own fastened upon her face. And there was dead silence
in that arbour, just as if nobody was there. Only the humming of the
bees seemed as it were to murmur to them, like the echo of their own
thoughts, which neither dared to speak. And the wind sighed in the
valley, and died away, leaving behind it a silence greater than before,
in which they heard nothing but the beating of their own hearts.
And all at once, she rose abruptly from her basket, as if
half-frightened at the very silence, and moved away, a little way,
towards the edge of the abyss. And at that moment, the King suddenly
struck his hand upon his knee. And he exclaimed, Ha! so vehemently,
that she started, and turned and stood, looking at him, in alarm. And
she said, in a voice that faltered with timidity: What is the matter?
And the King exclaimed: Alas! dearest Guru, I have frightened thee.
And yet I think, that I shall frighten thee again, as often as I can,
so much does thy fear become thee. Then she said: But what caused thee
to exclaim? And he said: I have made a discovery. Then she said, with
a smile: And what hast thou discovered? And the King said: Alas! now
all thy beautiful timidity has flown away. And with reason: for thou
hast little indeed to fear, so long as I am near thee. Aye! woe to
whatever threatens thee, while I am by thy side! But as to my
discovery, it is, that thou art an impostor and a cheat.
And she looked at him, fixedly, turning just a little paler: and she
said: I do not understand. Then he said: Here all this while, I have
been before thee like a culprit, rated by thee for my opinion of thy
sex: and reduced to utter shame before thee, falsely representing
thyself to be a woman. And as I looked at thee, all at once, like a
sudden flash of lightning, the truth appeared: and now I know thee to
be a rogue, and a cheat, and not a woman after all. And now I am
redeemed, in my own eyes, and feel no longer any shame at being drawn
against my will to one who has absolutely no claim to be classed among
the sex.
And she laughed, as if with relief; and she said: What, then, am I, if
not a woman? And the King said: How can I tell? But doubtless thou
art some mountain incarnation of loveliness and fascination, distinct
and altogether different from the race of men and women, and peculiar
to thyself. And now I have a great mind to punish thee for thy
villainy, in falsely playing the woman for my confusion.
And she laughed again, softly, and said: What wilt thou do to me, to
punish me, for I am at thy mercy? And the King said: Thou speakest
truly: for see! I could crush thee to pieces with this hand, or throw
thee from the cliff. And yet, that were indeed a sin, and I should
resemble one placing his heel upon a flower. Nay, but I will presently
go to thy father, and bid him cast thee into prison, for luring to
destruction strangers that come by invitation to his capital, against
his own safe-conduct. And now I am sorely tempted to look upon thee as
a Yakshi, or a Rákshasi, devouring human bodies, and doubtless,
Yogeshwara is thy agent, who draws travellers to thy den, and I myself
thy victim, only the last of many, whose bones it may be lie scattered
at the foot of yonder cliff. And Yogeshwara said, within his ambush:
Now, without knowing it, he is getting very dangerously close to the
truth, and his words, undesignedly, will touch her to the quick.