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Twenty-Two Goblins by Unknown
page 94 of 147 (63%)
But the bashful princess remained silent with downcast eyes. Then
the friend said: "She is bashful. Accept a hospitable greeting from
me." And she gave him a garland.

Cloud-chariot, far gone in love, took the garland and put it around
Sandal's neck. And the loving, sidelong glance which she gave
him seemed like another garland of blue lotuses. So they pledged
themselves without speaking a word.

Then a serving-maid came and said to the princess: "Princess, your
mother remembers you. Come at once." And she went slowly,
after drawing from her lover's face a passionate glance, for which
Love's arrow had wedged a path. And Cloud-chariot went to the
hermitage, thinking of her; while she, sick with the separation
from the lord of her life, saw her mother, then tottered to her bed
and fell upon it. Her eyes were blinded as if by smoke from the fire
of love within her, her limbs tossed in fever, she shed tears. And
though her friends anointed her with sandal and fanned her with
lotus-leaves, she found no rest on her bed or in the lap of a friend
or on the ground.

Then when the day fled away with the passionate red twilight, and
the moon drew near to kiss the face of the laughing East, she
despaired of life, and her modesty would not let her send a
message in spite of all her love. But somehow she lived through
the night. And Cloud-chariot too was in anguish at the separation.
Even in his bed he was fallen into the hand of Love. Though his
passion was so recent, he had already grown pale. Though shame
kept him silent, his looks told of the pangs of love. And so he
passed the night.
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