Page:Sacontala (Jones 1870).djvu/92

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90
SACONTALA;

seek not eagerly thy own gratifications.—By such behaviour young women become respectable; but perverse wives are the bane of a family.—What thinks Gautamí of this lesson ?

Gaut. It is incomparable:—my child, be sure to remember it.

Can. Come, my beloved girl, give a parting embrace to me and to thy tender companions.

Sac. Must Anusúyá and Priyamvadá return to the hermitage?

Can. They too, my child, must be suitably married; and it would not be proper for them yet to visit the city; but Gautamí will accompany thee.

Sac. [Embracing him.] Removed from the bosom of my father, like a young sandal tree, rent from the hills of Malaya, how shall I exist in a strange soil?

Can. Be not so anxious. When thou shalt be mistress of a family, and consort of a king, thou mayst, indeed, be occasionally perplexed by the intricate affairs which arise from exuberance of wealth, but wilt then think lightly of this transient affliction, especially when thou shalt have a son (and a son thou wilt have) bright as the rising day-star.—Know also with certainty that the body must necessarily, at the appointed moment, be separated from the soul: who, then, can be immoderately afflicted, when the weaker bounds of extrinsick relations are loosened, or even broken.