away the animals of a burning forest, prompted her to desert Pratap's company. It was only for fear of life that Shaibalini resolved to forsake society with all its joys and pleasures. She had no longer any claim to happiness, love and friendship, or even to her most beloved Pratap. She had no hope for all these things—even the very desire of obtaining them in life was to be abandoned. Who can give up the desire and yet be with the object of craving? What thirsty traveller, in a bleak desert, can pass on, with parched lips, without drinking from the pure transparent water, he comes across in his way? Rapacious greed and inordinate desire, in respect of their influences on human mind, can be rightly compared with the dreadful and all-devouring sea-devil, as described by Victor-Hugo. This horrible animal lives in water which equals even crystals in transparency, and where stones of different colours and varieties sparkle and glow with a lustre all their own; innumerable priceless pearls and corals also illumine the beautiful habitation of this dreadful monster. It is dreadful because it sucks human blood. The unfortunate man who goes near it, being fascinated by the beautiful
160
