following morning, she resolved that whether she could see her husband or not, she would surely put an end to her life before the next dawn. In the night, it seemed to Shaibalini that a lily of unspeakable beauty bloomed within her heart, and Chandra Shekhar was seated on it, in the contemplation of God; she herself was transformed into a bee, and was humming round his lotus feet.
The seventh night of her penance was as horribly dark and silent as the previous ones. In that dismal cave, Shaibalini lost her consciousness in the uninterrupted meditation of her lord. She saw visions of various descriptions. Once, it seemed to her, that she was thrown into the fearful abyss of hell, where innumerable snakes of inordinate lengths, with their hoods extended, began to coil round her body—they were, at times, rushing towards her, with their jaws wide open, to swallow her up, and their breaths, all coming together, resembled in their noise a strong gale. It seemed to Shaibalini that Chandra Shekhar appeared on the scene, and took his stand upon the expanded hood of a large snake; forthwith the serpents vanished away like the receding waters of an ebbing tide. Sometimes, she saw a
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