Page:The Enchanted Parrot.djvu/57

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE ENCHANTED PARROT
53


flirtations were the talk of the whole place, but her husband was so devoted to her that he would not listen to a word against her. For it has been said —

" Friends can see only virtues: enemies only vices."

One day her father-in-law found her asleep with one of her admirers, and without waking her he took off one of her anklets. Soon after this she woke up and found the anklet was gone, so she said nothing about it, but went straight off and joined her husband who was in bed. In the middle of the night she woke him up and said: " Your father, thinking I was asleep, came in and stole one of the anklets off my feet. This is most insulting ! who ever heard of a father-in-law stealing his daughter- in-law's anklets? " So Gunakara got up in a great rage and fell foul of his father for having stolen his wife's anklet. " Well," replied the father, " the truth is, that I found your wife asleep with some one else, and I took the anklet off her foot." Sridevyâ answered, "This is absolutely untrue, for at this particular time I was with my husband. I am perfectly willing to prove the truth of what I say by the ordeal." Now this was the ordeal. In a village a short distance off, lived a famous Yaksha : suspected persons were