Page:The Enchanted Parrot.djvu/61

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THE ENCHANTED PARROT
57


willing to let him tie up the ox in his stable, he asked her to recommend him a lodging. So Gunadhya having settled himself and the ox started off to visit the object of his affections. He found her at home, and having spent the night at her house got up very early the next morning and carried off her anklet. Meanwhile a servant came by and seeing the ox tied up asked to whom it belonged. The woman who had lent Gunadhya the stable, knowing where the owner was gone maintained a discreet silence: for, it has been said —

" Loss of money ; sorrow of mind; domestic scandals; fraud; contempt; these are things that a wise man never talks about."

In the course of the day, Gunadhya, who had been gambling, and who had had exceedingly bad luck, met the damsel whose anklet he had stolen, as he was coming out of the gambling-house. She immediately seized hold of him, and being in her clutches, he shouted out, "Help — police — I am caught by a disreputable woman," and he made such a noise that she was forced to let him go. He then walked behind her calling her by all sorts of uncomplimentary epithets, until she was glad to take him down a back street, and give him her bracelet to keep him quiet. So —