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Anjana and Pavananjay
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where they could see everything clearly, and easily. Nobody could find out that they were hiding themselves there.
When Pavananjay saw Anjana his heart began to gallop like a flying horse. He kept gazing at her in complete forgetfulness. For a short while, even his heart stopped beating. The greatest beauty of the universe, Anjana was going to be his wife in a short time; and this thought made his heart dance in delight and elation like a gleeful peacock. He felt that she was one made but to love and he was elated by the thought that she was his chosen bride whose graceful smiles brightened the whole atmosphere.
Just then the conversation going on among Anjana's companions fell on his ears.
"Anjana! You are, indeed, fortunate in getting a heroic and graceful youth like Pavananjay for your husband”.
"Vasanta ! I have not come across anywhere in this world, a flatterer like you. I tell you except Vidyutprabha who is a Charamshariri and who will attain Nirvan in this life, none else can be a suitable husband to Anjana", Mishraka said speaking in the middle.
“What a mad creature you are! At least, be a simpleton. Ah! Why should our friend marry a man who is going to die soon. I wish to mention an important point. The husband should have a long span of life. Don't you realize this ?”
"Oh! What is the use of longevity? You are indeed a block-headed idiot! Otherwise, you would not have spoken in. this incoherent and senseless manner. Look here, "Nectar is only nectar even if it is a drop. But what is the use of poison even if we can get a large jug of it ?”
Anjana sat silently listening to the conversation that was going on between them. In a way, she had fallen into a strange mental conflict. She was unable to determine who was right of the two; whether Vasant was right or whether Mishraka was right. Nothing definite occurred to her. But at such a time as
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