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MADAN AND DHANADEVA
and were following us all the time Now, you are duly served. You should have known beforehand what you would get from an encounter with me”
"So saying, she caught the parrot and hurled it into a cage. Thus whatever little frecdom Dhanadeva bad was gobe.
"The younger wife praised highly the elder one Dhanadeva was passiog his days in the cage in grief and despair When the wives cooked food, they hanged the cage in the kitchen When they poured vegetable into the frying pan, 'they threatened the parrot that it would be treated like that
"Meanwhile, there started at Ratnapur an intensive search for Srimati's groom, who reportedly had disappeared. Search squads were sent in all directions, but no trace of him could be found One morning, Srimatı got a piece of verse which contained information to the effect that the man with whom Srimatı had been married was one Dhadadeya, son of Seth Dhadapati of Hasantipur Srimati passed on this information to her father, who now began to think of a plan to bring back bis son-in-law
"In the meantime, merchant Sagardatta was preparing to make a voyage to Hasantipur for business purposes. Sripunja considered it wise to avail of this opportunity He sent with him a costly ornament and request to his son-10-law to come and take his wife with him On crossing the sea Sagardatta arrived at Hasantipur. He called at the residence of Dhanadeva but he was not there His two wives informed him that he had gone abroad for business purposes
"Sagardatta said,
"Seth Sripudja of Ratnapur has sent an ornament for him and has requested him to meet him in that city."
“The two wives of Dhanadeva, who were very intelligent, said, '
"Our husband was himself very eager to go to Ratnapur, but he has gone abroad on an urgent business He has left , word with us that if anything comes from Ratoapur, we are
