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82
Tales from Indian Mythology
Why are you wasting your time here? Have you finished with your hunting ?”
"Yes, for ever." He smiled at her seductively. "Then why not go back to your capital ?" . .
"Not without the one whose very presence is a perennial source of happiness."
"Oh, you are trying my own advice on me! How could you ever think of keeping me without marrying me? And you cannot marry me, because you do not know me."
"I need not know you. But you must become my queen.". "How absurd! What do you see in me?"
"It is something I have never seen in any other woman, and I cannot express it. Please do not reject me."
"You seem to be a fool and I do not think I shall have the patience to suffer you after marriage.”
"All men are fools, and women are to blame. But we realize that you are not only the cause of our foolishness but the cure too. That is why I seek your hand."
"I pity you."
"I can predict, your pity will soon turn into passion."
"Santanu, you are young and handsome. You rule a vast empire. You are descended of a most distinguished line of kings; one of them even ruled over the gods. And me! You do not know who my parents are, where I come from, who I am, you know nothing about me. How can you marry me? You will perhaps abandon me, when your subjects refuse to accept me as their queen. Then what will be my fate?”
"You say I do not know you. But you do not know me
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