for which I gave the offering will of a surety turn out well. You may go without fear with this traveller. But I am well aware of the character and customs of people of the world. If you go in close companionship with this man, he will be put to shame in society for taking an unknown young woman with him. You, too, will be looked down upon. You have told me that he is a Brahman youth, and I have seen the sacrificial thread on his neck. If he marries you, and takes you, then all will be proper; otherwise, I too could not advise you to go with him."
"Marries me!" Kopal-Kundala uttered this word very softly, and said, "I have heard the word marriage from your mouth, but I don't exactly know what it is. What shall I have to do?"
The Adhikari said with a smile, "For women marriage is the only stepping-stone to religion. For this reason a wife is called Shaha-dharmini.[1] Even the mother of the world is the wife of Siva."
- ↑ Shaha-dharmini. Literally, she who worships along with her husband. Now-a-days the wife may almost be called the
