On hearing this and considering the greatness of the oath, the wicked queen arose with a smile and resumed her royal attire, like a huntress who sets the snare on marking the chase.
Thinking her reconciled, the king spoke again in soft and winning accents, his whole body quivering with love: “Your heart’s desire, lady, has come to pass; there is joy and gladness in every house in the city; to-morrow I give Râma the rank of Regent; so, my love, make ready for the festival.” At the sound of these untoward words she sprang up with a bound, like an over-ripe gourd that bursts at a touch; with a smile on her lips, but with such secret pain at heart as a thief’s wife who dare not cry openly. The king could not penetrate her crafty schemes, for she had been tutored in every villainy by a master; and skilled as he was in statesmanship, the abyss of woman’s ways was more than he could fathom. Again she cried with a further show of hypocritical affection and a forced smile in her eyes and on her lips:
Thinking her reconciled, the king spoke again in soft and winning accents, his whole body quivering with love: “Your heart’s desire, lady, has come to pass; there is joy and gladness in every house in the city; to-morrow I give Râma the rank of Regent; so, my love, make ready for the festival.” At the sound of these untoward words she sprang up with a bound, like an over-ripe gourd that bursts at a touch; with a smile on her lips, but with such secret pain at heart as a thief’s wife who dare not cry openly. The king could not penetrate her crafty schemes, for she had been tutored in every villainy by a master; and skilled as he was in statesmanship, the abyss of woman’s ways was more than he could fathom. Again she cried with a further show of hypocritical affection and a forced smile in her eyes and on her lips: