But sigh as she would, the King came never. All
night he lay in the arms of Dwaymenau, all day he sat beside her,
whether at the great water pageants or at the festival when the
dancing-girls swayed and postured before him in her gilded
chambers. Even when be went forth to hunt the tiger, she went
with him as far as a woman may go, and then stood back only
because he would not risk his jewel, her life. So all that was
evil in the man she fostered and all that was good she cherished
not at all, fearing lest he should return to the Queen. At her
will he had consulted the Hlwot Daw, the Council of the
Woon-gyees or Ministers, concerning a divorce of the Queen, but
this they told him could not be since she had kept all the laws
of Manu, being faithful, noble and beautiful and having borne him
a son.
For, before the Indian woman had come to the King, the Queen had
borne a son, Ananda, and he was pale and slender and the King
despised him because of the wiles of Dwaymenau, saying he was fit
only to sit among the women, having the soul of a slave, and he
laughed bitterly as the pale child crouched in the corner to see
him pass.
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