After
waiting long, we have been freed from our solemn pledge to-night; and the
spirit of Jivaji, who lost his life in this battle, lawfully claims you for
wife.
AMA
Father, it may be that I have disgraced the rites of your house, but my
honour is unsullied; I loved him to whom I bore a son. I remember the night
when I received two secret messages, one from you, one from my mother;
yours said: "I send you the knife; kill him!" My mother's: "I send you the
poison; end your life!" Had unholy force dishonoured me, your double
bidding had been obeyed. But my body was yielded only after love had given
_me_--love all the greater, all the purer, in that it overcame the
hereditary recoil of our blood from the Mussulman.
_Enter_ RAMA, AMA'S _mother_
AMA
Mother mine, I had not hoped to see you again. Let me take dust from your
feet.
RAMA
Touch me not with impure hands!
AMA
I am as pure as yourself.
RAMA
To whom have you surrendered your honour?
AMA
To my husband.
RAMA
Husband? A Mussulman the husband of a Brahmin woman?
AMA
I do not merit contempt: I am proud to say I never despised my husband
though a Mussulman.
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