Burning in separation, Krishna with tears in his eyes begs a maidservant-manjari: "Untie the knot of maan in Radhika's heart — plead my case so that she softens toward me again". The manjari enters the kunj where Radhika sits in anger, Lalita and the sakhis beside her, and begins to argue Krishna's case: "It is only a misunderstanding…" But Lalita flares up: "You have fallen into the trap of his honey-like words! Why do you advocate for that dhurta, that thief of others' wives, that crest-jewel of all rogues?" — she seizes the manjari by her cloth, marches her out of the kunj and drives her off: "And do not come back!" The manjari is devastated: for her whole life is Radhika's service; to lose it for even a moment is worse than the annihilation of the universe. And yet she does not argue. Some days later, knowing Radhika will walk a forest path by the Yamuna, she sits at its edge adorned with flowers and waits: "When will that day come — when Radhika passes with her sakhis and sees me weeping at the very border of life and death…"