Page:Broken Ties and Other Stories.pdf/25

20 friends had taken away this girl, Then, suspecting her of infidelity, after a while he made her life a constant torture. This had happened in the house next to the one where Satish had his tutorship. Satish wanted to save her from this misery, but he had no money or shelter of his own. Therefore he had come to his uncle. The girl was about to give birth to a child.

Jagamohan, when he heard the story, was filled with indignation. He was not the man to calculate coldly the consequence of his deeds, and he at once said to his nephew: ‘I have the room in which I keep my books. I can put the girl there.’

‘But what about your books?’ Satish asked in surprise. Very few books, however, were now remaining. During the time when he had been unable to secure an appointment, he had been obliged to eke out a living by selling his books.

Jagamohan said: ‘Bring the girl at once.’

‘She is waiting downstairs,’ said Satish. ‘I have brought her here.’ Jagamohan ran downstairs, and found the girl crouching in the corner, wrapped in her sari, looking like a bundle of clothes.

Jagamohan, in his deep bass voice, said at once: ‘Come, little Mother, why do you sit in the dust?’

The girl covered her face, and burst into tears.