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12 ask you to do so. And as for your father, he has become so orthodox that he will eat nothing not cooked by his own hands. But Binu is my good boy; he's not a bigot like you, and you surely do not want to prevent him by force from doing what he thinks right?"

"Yes, I do!" answered Gora. "I must insist on it. It is impossible to take food in your room so long as you keep on that Christian maidservant Lachmi."

"Oh, Gora dear, how can you bring yourself to utter such words!" exclaimed Anandamoyi, greatly distressed. "Have you not all along eaten food from her hand, for it was she who nursed you and brought you up? Only till quite lately, you could not relish your food without the chutney prepared by her. Besides, can I ever forget how she saved your life, when you had smallpox, by her devoted nursing?"

"Then pension her off," said Gora impatiently. "Buy her some land and build a cottage for her; but you must not keep her in the house, mother!"

"Gora, do you think that every debt can be paid off with money?" said Anandamoyi. "She wants neither land nor cash; she only wants to see you, or she will die."

"Then keep her if you like," said Gora resignedly. "But Binoy must not eat in your room. Scriptural rules must be accepted as final. Mother, I wonder that you, the daughter of such a great Pandit, should have no care for our orthodox customs. This is too—"

"Oh, Gora, you silly boy!" smiled Anandamoyi. "There was a time when this mother of yours was very careful about observing all these customs; and at the cost of many a tear too! — Where were you then? Daily I used to worship the emblem of Shiva, made by my own hands, and your father used to come and throw it away in a fury. In those days I even felt uncomfortable if I ate rice cooked by any and every Brahmin. We had but little of railway then, one through many a long day I have had to fast when travelling by bullock-cart, or on a camel, or in a palanquin. Your father won the approbation of his English masters because of his unorthodox habit of taking his wife wherever he travelled; for that he gained promotion, and was allowed to stay at headquarters instead of being kept constantly on the move. But for all that, do you think he found it an easy matter to break my orthodox habits? Now that he has retired in his old age with a heap of savings, he has suddenly turned orthodox and intolerant, — but I cannot follow him in his sometimes. The