Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/352

 Lahana professes great love. Exchange of blows. Khullana tends the sheep. 316 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap, Lahana thought if Khullana were treated in this way, her beauty would fade and she would never be able to gain full control over her husband’s heart. This would happen asa matter of course from hardship, starvation and exposure. This letter was enclosed in an envelope, and Lahana, with tearful eyes, professing great love for Khullangé, met her and showed it to her, at the same time saying, that she was bound to carry out her husband’s orders, though she would do so with the greatest reluctance and her heart, in fact, was breaking at the thought of what was before her. Now, Khullana was very intelligent, and though not a shrew like Lahana, she could not be so easily made to yield to the stratagem without resistance. She saw the letter and pronounced it a forgery, declaring it impossible that her husband should write in such a manner about her. The hand-writ- ing was not his, and the whole thing was the work of Lahang inspite of this great love whih she professed lor her. A hot discussion was soon fol- lowed by an exchange of blows. Lahang was the stronger of the two. So Khullana could not long maintain the fight and had to yield to superior force. Thereupon the youthful Khullana, as_ beautiful as picture, clothed in rags and with only the leat of a fig tree to protect her head from the sun, went out to the fields to tend the sheep. Unaccustomed to walking, she grew tired and weary and she could not manage the animals. They ran into the rice fields and ate up the plants, while the owners reproached her. She wiped away her tears with one hand, while i ;