Page:Indira and Other Stories.pdf/12

 Nevertheless he made his way to the Punjab on foot, without means and without influence to help him. A young man who has the resolution to face perils and hardships is bound to overcome all obstacles. In a short time, he began to earn money, to make remittances. But for seven or eight years he neither returned home nor made any enquiries about me. Shortly before the period at which my tale begins, he had come home for the first time. The rumour ran that he had gained much wealth by taking contracts under the Commissariat. (Is that the right spelling, I wonder?) My father-in-law wrote to my father to say that Upendra (old-fashioned people must forgive me for thus boldly using my husband's name; I suppose ladies of the present day would not blush to say "my Upendra") had returned "by your worship's blessing", and was now in a position to maintain his wife. He had sent a palanquin and bearers. Would my father kindly send me to my new home? Or, if such were his orders, arrangements would be made for seeking a bride for Upendra elsewhere.