Page:Indira and Other Stories.pdf/36

 Or shall I in modern fashion speak of him boldly as "Upendra." Or again, shall I ring poetical changes in a continuous kyrielle of "my lord," "my master," "my dear spouse"? Alas, in the speech of our unfortunate country there is no word by which we can address the one being whom we love to call by name, the one person of whom a loving woman must always be talking! One of my friends (she has had some tincture of town breeding) used to call her husband "Babu." But merely "Babu" seemed a dry mode of address, so she took to calling him "Baburam!" I have half a mind to follow her example!

Well, I have told you how I threw down the dish of food. As I did so, I thought to myself, "since it has pleased destiny to restore me my lost treasure, I must not lose it in another fit of feminine modesty." With this determination, I went and stood in such a place that if any one