Page:Indira and Other Stories.pdf/54

 got a lawyer to draw it up. If ever I desert you, I shall be driven to begging my bread in the streets!"

This time the tears that came to my eyes were genuine enough. Did my dear love me so dearly as that? I stooped to touch his feet, and said, "From this day forth, I am thy bond-woman, thy bought slave. The probation is ended."

  Now it was that I could say to myself, "I hold in my hand the moon for which I was crying. How shall he leave me now? He said he would not receive me back as his wife, did he?" The purpose for which I had spread all these nets was accomplished. If I were to tell him now that I was his wife, and he were to abandon me, he would have to give up all his worldly wealth and position.

It was my father who had named me Indira, after Laksmi, the goddess of good fortune. My mother used to call me Kumudini