Page:Indira and Other Stories.pdf/55

 or "Lily." At my father-in-law's house I was known as Indira; at home nearly everybody called me Kumudini. At Ramram Babu's I had told them that my name was Kumudini, and had half forgotten that I was ever Indira. My husband too knew me by my second name, and it was under this name that I was described in the deed of gift.

Some happy days we spent together in Calcutta. All this time I refrained from announcing myself. I thought I would do so some day when we went to Mahespur. By various roundabout ways, I got my husband to tell me news of home. All was well with my dear ones, but I began to long to see their faces again.

One day I said to my husband, "I want to go to Kaladighi to see my father and mother. Send me home for a while."

He was not at all willing. How was he to exist without me? On the other hand he had become so accustomed to obeying orders that he could not definitely say "no." What he said