Page:Malabari, Behramji M. - Gujarat and the Gujaratis (1882).djvu/251

Rh pity, loneliness, despair, she attempts to ravish a chaste wifely kiss from the slumbering bride-groom. But, unused to such osculatory exercise, the idiot awakes, sets up a terrible shriek: "Oh, má! oh, bapá! come, come! this strange woman is biting mylips! oh, má! she is gagging my mouth! oh, she is breaking my legs! oh, oh, oh!" There is a rush into the room. The poor fainting bride is removed gently to another room by the mother-in-law. There is wondrous sympathy between these two women. The little Sheth Devchand is soothed to slumber by promise of a long holiday from school, and the Bhaiají sleeping with him.

And thus ends my Aryan Idyl: what followed is only known to the chief actors. The Máháráj tried to improve his opportunity. But Mánkore is not like her mother or her mother-in-law. She can only cry in corners, read Karsandás Mulji's Moral Essays, pray to her "true" God. She is very gently treated;her parents are gone, her husband is going. He cannot last over a few