Page:Nil Durpan.djvu/126

 Sadhu.  That Atapa which the Barah Ranee sent for offerings of prayer is in the other room. Ray Churn, bring that here. (Exit Ray Churn Reboti.  Is Annapurnah now awake, that she shall with the rice in her hands come to my Khetromany? It is through my ill-fate that our mistress is become mad.

Physician.  She is already full of sorrow for the death of her husband; again, her son is on the point of death; her in¬sanity is on the increase. I think she shall die before Nobin; she is become very weak.

Sadhu.  Sir, how did you find our eldest Babu, to-day? I think, with his pure blood he has extinguished the fire of tyranny of the giants, the Indigo Planters. It is probable, that the Indigo Commission might produce to the ryots some advantages; but what effect has that? If one hundred serpents do bite at once my whole body I can bear that; if on a hearth made of bricks, a frypan be placed full of molasses, and the same be boiling by a great fire; I can also bear the torment, if by accident I fall into the pan; if in the dark night of the new-moon a band of robbers with terrible sounds come upon and kill my only son who is honest and very learned, take away all the acquisitions made during the past seven generations, and then make me blind: all these also I can bear; and in the place of one, even if there be ten Indigo Factories in the village, that also I can allow; but to be separated even for a moment from that elder Babu, who is so much the supporter of his dependants, that can I never bear.

Physician.  The blow through which the brain has oozed out is fatal. I have found the pulse indicate that death is near;