Page:Shubala - a child-mother (IA shubalachildmoth00soraiala).pdf/11

Rh be condemned to the lowest re-birth which is possible to human beings: and what punishment Shubala herself would get, I know not."

There was no use arguing: we had to submit, and boy after boy candidate was interviewed—Rani peeping at him through a hole in the door of an adjoining room: and later on when the selection was made, whispering to me the questions which she wished asked of the new son-in-law.

These questions related mostly to the women-folk in his household and to his relationship to the Calcutta University. To the women-folk because her little Shubala would be but one more inmate of a Zenana which included the wives of all the sons of the family, together with aunts and possibly cousins, living under the rule of an unknown mother-in-law.

Questions under the second count were less explicable. "Was he B.A., M.A.?" No. "Then Inter?" No. "Mat-ric