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Srikanta you placed yourself definitely beyond the pale of all decency? Have you banished for ever all sense of shame and self-respect?' She stopped, and then, struggling with some repressed emotion, said in a low voice, 'In the old days you were never so lost to all sense of propriety. No one would then have thought that you could descend so low.' Her last words, which on any other occasion might have provoked my anger or annoyance, had a different effect on me. Suddenly I seemed to recognise Piari. 'And how much value,' I replied, 'do you attach to the opinion of others? VVho would have thought that you too could fall so low?'

For a fleeting instant I saw the flash of a tearful smile on her face, like moonlight on the light clouds of autumn. But the next moment she asked in an anxious voice, 'What do you know about me? Can you say who I am?'

'You are Piari.'

'Then a lot you know, indeed!'

'Would you be glad if I were to tell you what others don't know but I do? If so, you would have hastened to tell me about it yourself. As you have chosen not to say anything about yourself, you won't get anything out of me either. You can think over the question, whether it is worth your while to reveal yourself. But I have no time to stay now: I am going.'

In a flash Piari stood in my path, saying, 'And if I don't let you go, will you use force with me?'

'But why shouldn't you let me go?'

'Why should I?' she asked. 'I believe in ghosts and can't let you go simply because you want to. I swear