Page:Stories of Bengalee life - Prabhat Kumar Mukerji.pdf/131

Rh "A Bengalee lady from Benares? Was she alone? How old is she?"

"She was alone. She may be forty or fifty."

Girindra smiled as he heard his wife's conjecture. "You won't find out the difference between forty and fifty till you are forty yourself"—he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Sixteen thinks forty and fifty to be very much the same. But forty refuses to class itself with fifty"—saying which he pinched the cheek of her who was sixteen.

But the playfulness of his attitude did not last long. "I say, there are so many Bengalee families about here, why should she have made us her special choice?"—said he.

"Do you object?"—said Maloti, rather taken aback at the remark.

"I certainly do. Is she good-looking?"

Maloti frowned. "What does that matter?"—she asked, shooting an angry glance at her husband.

"It matters a good deal, indeed. An unprotected female, from Benares too, of all places in the world. I am only thinking what sort of a widow she is."