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144 to hasten the preparation of food and leave explanations until after the meal.

By the time that the meal was concluded it had become evening, and friends filled the reception room. The two brothers sat down in their midst. Binod's shoulders quite ached from his prostrations before preceptors and relatives. Some said—"Not hearing anything for so long we thought, where can the boy be gone? He has become a great man indeed! A salary of Rs. 120 is not easily secured now-a-days."

Other youths of the village who, having passed the B.A., were hoping for a clerkship in the Comptroller General's office in Calcutta on Rs. 30 a month; and those who, having attained the M. A., were unable to obtain a mastership on Rs. 50, were much discussed. Old Chakravarti Mahashoi said—"It is all a matter of destiny, brother; and this one has not even passed the B.A., the grand B.A. degree." Many chimed in, "That is true, indeed."—"You are quite right in saying that." A man of the new school said, "It is destiny, certainly; but with that intelligence is required." To which another added—"We always knew that Binod was intelligent." Sarkar Mahashoi, amid similar flattering remarks, struck in—"In childhood he was very perverse; but many are so at that period of life, but change as