Page:Stories of Bengalee life - Prabhat Kumar Mukerji.pdf/192

180 It was simply a question of the daughter-in-law's wedding ornaments. The old man had come to claim them.

The demand made, Hrishi Kesh remained silent for a long time. When he had heard that his daughter's father-in-law was coming, he perfectly understood what was bringing him. And now the claim was made. He sometimes used to cherish the hope that he would keep the jewels, and would not give them up. If his grand child should live, the burthen [sic] of getting her married would fall upon him. He would keep the jewels and let them be her wedding ornaments. When he had spent 2,000 rupees in ornaments for his daughter's wedding, he had been fairly wealthy. Now all that was changed. The thought of how his family would be maintained in the case of his own death often gave him grave concern.

Yet amid all these thoughts, despair of being able to retain the jewels grew in his mind. At last he resolved in any case to try and put it off for the present. He said—"Mukerji Mahashoi, those things belong to you. Of what I once gave to your son I will not keep back a single penny-weight. But I must ask you to wait a little. I cannot give them to you now."

Mukerji Mahashoi's face became withered. His thought was—"This man has pledged the