Page:Stories of Bengalee life - Prabhat Kumar Mukerji.pdf/193

Rh ornaments. If so, it is ruin." Aloud he said—"Why so? What prevents you from giving them now?"

Uttering a deep sigh Hrishi Kesh answered—"Our grief is not six months old. Give us time. Who is to take the ornaments out of the jewel case? I know not where to look for them; and my wife, since that dreadful night, does not set foot in the girl's chamber, and to touch anything that belonged to her, makes her weep distressingly. How then can I say to her—'Open your child's box and take out her jewels?'—We lost a little girl years ago at Triveni: that is past and gone—but this second loss—. Grant us time: we will give you the things after a while."

Fourteen years before, on the occasion of the great Varuni Festival, Hrishi Kesh with his family had gone to bathe in the Ganges at Triveni, and there lost a little girl about two years old. This is the fact to which he refers here. The reason given by Hrishi Kesh for his reluctance to part with the jewels was only too true, but then every one does not regard such a reason as sufficient. Sitanath did not. He said angrily—

"Brother, is not the grief mine also? But what can I do? Where there is a family there must also be sorrow. I have never seen any one yet, who could escape it, be it the King on his throne or the beggar by the way side. But a man