Page:Stories of Bengalee life - Prabhat Kumar Mukerji.pdf/218

206 The mother was even more astonished. "Foolish boy! Every one desires a pretty wife; and one is not so easily to be had"—she observed.

"Let them then. I will make a different marriage." As he spoke his face became irradiated by self-glorification. Was he one of the crowd? Should he, like all the rest, marry only from desire?

Seeing his mother a litle dejected, Bhabatosh opened his mind to her. He showed how impossible it was for a beautiful girl to become a model Hindu wife. Finally he said his resolve was firm, unshakable—immovable.

His mother troubled him no more that day. The vacation ending, he returned to Calcutta.

 

A few days later the wife of Upendra Banerji came in a palanquin to visit the mother of Bhabatosh. After the first greetings the wife of Upendra Babu said—"Sister, was Bhabatosh agreeable?"

"He is ready to marry, but he has strange ideas in his head."

"What sort of ideas?"

"First, he said he must see the girl before consenting. I said that would be very good. I could procure his seeing a beautiful girl, in every way suitable. Then he said he would not marry