Page:Tales of Bengal (S. B. Banerjea).djvu/171

Rh "Now you had better return home at once to find out how she is progressing. Let me know if she grows worse and I will send Hriday Doctor. Don't trouble about his fees; I will pay them myself. Why did you not come to me earlier?"

Sádhu muttered some words, which Nalini could not distinguish, and left the room hurriedly. After waiting for an hour for news, Nalini threw a wrapper over his shoulders and went to Siráji's cottage. On nearing it he learnt from Sádhu's loud lamentations that she was beyond the reach of medicine; so, after a few words of sympathy, he went home.

Presently Sádhu sallied forth to ask the neighbours' help in carrying the dead body to burial. One and all refused to lay a hand on it because, they said, she had lived with an unbeliever. In dire distress Sádhu again appealed to Nalini, who summoned the chief inhabitants of the Musalmánpára (Mohammadan quarter) to his house and ordered them to take Siráji's body to the burial ground. They reluctantly agreed to do so, and assembled at Sadhu's cottage; but at the last moment all of them refused to touch the corpse. Nalini was puzzled by their behaviour. He asked for an explanation, whereon the Mohammadans whispered together and nudged a grey-beard, who became their spokesman.

"Mahásay," he said, "the fact is Siráji lived with