Page:Tales of Bengal (Sita and Santa Chattopadhyay).djvu/106

Tales of Bengal the big iron safe? Something like gold is glittering between the fretwork."

That marble box! I had quite forgotten it. It must be about forty years since that day when I first put my foot within the threshold of this room, dressed in the red silk of a bride, with tinkling anklets on and anointed with sandal paste. That little box stood then in that very place. Its colour was then like the fresh sea-foam, that crests the waves of the blue ocean; now it has taken on a yellowish tinge with the passage of time. I have gone on seeing it nearly every day of my life, but somehow it had escaped my memory.

I turned to Ranu and said, "Ranu, that was a fortunate reminder of yours. You might get the very thing you wanted in this marble box. It contains my wedding dress. I put it there the day I first made my appearance in this house and I have not touched it ever since. So long as your aunt Kalyani was alive she used to take it out frequently, shake and fold it, and make no end of it. But after her death nobody paid any attention to it any more. I will take it out for you, if the worms have left anything."

The box was secured by a small, old-fashioned brass lock. I picked out its key after a good search among my large bunch of keys. I was doubtful whether the lock would yield to this rusty little key, but my fears proved to be false. I pulled up the lid.

Ranu cried out aloud in her delight, "Oh, what a a beauty! Rangadi, I have never seen the like of you! What do you mean by neglecting such a fine thing? It is a mercy that the worms have spared it. I see only two or three small holes. But it is still quite wearable. But how is it that the box smells so beautifully of camphor?"

"Your aunt Kalyani used keep chains of camphor beads in it."

"But what kind of an ornament is this, Rangadi? Rh