Page:Tales of Bengal (Sita and Santa Chattopadhyay).djvu/95

Rh Another fanned himself with his scarf and said. "Of course her new bridegroom is rather old. Still what is age to a man? I think the old man fell in love with the girl as soon as he saw her, and I believe he created all that scene just for his own benefit. You know it was he who insulted the bridegroom's father. And they passed on out of hearing.

The attendants and the carriages had scarcely been collected together by the time I returned to our party. No one had missed me in the turmoil, and soon we reached home again.

I returned to Calcutta the very next day. My mother cried, but her tears could not stop me. As for the examination, I managed to pass but I did not secure a scholarship. I took service immediately, and gave up all thoughts of further study.

Soon afterwards my father died. For a time our family remained in their village house and somehow or other I managed to maintain them: working day and night. But it was too much for my own unaided efforts and I had moreover to provide for the education of my brothers. So the country-house was shut up. Mother and the younger children came to Calcutta to live with me. The poor relations found other places of refuge, as we could no longer keep them with us.

Our village home was old, no doubt, but it was a large one, and had no lack of air and light. But the house which we at last succeeded in renting in Calcutta, after wearing out the soles of our shoes in the effort, had nothing to recommend it at all. Still it was better than my lodgings. In her widowed state mother did not laugh so often as before. But still the light of her sweet face made this dingy house a home for me.

Heaven knows that Calcutta is thickly populated; Rh