Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/212

 come to take their companion away. The long rivalry of Debipur and Birnagar added to the zest of the proceedings. Poor Sirish was under a cross fire, and the arch daughters of both houses pelted him mercilessly. But his gentle smile and sweet reasonableness somewhat disarmed the fair assailants. Hemlata was tired and lay down; but the red light of the morning glimmered through the latticed windows before Sirish was allowed any repose.

The closing ceremonies were performed in the morning. Nobo Kumar and his wife stood by their daughter, now the wife of Sirish. Some suitable words were repeated by the bride's father.

"I have brought up this girl with a father's care, Sirish. She was so long mine, she is thine from to-day. Treat her kindly, tenderly, lovingly. Be a good husband to her, be she a virtuous wife unto thee."

There are few fathers in India who repeat parting words like these without tears in their eyes. Happy in the marriage of their girls, they yet feel the severance of a tie, the separation of one whom they have tended and nursed and loved. Nobo Kumar, who was not often susceptible to tender feelings, and who knew that Hemlata and Sirish would live in his own ancestral house, nevertheless felt his voice failing when he gave away his loved, his only child.

Nobo Kumar's wife had done her part bravely. She knew her duty and submitted to it silently. Not a word escaped her lips to mar the happy ceremony, not a frown darkened her brow when a "beggar boy" came to receive the hands of the daughter of an ancient House. She looked to all the arrangements in silence, she attended the ceremonies with due decorum, and when the last parting scene was over,