Page:The Slave Girl of Agra.djvu/217

 river, and his trial and his banishment, and we saw him no more. It was cruel of him, was it not, sister, to leave us without seeing us once more."

"He came to see us, Saibalini, before he went to Rajmahal."

"But I never saw him—didst thou?"

"I saw him just as he was leaving. But it is late, Saibalini, and my husband must be waiting for us. Let us go."

Saibalini was a typical Hindu widow, who had lost her husband when she was a child and had never known married life. A widow's life is often aimless and cheerless in India, like that of many an old maid in the West. But Nature has compensations for everyone, and the childless widow in India is the gentle nurse, the careful housewife, the trusted counsellor in every well-regulated home. Her heart is drawn towards children who are not her own, her hands are busy in willing service for father or brother, and there are few more touching instances of unselfish love than that of the Hindu widow for all who come under her influence. Religion, too, has stronger claims on her, and her penances and prayers and fasts are a part of her life and a source of her joy and pride. Thus she treads, timidly but content, the path that is traced out for her, and often she lives a longer and a more peaceful life than her married sisters, devoted to the faith of her fathers and honoured by kinsmen and friends.

Saibalini had her full share of a gentle and unselfish nature, and she had a quiet thoughtfulness which was her own. Orphaned at an early age, she had nursed and taken care of her little brother from his childhood. And Sirish, now risen to high rank and strong