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 So you will go into trade, eh? May you and your father's house come to ruin, bad luck to you. You want to know what day will be auspicious, eh? When you cease vexing people as you do, they will have their Ganga Snan in peace. Off, away with you this minute! The day you clear out of this will be the auspicious day." Somewhat disconcerted by the old man's abuse, Mangovinda went and told his companions that the next day would be auspicious.

Sounds of preparation straightway arose, and there was all the bustle that attends arrangements for a festival: it was the Udjog Parba over again. While one of the party fixed the wire for playing the sitar on his fore-finger, another tested the baya, tapping it to see whether it had any pitch or not: another examined the tabala: another tightened the rings round the drums: another put resin on a fiddle and tested the strings: another packed up the clothes: another prepared small parcels of tobacco, ganja and other stimulants, along with bundles of firewood: another selected, with great care, balls of opium and sweetmeats: another examined the different purchases to see whether they were of correct weight. All day and all night the bustle and noise of preparation went on without any diminution. It had got about in the village that the young Babus were about to go into trade, and next day, when all the shopkeepers of the place, the poorer sort of people, and the beggars and loafers, were out in the roads looking out for them to pass, they came swaggering down to the ghât, like so many wild elephants. There were a number of pandits at the ghât engaged in their early morning devotions: hearing the stir and bustle, they looked behind them, and at once shook with fright. Seeing them so terrified, the Babus only jeered at them and laughed. Then they showered upon them