Page:The Spoilt Child.djvu/225

 ignorant: where shall we go? Our father and all his race are gone: we have no brothers: we have no sisters: we have no relatives at all: who will protect us? Oh, Lord God, our honour and our lives are now in Thy hands. Welcome death by starvation before dishonour." When they had gone a few paces, they stopped beneath a banyan tree, and began to consider what was to be done. Just then Barada Babu approached them with a dooly: with bowed head and sorrowful face he said to them: "Ladies, do not be anxious: regard me as you would a son: I beg that you will get into this dooly at once, and go to my house: I have separate quarters ready for you: stay there for a while, until your plans are arranged." When Matilall's wife and stepmother heard these words of Barada Babu, they were like people just rescued from a watery grave. Overwhelmed with gratitude, they said: "Sir, how we should like to be prostrate at your feet: we have no words to express our gratitude to you: you must surely have been our father in a previous birth." Barada Babu hurriedly placed them in the dooly, and sent them to his house; while he himself, fearing he might meet some one on the road who would question him, hurried home by back streets.