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Rh Ramesh. "I haven't actually spoken about it, but—"

Braja Mohan. "Oh, you haven't? Well, as you've said nothing so far you may as well keep quiet a little longer."

After a short pause Ramesh shot his last bolt. "I should be doing her a wrong if I married any other girl."

"You would be doing a still greater wrong," retorted Braja Mohan, "if you refused to marry the bride whom I have chosen for you."

Ramesh could say no more; there was just a chance, he thought, that some accident might still prevent the marriage.

According to the astrologers, the whole of the year following the date fixed for the wedding was inauspicious, and it occurred to Ramesh that once the fateful day were over he would gain a whole year's respite.

The bride lived in a distant place only accessible by river. Even by the shortest route, taking advantage of creeks that linked up the larger channels, it was a three or four days' journey. Braja Mohan left an ample margin for accident and his party set off on a day, officially announced as auspicious, a full week before the date fixed for the wedding. The wind was favourable all the way and it took them less than three days to reach Simulghata, so that there were still four days to elapse before the ceremony. The old gentleman had another reason for wishing to be in good time. The bride's mother was very badly off and it had long been his desire that she should leave her home and migrate to his village, where he could support her in comfort and so discharge the debt that he owed to the friend of his youth. So long as there was no tie of relationship delicacy forbade him to approach the lady with such a proposal, but now in view of the forthcoming marriage he had sought for, and obtained, her