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garden irrigated from the well. Ramesh and Kamala were offered hospitality here till they could find a house of their own.

Uncle's wife, Haribhabhini, though always described by her husband as delicate, betrayed no outward sign of a weak constitution. She was past middle age, but her face was strong and capable and only at the tem- ples did she show a few grey hairs. Age had, so to speak, obtained a decree against her but had not yet executed it

The fact was that soon after Chakrabartti married her she had fallen a victim to malarial fever for which a change of air was, in her husband's opinion, the only cure, so he had found employment as a school- master in Ghazipur and had migrated there with his family.

Haribhabhini's health had long been re-established, but her husband never relaxed his watchful care over her,

Chakrabartti ushered his guests into an outer room and then proceeded into the inner apartments in search

of his wife; he found her in the walled courtyard lay- ing her pots and pans out in the sun and winnowing wheat.

"Here you are!" cried Chakrabartti. "It's rather cold to-day. Shouldn't you be wearing a shawl?"

Haribhabhini., "What can you be thinking of? Cold ! Why, the sun's scorching my back."

Chakrabartti."That'll never do. Surely we can afford a sunshade for you."

Haribhabhini. "All right, I'll get one. Tell me now, why were you away for so long?"

Cluikrabartti. "It's a long story. I've brought some guests with me, and we'll have to attend to them before we do anything else," and he briefly described the new arrivals.

It was by no means the first time that Chakrabartti