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THE WRECK

fall she closed the slat and turned her head; Ramesh squatted on the floor.

"Who were these men?" asked Kamala; they came to our school this morning."

"Went to your school, did they?" exclaimed Ramesh. "Yes," said Kamala. "What were they saying to you?"

"They asked me what relation you were to me." Kamala had never sat at the feet of a mother-in-law and learned on what occasions to display the bashful- ness becoming in a young wife. Still, her own instincts made her blush at Ramesh's words.

"I told them," he went on, "that there was no rela- tionship between us."

Kamala regarded this kind of pleasantry as ex- tremely bad taste. She turned away angrily exclaim- ing, "Don't be silly!"

Ramesh wondered if he could possibly tell Kamala the whole truth.

Suddenly she started up with the exclamation, "Look out, there's a crow gone off with your fruit !" She hurried into the other room, scared away the crow, and came back with the plate of fruit. "Aren't you going to have some?" she asked, setting the plate down in front of him.

Ramesh's appetite had gone, but he was touched by this little attention. "Won't you have any, Kam- ala?" he asked.

"You have some first," she replied, in the role of the wife who may not eat till her husband's hunger is satisfied. It was the merest trifle, but Ramesh's nerves were on edge and the innocent girl's delusion brought him to the verge of tears. Speech failed him, but he controlled himself and began to eat. When he had finished he remarked, "We must be off home to-night, Kamala."

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