though she always kept herself purdar nashin[1] Mrs. Adamji was not a bit of a prude. She chattered freely, and after the birth of little Adamji she did not hesitate to sit by the side of her husband's friends when he, the husband aforesaid, was near.
I had the melancholy satisfaction of seeing old Didamji, Adamji's father, die. He was about sixty years old at the time. He had made his peace with Heaven. Didamji explained to his admiring friends that, though he had not lived an exemplary life,having been only a shopkeeper, still he hoped he had a happy hereafter. He had invited the Mohla for over a dozen times during his lifetime, and had gone to His Holiness about a hundred times; and just before his death Didamji had paid a large sum of his ill-gotten gains to the holy intercessor, the Mohla, for a note of introduction on behalf of Didamji to the address of the angel Gabriel. The note ran somewhat on this wise:—"Dear Brother Gabriel,—My old friend Didamji bin Dosá it has been the pleasure of the all-wise Allah[2] to call away. I have honoured Didamji with my friendship for many a long year, and knowing his worth, I
