while I was like one in a dream. I tried to think. He had expressed his feelings for me,—was I happy now? The voice of my heart did not reply. Something displeased me, I knew not what, but I recalled my first meeting with him and remembered that I had experienced a similar feeling then. There was something in it that jarred upon me. I was surrounded by happiness, all was beauty; I did not deny that. I felt like one into whose cup of nectar a drop of poison has fallen. The light of my heart became suddenly dimmed, I knew not why. It dawned upon me that this was not what I had longed for, it was all so short of my expectations.
While I was absorbed in my thoughts and the others talked, the servant came in with two cards and announced the arrival of a client and a visitor. My brother-in-law took up the cards, and exclaimed, "The doctor, Binoy Kumar Chaudhury. Moni, go and call your sister. Show him in, Durwan."
I went, and hardly had I crossed the threshold when I heard the voice of the visitor. Curiosity got the better of me and I stopped to have a glance at him through the partially drawn curtains. My brother-
