THE STOLEN WIFE 49
law, rubbed her with oil, helped her to bathe, and washed for her the sari she put off. She brought her dainties from the confectioner's.[1] She did all the cooking, and would not touch food, herself, till she had given her mother-in-law her breakfast. The latter never tired of congratulating herself and praising her daughter-in-law.
In this way, a week or two passed—not very pleasantly for the Brahman. According to the compact made with his friend, he was debarred from even so much as speaking to his wife, until one had been got for him too. And, night and day, the Kayastha kept urging him, "Come away, brother, and get a marriage for me fixed up. Till then, you might as well be unmarried, yourself." The Brahman was very unwilling to go, but, knowing that the other had him in his power, and at any moment could ruin him by disclosing his secret, at length, one day, he said, "Well, then, come away. Though it's so long since I brought my wife home, all this time, on your account, I haven't been able to say a single word to her. I'm sick of this sort of thing." "Then the sooner we start, the better," was the reply.
- ↑ To serve as light refreshments to sustain fainting nature till regular meal-time, i.e., the time when she got her rice. According to Medhātithi's explanation of Manu, II, 56, such eating "between-times" is forbidden. This seems rather hard, as nothing could be more irregular than the "regular meals" in an old-fashioned Bengali household. School-hours generally begin at 10.30 a.m., yet boys have often to be allowed to go home after the first or second period to take breakfast, which was not ready when they had to leave in the morning. A mother will awake small children between 10 and 11 p.m., to give them their evening meal. A man may be invited to an evening-meal party, and, if it is a very big affair, it may be 1 or 2 a.m. next morning before the dishes are served up.
