Srikanta
Ratan came in and removed the hookah. 'I know you smoke,' the baiji said, 'but what can I offer you? What you may or may not do at other places is no concern of mine. But I could not offer you my own hookah. I will get you some cigars. Ratan!'
'Don't trouble, I don't need any cigars; I have got some with me.'
'You have? Well then, just sit down quietly, please, for I have much to tell you. Nobody knows how God gets people to meet at unexpected places: nobody could dream it. You went out to the shikar : what made you return so soon?'
'I didn't like it.'
'Just so: you wouldn't. What a cruel race men-folk are! They know best what pleasure they get in killing harmless creatures for nothing. Is your father well?'
'Father is dead.'
'I am very sorry. And your mother?'
'She went before him.'
'Oh, that is how—' and the baiji heaved a sigh and fixed her eyes on me. I seemed to feel that her eyes, for one brief instant, grew moist in sympathy. But perhaps that was an illusion. Yet when she next spoke I could not mistake the fact that the frivolous and coquettish voice of this keen-witted woman had really become tender. 'Then,' she said, 'you haven't got a soul who really cares for you and looks after you. Are you still with your aunt? Where else would you go, after all? You haven't
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