ha, of tender age and therefore of no account,
said: "I will make you a string of beads, brother, with which to tell
the names of your gods-the sahibs." Her sisters reproved her, saying:
"Run away, you saucy girl."

Feelings of shame and irritation assailed by turns the mind of Nabendu
Sekhar. Still he could not forego the company of his sisters-in-law,
especially as the eldest one was beautiful. Her honey was no less than
her gall, and Nabendu's mind tasted at once the sweetness of the one
and the bitterness of the other. The butterfly, with its bruised wings,
buzzes round the flower in blind fury, unable to depart.

The society of his sisters-in-Law so much infatuated him that at last
Nabendu began to disavow his craving for European favours. When he
went to salaam the Burra Sahib, he used to pretend that he was going
to listen to a speech by Mr. Surendranath Banerjea. When he went to
the railway station to pay respects to the Chota Sahib, returning
from Darjeeling, he would tell his sisters-in-law that he expected his
youngest uncle.

It was a sore trial to the unhappy man placed between the cross-fires of
his Sahibs and his sisters-in-law. The sisters-in-law, however, secretly
vowed that they would not rest till the Sahibs had been put to rout.

About this time it was rumoured that Nabendu's name would be included
in the forthcoming list of Birthday honours, and that he would mount the
first step of the ladder to Paradise by becoming a Rai Bahadur. The
poor fellow had not the courage to break the joyful news to his
sisters-in-law. One evening, however, when the autumn moon was flooding
the earth with its mischievous beams, Nabendu's heart was so full that
he could not contain himself any longer, and he told his wife. The
next day, Mrs. Nabendu betook herself to her eldest sister's house in a
palanquin, and in a voice choked with tears bewailed her lot.

"He isn't going to grow a tail," said Labanya, "by becoming a Rai
Bahadur, is he? Why should you feel so very humiliated?"

"Oh, no, sister dear," replied Arunlekha, "I am prepared to be
anything--but not a Rai-Baha-durni." The fact was that in her circle
of acquaintances there was one Bhutnath Babu, who was a Rai Bahadur, and
that explained her intense aversion to that title.

Labanya said to her sister in soothing tones: "Don't be upset about it,
dear; I will see what I can do to prevent it."

Babu Nilratan, the husband of Labanya, was a pleader at Buxar. W