"My Star, an' you should tell it abroad that I did not sleep in mine own house last night, it would blacken my face in Kaladoongie."
"Thou wilt say, perchance, that I gossip at the village well. Go on, what next?"
"Nay, then, if thou must know it, I slept in Goor Dutt's bullock-cart."
"'Twas well, Lumba Deen (Long Legs). Ho, ho, ho! Thy case was that of a ladder balanced across a wall. Proceed."
"The grain bags I lay on, Heart of my Heart, were stony, and the night was full of noises."
"Yes. And thou wast warm?"
"Nay, Beloved, for there was not room for the drawing up of my knees between myself and Goor Dutt, so my feet were frozen, and Goor Dutt ceased not from snoring."
"'Twas well, Oppressor of Women and Children. And thy evening meal?"
"Light of the Terai, Gunga Ram's stale pooris were ill-bestowed on a pariah dog,—but the savor of thy pillau hath effaced the wrong done to my stomach last night."
"Ah! And now what thinkest thou of my kinswoman Chandni?"