Aduri, will you just go and bring me some ashes of tobacco?

Aduri. Where shall I now seek for it?

Soirindri. It is stuck on the thatched roof of the cook-room, on the right side of the steps leading into the room.

Aduri. Then, let me bring the ladder from the threshing floor; else how can I reach to the roof?

Saralota. Very well.

Soirindri. Why can she not understand our mother-in-law’s word? Don’t you understand what steps are, and what Dain[[11]] signifies?

Aduri. Why shall I become a Dain; it is my fate. As soon as a poor woman becomes old and her teeth fall out she is immediately called a Dain. I shall speak of this to our mistress; am I become so old as to be called a Dain?

Soirindri. (Rising up.) Youngest Bou, sit down, I am coming; to-day we shall hear the Betal of Vidyeasagar.

(Soirindri goes away.)

Aduri. That Sagar allows marriage to the widows; fie! fie! Are there not two parties to that? I am of the Ajah’s[[12]] party.