“What is it, Saina?”
Might the little girl come back to the damp cottage in the compound? Saina asked.
“Why?” asked Eva, in amazement. “Isn’t your little girl happy here?”
Yes, she was, said Saina, bashfully, but she preferred the cottage. The mem-sahib was very kind, but little Mina would rather be in the cottage.
Eva was angry and let the child go home, with the new clothes, which Saina took away with her as a matter of course.
“Why wasn’t the child allowed to stay?” Eva asked of the latta cook.
Cook at first dared not say.
“Come, cook, why wasn’t she?” asked Eva, insisting.
“Because the mem-sahib called the little girl Melati.... Names of flowers and fruits ... are given only ... to dancing-girls,” explained the cook, as though expounding a mystery.
“But why didn’t Saina tell me?” asked Eva, greatly incensed. “I had not the least idea of that!”