If my heart had been an iron boiler it would have burst. ‘So she has no objection to remarriage?’ I simply asked.

‘Not at the present moment,’ replied Nabin with a smile.

‘And was it the poems alone which wrought the magic change?’

‘Well, my poems were not so bad, you know,’ said Nabin, ‘were they?’

I swore mentally.

But at whom was I to swear? At him? At myself? At Providence? All the same, I swore.

THE END

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh.

[1] The maternal aunt is addressed as Mashi.

[2] The annaprashan ceremony takes place when a child is first given rice. Usually it receives its name on that day.