Page:The Wreck.djvu/267

THE WRECK

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too ! Why, you can't be more than fifteen," she went on, after scanning Kamala from head to foot.

"I'm not certain about my age, but I must be about fifteen."

Nabinkali, "You're a Brahman, aren*t you?" "Yes."

"Where do your folk live?"

Kamala, "I've never been to my husband's native place; my father came from Bisukali" (though she had never been there Kamala knew that Bisukali was the. name of her father's birthplace).

Nabinkali. "Then your parents -?"

Kamala, "Both my father and my mother are dead."

Nabinkali, "Bless my soul! What are you going to do?"

Kamala. "I only want a roof over my head and two meals a day. If I can find some decent people in Benares who will give me these I'll work for my keep. I know how to cook"

Nabinkali was secretly delighted at the prospect of obtaining the services of a Brahman lady-cook gratis. She took care, however, to dissemble her joy.

"we don't need you ourselves," she said, "we brought our own Brahman servants up-country with us. Moreover we can't employ any one who has no qualification save that of being a Brahman. My hus- band mustn't have his meals served up anyhow. One can't get a good man under fourteen rupees a month and he wants his food and clothes besides. Still, here you are, a Brahman girl and in a difficulty ; so perhaps you had better come along with us after all. We've such a number of mouths to feed and such a lot of stuff is thrown away, one more won't make any differ- ence. You won't find the work too heavy for you. There's only my husband and myself at home now. I've got all my daughters off my hands now and they've

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