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THE WRECK

married well too. We've only one son and he's a magistrate stationed at Serajganj just now. We had a letter from the Governor appointing him two months back. I said to my husband, 'Our Noto — that's his name — isn't hard up, why should he be treated like this? I know it's not many people who have the luck to get such a good position, but it's too bad that the poor lad should have to live so far from home. Why should he? What's the necessity?' But my husband only said, 'Good Lord! That isn't the point. You women don't understand these things. Do you think it was for a living that I got Noto made a magistrate? We aren't so badly off as all that ! He must have a profession, you know, a young fellow like him, other- wise he'll be up to some mischief or other.' "

The boats sped upstream before the wind and Benares was reached in a few hours. The whole party repaired to a two-storied house standing in a small garden on the outskirts of the city. There was no sign there of the fourteen-rupee Brahman cook. One of the servants was a Brahman, it is true, but he hailed from Orissa, and Uriya labour is notoriously the cheapest in north-eastern India. Moreover a few days after Kamala's arrival Nabinkali dismissed him with- out paying his wages, in a sudden explosion of wrath. The difficulty of finding another cook on fourteen rupees a month proving insurmountable, Kamala had to assume entire charge of the kitchen.

Nabinkali was not sparing of good advice.

"You know, my dear," she would admonish Kamala, "Benares city is a bad place for young girls like you. You must never set foot outside the compound alone. When I go to bathe in the Ganges or to worship the Bisweswar image I'll take you along with me."

She took careful precautions lest Kamala should escape from her clutches. The girl had practically no opportunity of meeting companions of her own sex

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