A damsel of sixteen. 592 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. Visnu led them on to the hut,—through a jungly path wreathed with flowering plants that could not all have grown there naturally ; some tender hand must have tended them as ap- peared from the wet ground underneath proving the care with which they were watered. As they came to the door of the hut they saw a damsel of sixteen eyeing them with a look of curiosity. She was poorly dressed in a single sadi not long enough to cover her decently. Her profuse biack hair fell in luxuriant curls down her back ; she was beautiful as a goddess, with timid eyes and a countenance the purity of which was like that one finds in a jessamine flower when it first opes its petals. She had avermillion-mark on her forehead and a piece of thread was tied round her left wrist, both indi- cative of the sacred vows of wifehood. She came and though of a shy and quiet nature she was free from that excess of coyness which generally marks the Hindu wife. She asked in a soft mur- muring tone as to what the young man _ wanted. Visnu said what he had said to the Cresthi ; he wanted food and shelter for three persons for the day. The woman replied “ My husband has gone out to beg alms and will return presently; in the > “But where can we meantime kindly wait here,’ stop? You have a single hut and no seats, no articles even of every-day use. What have you to offer for our comfort, fatigued and worn out as we all are, specially my old parents ?”” She showed a great anxiety to please and said, “ O sirs, if at this late hour of the day, you go away from my doors without tasting any food, all my virtue will be lost. | am poor, but I crave your indulgence ; pray wait here, my husband will be back quickly”.
