whole is tainted." Another retorted: "The boy is perfect."
Thus time went on. At last it chanced that Baburam Babu's eldest daughter fell dangerously ill. Her parents called in a number of physicians to see her. Matilall, needless to say, never once came near his sister, but went about saying that a speedy death was preferable to the life of a widow in a rich man's house; and during the time of her illness, he only indulged himself the more. Ramlall on the other hand was unremitting in his attention: foregoing both food and sleep, and full of anxious thought, he exerted himself to the utmost for the girl's recovery. But she did not recover, and as she was dying she put her hand on her younger brother's head, saying: "Ah, brother Ram! if I die, and am born a girl in my next birth, God grant that I may have a brother like you. I cannot tell you what you have done for me. God make you as happy as you wish." With these words, his sister breathed her last.
