(_Exit Reboti and Khetromani._) _Sabitri._ Can’t you remain without speaking something at every word. _Enter_ SARALOTA _with clothes on her head_. _Aduri._ Here, our washerwoman is come with her clothes. _Sabitri._ Thou fool, why is she a washerwoman? _She is my Bou of gold, my Goddess of good Fortune_ (_patting her back_). Is there no one in my family excepting you to bring down the clothes? Can’t you, for one dunda[16] sit quiet in one place? Art thou born of such a mad woman? How did you tear off your cloth. I think you bruised yourself. Ah, her body is, as it were, a red lotus; and this one bruise has made the blood to come out with violence. Now, my daughter, I tell you, never move up and down the steps in the dark, in such a manner. _Enter_ SOIRINDRI. _Soirindri._ Now, our young Bou, let us go to the ghát. _Sabitri._ Now, my daughters, while the evening light continues, you two together go and wash yourselves. (_Exit all._) ----- Footnote 8: This is a term which is applied to one’s son’s wife; but sometimes, though rarely, it means wife. Footnote 9: This is only a quotation, explaining, by an example, the eagerness of the mind when the desire in once excited. Footnote 10: This pronoun “his” refers to the husband of Saralota. Footnote 11: This is a Bengali term signifying sometimes _right_ and sometimes _a witch_. Footnote 12: The word Rajah is here pronounced in an odd form; and it has reference to those rajahs who were against widow marriage. As the word is pronounced by a woman of the lower class, it is spelt here incorrectly. Footnote 13: The iron circlet worn by a woman on her left hand, is the mark or sign of the husband being alive. Footnote 14: Referring to Khetromani. Footnote 15: Referring to Podi Moyrani (sweet-meat maker). Footnote 16: A dunda is equal to 24 English minutes. ----- ---------- SECOND ACT—FIRST SCENE. THE GODOWN OF BEGUNBARI FACTORY. ------- _Torapa and four other Ryots sitting._ _Torapa._ Why do they not kill me at once? I can never show myself ungrateful. That eldest Babu, who has preserved my caste; he through whose influence I am living here; he, who by preserving my plough and the cows, is preserving my life,—shall I by giving false evidence throw the father of that Babu into prison? I can never do that; I would rather give my life.