_Aduri._ What are you doing here? The elder Haldarni[21] is not able to go to the tank-side. All whom I see are of a disturbed countenance. _Saralota._ (_A deep sigh._) Let us then go. _Aduri._ I see you have not yet touched the oil. Your hairs are yet dusty, and you have not yet left the letter. Does our young Haldar write my name in the letter? _Saralota._ Has the Bara Takur (the eldest brother of the husband) finished his bathing? _Aduri._ The eldest Haldar is gone to the village. A law-suit is being carried on. Was that not written in your letter? Our master was weeping. _Saralota._ (_Aside_) Truly, my Lord! Thou shalt not be able to show thy face, if thou can’st not prove successful. (_Openly_) Let us now rub ourselves with oil in the cook-room. (_Exit both._) ----- Footnote 21: Referring to Soirindri, the wife of Nobin Madhab. ----- ---------- SECOND ACT—THIRD SCENE. A ROAD POINTING THREE WAYS. ------- _Enter_ PODI MOYRANI. _Podi._ It is the degenerate Amin who is ruining the country. Is it through my own choice that I am levelling the axe at my feet,[22] by giving the young woman to the Saheb? As to that preparation which Ray made, had it not been caught[23] by Sadhu, she would have been provided with food and clothing for life. Ah, it bursts my heart when I see the face of Khetromani. Have I no feelings of compassion, because I have made a paramour my companion? Whenever she sees me still, she comes to me, calling me Aunt! Aunt! Can the mother, with a firm heart, give such _a golden deer into the grasp of the tiger_? How detestable is this, that for the sake of money, I have given up my caste and my life; and also am obliged to touch the bed of a Buno (rude tribe). That libertine, the elder Saheb, has made it a practice to beat me whenever he finds me, and has also said, he will cut off my nose and ears;—that vile man is come to an old age, can keep women in confinement, and can kick them; such a vile man, I have not seen in the present day. Let me go to the black-mouthed Amin and tell him that shall not be effected by me. Have I any power to go out in the town? Whenever the nasty fellows of the neighbourhood see me, they follow me as the Phinga (a kind of bird) does the crow. (_Aside, a song._) Whenever I sit down to reap the rice in the field, his eyes immediately come before my sight. _Enter a Cow-herd._ _Cow-herd._ _Saheb_, have not insects attacked thine Indigo-twigs?