My sister-in-law, the Bara Rani, [5] was still young and had no pretensions to saintliness. Rather, her talk and jest and laugh inclined to be forward. The young maids with whom she surrounded herself were also impudent to a degree. But there was none to gainsay her--for was not this the custom of the house? It seemed to me that my good fortune in having a stainless husband was a special eyesore to her. He, however, felt more the sorrow of her lot than the defects of her character. ------ 1. The mark of Hindu wifehood and the symbol of all the devotion that it implies. 2. The __sari__ is the dress of the Hindu woman. 3. Taking the dust of the feet is a formal offering of reverence and is done by lightly touching the feet of the revered one and then one's own head with the same hand. The wife does not ordinarily do this to the husband. 4. It would not be reckoned good form for the husband to be continually going into the zenana, except at particular hours for meals or rest. 5. __Bara__ = Senior; __Chota__ = Junior. In joint families of rank, though the widows remain entitled only to a life-interest in their husbands' share, their rank remains to them according to seniority, and the titles "Senior" and "Junior" continue to distinguish the elder and younger branches, even though the junior branch be the one in power. II My husband was very eager to take me out of __purdah__. [6] One day I said to him: "What do I want with the outside world?" "The outside world may want you," he replied. "If the outside world has got on so long without me, it may go on for some time longer. It need not pine to death for want of me." "Let it perish, for all I care! That is not troubling me. I am thinking about myself." "Oh, indeed. Tell me what about yourself?" My husband was silent, with a smile. I knew his way, and protested at once: "No, no, you are not going to run away from me like that! I want to have this out with you." "Can one ever finish a subject with words?" "Do stop speaking in riddles. Tell me..." "What I want is, that I should have you, and you should have me, more fully in the outside world. That is where we are still in debt to each other." "Is anything wanting, then, in the love we have here at home?" "Here you are wrapped up in me. You know neither what you have, nor what you want." "I cannot bear to hear you talk like this." "I would have you come into the heart of the outer world and meet reality. Merely going on with your household duties, living all your life in the world of household conventions and the drudgery of household tasks--you were not made for that! If we meet, and recognize each other, in the real world, then only will our love be true." "If there be any drawback here to our full recognition of each other, then I have nothing to say. But as for myself, I feel no want." "Well, even if the drawback is only on my side, why shouldn't you help to remove it?"