As the time drew near the whole household felt the thrill of expectation that never fails to move a family when one of its members is expected home after a long sojourn in foreign lands. What news there would be to hear, and to tell! The traveller would bring gifts for all. No one would be forgotten. One morning a post peon appeared carrying a telegram. It was addressed to Pantulu's brother, Sooba, the little master, as he was called; and it announced that the ship had come in safely and that the passengers would land that afternoon. "Is there anything in the telegram about the time they will leave Bombay?" asked the guru's attendant, as he waited to carry news to the great man. Gunga handed him the message in its brown envelope. Ten minutes later he returned. "The master says that they will start to-morrow probably, either by the morning or evening mail, according to the time it takes to clear the luggage through the custom house." The guru was well versed in matters temporal as well as spiritual. "When may we expect them?" asked Gunga. "It takes two nights and a day to travel from Bombay to Chirapore," replied the disciple. "If they leave to-morrow night they will be here on Wednesday morning." "The day before the new moon! Not a lucky day to be travelling south," remarked Gunga, with a troubled expression upon her face. "If my husband remembers to go out of the house in which he is staying by a north door, the bad luck may be averted." "He will surely think of it," observed the disciple, whose life was occupied in the consideration of omens. "In the joy of meeting his son it is quite possible that it may be forgotten. I know that my lord will be nearly beside himself with delight at seeing his boy again, his only child!" she added softly, with a tenderness that she rarely exhibited. That same afternoon a second telegram was received. It said "Disperse guests. Discontinue preparations for feasting and rejoicing." Gunga listened speechless as her brother-in-law read it aloud. "Again," she commanded. He read it a second and a third time. "Is there nothing about illness? Is no reason given for these strange orders?" "None, most honourable mother of my brother's family." "Call his excellency, the swami." The guru, full of curiosity, came at the summons without delay. He read the message more than once, but was unable to throw any more light upon its meaning. "A letter will come with full explanations," he said at last. "Until its arrival the directions of the master of the house must be carried out. My disciple shall tell the company of beggars who are already assembling that there will be no feasting. He had better give them an anna apiece, which you will provide, and say that they will be called together again on the arrival of the master." "What can be the cause of this change?" asked Gunga, her dark eyes fixed with a questioning gaze upon the guru. "Illness, perhaps, or an accident."