mal ask if the marriage
had taken place. Surja Mukhi had lost flesh; her figure, formerly
straight as a pine, had become bent like a bow; her laughing eyes were
sunk; her lily face had lost its roundness.

Kamal Mani comprehended that the marriage was accomplished. She
inquired, "When was it?"

Surja Mukhi answered, "Yesterday."

Then the two sat down together, neither speaking. Surja Mukhi hid her
face in the other's lap, and wept. Kamal Mani's tears fell on Surja
Mukhi's unbound hair.

Of what was Nagendra thinking at that time as he sat in the _boita
khana_? His thoughts said: "Kunda Nandini! Kunda is mine; Kunda is my
wife! Kunda! Kunda! she is mine!"

Srish Chandra sat down beside him, but Nagendra could say little; he
could think only, "Surja Mukhi herself hastened to give Kunda to me in
marriage; who then can object to my enjoying this happiness?"

CHAPTER XXI.

SURJA MUKHI AND KAMAL MANI.

When, in the evening, the two gained self-control to talk together,
Surja Mukhi related the affair of the marriage from beginning to end.

Astonished, Kamal Mani said--

"This marriage has been brought about by your exertions! Why have you
thus sacrificed yourself?"

Surja Mukhi smiled, a faint smile indeed, like the pale flashes of
lightning after rain; then answered--

"What am I? Look upon your brother's face, radiant with happiness,
then you will know what joy is his. If I have been able with my own
eyes to see him so happy, has not my life answered its purpose? What
joy could I hope for in denying happiness to him? He for whom I would
die rather than see him unhappy for a single hour; him I saw day and
night suffering anguish, ready to abandon all joys and become a
wanderer--what happiness would have remained to me? I said to him, 'My
lord, your joy is my joy! Do you marry Kunda; I shall be happy.' And
so he married her."

"And are you happy?" asked Kamal.

"Why do you still ask about me? what am I? If I had ever seen my
husband hurt his foot by walking on a stony path, I should have
reproached myself that I had not laid my body down over the stones
that he might have stepped upon me."

Surja Mukhi remained some moments silent, her dress drenched with her
tears. Suddenly raising her face, she asked--

"Kamal, in what country are females destroyed at birth?"

Kamal understanding her thought, replied--

"What does it matter in what country it happens? it is according to
destiny."

"Whose d