...and she began to feel shy.

Kodai smiled and said, "He wouldn’t even come inside. He said, after being scolded like that, how could he go to their house?" The young woman, peeking from behind her veil, looked at Gobar and said, "You got scared from just a little scolding? When your wife comes, where will you run then?"

The village was close by. In truth, it was not even a proper village, but a hamlet—purwa—of ten or twelve houses, half with tiled roofs, half thatched with straw. When Kodai reached home, he brought out a cot, spread a rug over it, asked for sherbet to be made, and filled his chilam. In a moment, the same young woman arrived with a lota of sherbet, sprinkled a little water on Gobar as if to ask forgiveness. He was now to become her brother-in-law. Why shouldn’t the teasing begin already?

Gobar rose before dawn and took leave of Kodai. Everyone knew by now that he was married, so no one brought up any talk of his wedding. His gentle and modest nature had won over the whole household. To Kodai’s mother, he spoke in such sweet words, with such respect for her maternal status, and gave such wise counsel that she blessed him with joy.

"You are elder, Mother, worthy of reverence. A son can never repay his mother’s debt, not in a hundred lifetimes, not in a million."

The old woman was moved to tears by this boundless devotion. After that, whatever Gobar said seemed to her only for her own good. Once a vaidya cures a patient, the patient will even drink poison from his hands gladly. Now, say, if the daughter-in-law left the house in anger today, whose disgrace would it be? Who knows the daughter-in-law? Who knows whose daughter she is, whose granddaughter? Perhaps her father was nothing but a grass-cutter...

The old woman said with certainty, "She is a grass-cutter’s daughter, son, a true grass-cutter. If you see her face in the morning, you won’t get water all day."

Gobar replied, "So what is there to laugh at such a person? The joke is on you, and your husband. Whoever asks, will only ask whose daughter-in-law she is. And she is still just a girl, innocent, wild. The daughter of low-caste parents—how could she turn out well? You’ll have to teach the old parrot to chant the name of Ram. Beating won’t teach her; only gentle affection will. Scold her, but don’t argue with her. Nothing of hers is harmed, but your own honor is lost."

When Gobar was about to leave, the old woman mixed sugar and sattu and gave it to him to eat. Several other men from the village were also heading to the city in search of work. The journey passed in conversation, and by nine o’clock they all reached the bazaar at Aminabad. Gobar was astonished—where had so many people come from? People were jostling and pressing against each other.

That