Dhaniya flared up and rushed forward—“You too are trying to take the thick branch. I alone am to blame, am I? She’s showering flowers on me, is she?”

The battlefield shifted.

“He who stoops to argue with the lowly becomes lowly himself.”

By what logic could Dhaniya accept that Jhunia was lowly?

With a pained voice, Hori said, “Fine, she’s not lowly, she’s greater, if you wish. But if someone does not wish to stay, will you bind them here? They have hands and feet now. What do you want—that they bring fodder and feed us? A parent’s duty is wholly to their children. Children have not even a sixteenth of that duty toward their parents. If someone leaves, bid them farewell with your blessings. Our fate is in God’s hands. Whatever is destined, we shall endure. Forty, forty-seven years have passed in tears and sorrow. A few more years remain—they too will pass the same way.”

Meanwhile, Gobar was preparing to leave. Even the water of this house was forbidden to him now. When a mother speaks such words, he would not even look at her face again.

In no time, his bedding was packed. Jhunia too donned her chunari. Munnu, dressed in his cap and frock, looked like a little prince.

With a choked voice, Hori said, “Son, I have no right to say anything to you, but my heart cannot bear it. Would it be so wrong to go and touch the feet of your unfortunate mother? The mother whose womb bore you, whose blood nourished you—can you not do even this much for her?”

Turning his face away, Gobar said, “I do not consider her my mother.”

Tears welled up in Hori’s eyes. “As you wish. Wherever you go, may you be happy.”

Jhunia went to her mother-in-law and touched her feet with the end of her sari. Not a single word of blessing escaped Dhaniya’s lips. She did not even raise her eyes to look. Gobar, carrying the child in his arms, walked ahead. Jhunia, clutching the bedding, followed behind. A chamar boy carried their box. Several men and women from Nand’s family accompanied Gobar to the edge of the village.

Dhaniya sat weeping, as if someone were sawing through her heart. Her mind felt like a house set ablaze, everything inside turned to ashes. There was not even a place left to sit and weep.

For some days now, there had been no talk of Rai Sahib’s daughter’s marriage. The election too was at hand, but above all, he had to pursue the Eden litigation, whose court fee alone was fifty thousand rupees, not to mention the other expenses. He was the sole master of his estate, yet in the prime of his youth, he had been ousted. And Rai Sahib, on behalf of his young son, wished to reclaim that estate by seeking refuge in the courts. His wife’s cousins had seized the estate and refused to give up any share. Rai Sahib,