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SIGNS OF THE TIMES
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give us cash the thousand rupees they are to cost; then, with thousand rupees of ours joined to it, I can have ornaments made to my taste in Calcutta. I shall have to go there to get this box opened."

Bou Didi, with her hand pressed to her brow, thought over the suggestion, then said—"It is not a bad idea. They shall be told to do that. And when we send the bride back to her parents we can array her in the ornaments."

"Say, sister-in-law, how many days will it take to go to Calcutta, get the ornaments made, and bring them here?"

"How many days? If you go to sister Abala's house in Nebutolah, call in the jeweller, and cause him to sit there and make the ornaments, they will be ready in seven days. That is how she has her own ornaments made."

"Will the Ghoshes agree?"

"Why should they not?"—replied the sister-in-law, who then went to consult her husband. Bijai Mitra said—"I see no reason why they should not agree." But, turning things over in his mind as he smoked, he thought within himself—"Whether my brother has secured a good post or not, his character has much deteriorated."

Atul Ghosh agreed. He could not let his daughter appear on the marriage seat quite