GHAZIPORE. 
71 
“ Be pleased for a moment. Protector of the Poor, 
to regard the now faded features and the no-longer- 
youthful frame of your humble slave.” Here the old 
man reared himself to the height of his stature, looking 
proudly around him. " Do you not confess that, 
although now time-worn and care-worn, and at all 
times insignificant in your honour’s presence, the son 
of Dewal has in his youth possessed both strength and 
grace and beauty ? If so, how much more perfect 
was Dewal himself. Dewal and Bhagut were almost 
as remarkable for their noble bearing and their beauty 
as was their father, and the divine Brahma saw fit to 
bless them with wives of equal loveliness and excel- 
lence. The first years of their married life, though 
spent in the absence of wealth and grandeur, were those 
of happiness and mutual delight. But, alas ! human 
felicity can never be complete. The content and 
satisfaction which at first reigned within our dwelling 
were sadly broken up, when, as the seasons came and 
passed away, the amiable Lall Radha remained un- 
blessed with any offspring ; while in the course of six 
years my mother’s family consisted of no less than five. 
Neither envy nor jealousy entered the heart of that 
excellent woman, though daily her cheek sunk with se- 
cret grief, and the hilarity of youth and happiness fled 
from her languid hut all-beautiful form. It was evident 
that the displeasure of God was upon her or her hus- 
band ; fasting and penance, prayer and sacrifice were 
alike ineffectual ; and at last the devout Bhagut resolved 
