THE VISIT OF A SILVERSMITH, AND 
ITS RESULTS. 
pulled a small light string off’ the edge of her cloth, 
bound it round the mouth end, to keep it tight, she 
then wet her finger with spittle, rubbing it all /over 
the cigar, until it was quite moist, then putting it 
in her own mouth, and lifting a burning stick from 
the fire, lighted the cigar, and herself took a few 
puffs, just to see that it would draw. After she was 
certain it was all right, she comes up behind the 
tattan, and, without saying a word, puts the lighted 
cigar in his mouth. The maii never uttered a word, or 
moved a muscle, but puffed away. The woman now 
sits down on the ground beside him, and leans her 
cheek upon his knee, a very nice sketch it would be 
for a painter, on matrimonial reconciliation ! Two 
bright eyes gazed into the hard stern ones of the man, 
two pretty lips slowly moved into his rough mous- 
tache, then they muttered something about bracelets, 
necklaces, and anklets. The tattan nodded, and put 
his arm round her waist, listened to a woeful story, 
how all the wom^ on the estate were laughing at his 
wife, saying, the lowest-caste cooly women were better 
dressed than she, that she was no better than a cooly, 
and all she was good for was to carry firewood and 
charcoal for her husband. A dark angry frown passed 
over the face of the tattan, he threw the end of 
his cigar into the fire, put his arm round his wife’s 
waist and kissed her ! A triumphant gleam of satis- 
faction passed over the countenance of the woman ; 
^he knew her troubles were come to an end, and that 
her tactics of assumed patient submission had gained 
the victory. So she spoke no more, in case of spoiling 
what she had achieved ; she only put her cloth over 
her face, and wept, or pretended to. The tattan rises 
up puts a key into a box, opens it, taking out the 
bracelets, necklaces and anklets with his own hands 
he fastens them all on where they ought to be. The 
woman makes no movement, is quite passive in his 
hands, and, instead of rejoicing at the reconciliation, 
strange to say, continues to weep and sob more bitterly 
than before, actually choking. Tenderly the tattan 
inquires why his darling is breaking her heart, and 
tenderly is informed that a number of the kanganis’ 
wives had all got new dresses, in which they appeared 
at the bazar last Sunday, and how can she go out 
or be seen with any of her old ones ? They would just 
sneer, and say . ” The considers any old rag good 
enough for you. “He promptly replied. The tattan 
considers nothing of the sort : on the contrary, he con- 
siders that the best cloth ever possessed by the head 
kangani’s wife is not good enough for his. Go down 
to the bazar to-morrow, buy the best and most ex- 
