Shunno took no notice of her mistress’s temper and went on pressing. After a while she started again. ‘We have heard other things today.’

‘Bus, bus, it seems you can’t digest your food without slandering people.’

‘As you wish. Don’t be angry with me later on for not having warned you in time.’

The mistress relented. After waiting some time for Shunno to continue, she lost patience and asked meekly, ‘What is it?

‘Don’t blame me! We have heard that Wazir Chand’s son’s wife has gone away to her mother’s.’

‘She is going to have a baby. What is so important about her going to her mother’s to have it?’

‘We have heard that she has been turned out; she was old-fashioned.’

Sabhrai made no rejoinder. She had also heard from someone else that Madan had been describing his wife as illiterate.

‘Our Beena is growing up fast,’ continued the maid-servant after a significant pause.

‘What’s that to you?’ snapped Sabhrai; she knew what it was leading up to.

‘It is not good to keep a young girl at home. It is time we thought of her marriage. If you find a nice Sikh boy . . .’

‘You find one and then talk.’

Shunno realized that any talk about Beena would only lead to a snub, so she changed the subject. ‘Our queen, our daughter-in-law, is idle all day.’

‘What shall I do? Beat her?’

‘It is not good to be idle all day. She reads stories and listens to film songs over the radio.’ As her mistress did not reply, Shunno went on. ‘How long has she been married? Isn’t this the second year? There are no signs of a child appearing!’

‘You ask her to have one.’

‘I? She doesn’t even talk to me; as if I was an enemy. She won’t let me press her when she is tired. She is always asking Mundoo.’

Again Sabhrai made no comment.

‘This Mundoo is getting very cheeky.’

‘Is there anyone in the world you do not malign? Whether you are well or ill, you never curb your tongue form gossip and slander.’

‘Hai, Hai,’ protested Shunno. ‘Whatever I say is gossip.’

She pressed her mistress in silence for a few more minutes, then heaved herself up and went down moaning about her age and illness and invoking the Great Guru.

‘We Indians have no character.’

When Buta Singh made such statements he excepted himself. But when he added: ‘We have still a lot to learn from the English,’ the implication was that he had done all the learning there was to be done; it was for other Indians to follow his example. In the past these remarks had been directed to the shortcomings of Wazir Chand’s character. Of late Buta Singh had to make his references less pointed because his son and daughter had begun to see a lot of Madan and Sita.