author - "Bankim Chandra Chatterjee"

ated bedstead lay an old manwho seemed to be at death's door; his eyes were sunk, his breathhurried, his lips trembling. By the side of his bed stood an earthenlamp upon a fragment of brick taken from the ruins of the house. In itthe oil was deficient; so also was it in the body of the man. Anotherlamp shone by the bedside--a girl of faultlessly fair face, of soft,starry beauty.Whether because the light from the oil-less lamp was dim, or becausethe two occupants of the house were absorbed in