The young officer reached the house of his prospective bride without prior intimation. The maid who was washing the clothes welcomed him.

“ I have come to see the girl,” he told the bride’s mother. “No makeup and no pretence please”.

Mother went inside and sent her daughter. There she stood with arms akimbo, a beautiful girl in a cotton sari, pleats tucked from one side in her waist, hands covered in detergent.

“Here I am with no pretence”. She said.

She was the same girl whom the officer had mistaken for the maid.