THE OPEN DOOR.


Here again is something that is very peculiar and not very uncommon.

* * * * *

We, myself and three other friends of mine, were asked by another friend
of ours to pass a week's holiday at the suburban residence of the last
named. We took an evening train after the office hours and reached our
destination at about 10-30 at night. The place was about 60 miles from
Calcutta.

Our host had a very large house with a number of disused wings. I do not
think many of my readers have any idea of a large residential house in
Bengal. Generally it is a quadrangular sort of thing with a big yard in
the centre which is called the "Angan" or "uthan" (a court-yard). On all
sides of the court-yard are rooms of all sorts of shapes and sizes.
There are generally two stories--the lower used as kitchen, godown,
store-room, etc., and the upper as bed-rooms, etc.

[Illustration: ABCDE is the shady foot-path from the lake to the front
of the house. * is the open door.]

Now this particular house of our friend was of the kind described above.
It stood on extensive grounds wooded with fruit and timber trees.
There was also a big tank, a miniature lake in fact, which was the
property of my friend. There was good fishing in the lake and that was