Summary

Margayya looks younger now, but the Goddess Lakshmi has not yet answered his prayers for wealth. Margayya’s wife pesters him to find work and, without money, the family has to go without ghee. Margayya returns to the temple but the priest has been replaced. The man says that the original priest has gone on a pilgrimage to Benares. The next day, he wanders to the market fountain. He makes a plan to sell small quantities of snuff at a low investment rate. There at the fountain he runs into Dr. Pal, who invites him back to his office to gossip.

There, Dr. Pal claims to be an “academician” only “interested in Truth” (267). He declares that men are only interested in two things: sex and money. Dr. Pal says his plan of starting a psychological clinic designed to increase “domestic happiness...