"A girl stood alone in the dark, listening. No one moved about her; the old mother-in-law who slept near by breathed steadily, she would not waken yet awhile. the girl drew back the heavy iron bolts of the door and slipped out into the night. Out there, in the soft warm air, with the white stars looking down on her with only pity in their eyes, she stopped; she knew the thing she purposed doing was unreasonable and hopelessly wrong; but she was too desperate with loneliness to care. Life since her husband had died had been too hard to live. A widow's life in India--God only knows how hard it can be made--she could bear it no longer; she had crept out now to end it, as so many girls have ended it." (from Chapter 1)