vanced, but did not find her. In despair, Pratap concluded that Shaibalini must have drowned herself in the river. He could feel that it was no longer impossible for her to commit suicide in that way.
Pratap at first thought that he was the cause of Shaibalini's death, but he also felt that he had never deviated from the path of virtue and trodden on that of sin, and the cause for which Shaibalini had put an end to her life was more than what he could remove. So Pratap did not find any reason to blame himself. He blamed Chandra Shekhar a little for having married Shaibalini. Again, he became a little angry with Rupashi—why had she been married to him instead of Shaibalini? He became a bit more angry with Sundari; for if she had not set Pratap to Shaibalini's rescue, he would have had no occasion to swim with her along the waters of the Ganges, and so she would not have died. But Pratap became most angry with Foster; for if he had not caused Shaibalini to desert her husband's home, all this would not have happened at all. Then again, if the English had not come out to India, Shaibalini would not have fallen into Foster's
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