"No, no," Mahendra insisted. "D'you want us to fall into the hands of drunken soldiers?"
It got dark before the things could be gathered together and packed up. Meanwhile the servants came and reported that the carriage had been commandeered by some soldiers and driven off to the railway station. So a man had to be sent off to fetch another.
"What a miserably mis-spent day!" thought the disgusted Mahendra. He could hardly keep his irritation to himself.
The moon struggled up out of the fringe of trees on the horizon, and mounted to the clear sky above. The silent, motionless garden became chequered all over with light and shade. Binodini in the midst of this magical beauty seemed to find in herself an entirely new creature. And there was no trace of affectation in the affectionate embrace with which she put her arms round Asha under the shade of the trees. Asha saw the tears in her eyes, and, greatly pained, asked: "What is it, Eyesore, dear, why do you weep?"
"It's nothing, dear," replied Binodini, "I am so happy; It has been such a wonderful day."
"What makes you think so much of it?" asked Asha.
"I feel as if I have died and come to another world," said Binodini, "where everything may yet be mine!"
The mystified Asha could not understand. The allusion to death shocked her, and she said reprovingly: "Don't talk of such ominous things, my dear!"
A carriage arrived at last. Vihari again got on the coach box. Binodini silently gazed out into the night, and the shadows of the trees, standing sentinel in the moonlight, passed in procession before her gaze. Asha fell asleep in her corner of the carriage. Mahendra was deep in the blues during the whole of the long journey.
XVIII
After that trying day of the picnic Mahendra was anxious to make an attempt to re-conquer Binodini. But the very next day Rajlakshmi was down with influenza. The malady was not serious, but she became very weak and suffered considerably. Binodini devoted herself to nursing her day and night.
"If you go on like this you'll get ill yourself," said Mahendra; "let me engage some one to look after mother."
"Don't you worry, Dada," said Vihari; "let her go on with what she considers her duty. No one else can do it half so well."
Mahendra would be constantly coming to the invalid's room. But Binodini could not bear to see him fussing about where he was of no use. "How are you improving matters by sitting here!" she had to tell him more than once. "Why needlessly miss your college?"
Binodini felt a certain pride and satisfaction in having Mahendra at her feet. But when Binodini took up any duty, she had no thought for anything else, and she could not brook this spectacle of Mahendra's hankering heart displayed beside his mother's sick-bed—it revolted her.
Vihari would now and then come to inquire after Rajlakshmi. Whenever he entered the room he could tell at a glance if anything was amiss, and after quietly setting it right he would slip out. Binodini felt that her nursing had earned her Vihari's respect, and at his visits she somehow felt rewarded.
Smarting under his rebuff, Mahendra threw himself into his college work. And while this did not improve his temper, he was further exasperated by the change that had come over the household arrangements. His meals were not ready in time, the coachman was occasionally not to be found, the holes in his socks grew bigger and bigger. He had come to know the comfort of finding everything ready in its place when wanted, and Asha's innate inability no longer appeared a matter for indulgent amusement.
"How often have I told you, Chuni," he broke out one day, "to have the studs put in my shirt while I am bathing, and my college suit laid out. Why is it I never find them ready and get delayed every morning after my bath!" . "I told the boy about it," faltered Asha, greatly abashed.
"Told the boy, did you? What would have been the harm if you had seen to it yourself? One never gets any help from you at all!"
This was a thunderbolt for Asha. She had never been spoken to so sharply. But it did not occur to her to reply "It is you who stood in the way of my learning how to help!" She had always blamed her
