Krishna Kanta's Will (Chatterjee, Knight)/Part 1/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV.
The day's work over, Gobind Lâl went, according to his daily custom, to stroll in the flower garden on the banks of the Bârunî tank. Walking amongst his flowers was one of Gobind Lâl's principal pleasures. Under each tree he would linger lovingly, but we will not describe every tree. Amid the shrubs there rose a lofty stone pedestal on which stood a white marble figure of a woman, half-draped, with downcast eyes, pouring water on her feet from a jug. All round her on the pedestal stood brightly coloured pots containing plants of geranium, verbena, euphorbia, the Indian chrysanthemum, and rose; surrounding the base of the pedestal rows of jessamine, gardenia, and other sweetly scented indigenous shrubs perfumed the air, and beyond them many sorts of flowering trees, native and foreign, blue, yellow, red, white, and many-coloured, delighted the eye. There Gobind Lâl loved to sit. On moonlight nights he would sometimes bring Bhramar to wander in the garden and sit in this spot. At sight of the half-clothed stone woman Bhramar would cry shame on it, sometimes drape it with her scarf, sometimes bring a rich garment from the house to throw over it; sometimes she would pull at the jar in the hands of the statue as if to take it from her.
Gobind Lâl was sitting there this evening admiring the beauty of the mirror-like Bârunî. Presently he saw Rohini, kalsi on hip, descending the» broad stone-built steps of the tank. People can't get on without water, however well they may manage without everything else. On this day of sorrow also Rohini had come for water. She stepped into the tank, apparently to bathe, and Gobind Lâl, thinking it undesirable to remain in sight, moved away. He wandered long about the garden; at length, concluding that Rohini must be gone, he returned to sit at the feet of the marble beauty that never ceased pouring water from the jar. Again he looked out upon the water. He saw neither Rohini nor any other human being. No one anywhere—but a kalsi floating on the surface.
Whose kalsi? Suddenly a doubt arose. Had any one, intending to take water, been drowned? Rohini had come just a short time previously to fetch water. In a flash the conversation of the morning recurred to him. He remembered that Bhramar had sent word to Rohini, bidding her drown herself that evening in the Bârunî tank. He remembered that she had returned for answer, "Very well."
Gobind Lâl came immediately to the ghât. Standing on its lowest step he looked over the whole water. It was clear as glass. Below the steps you could see to the bottom of the tank. He saw Rohini lying like a golden image beneath the water, surrounded by the clear crystal.