Krishna Kanta's Will (Chatterjee, Knight)/Part 2/Chapter 1
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
News came to the house in Haridrâ village that Gobind Lâl, his mother, and the rest, had arrived at Benares safely and in good health. No letter came to Bhramar, and she, from pride, never wrote to Gobind Lâl. The letters came to the men of business.
A month passed, two months passed, and letters continued to come. At length news arrived that Gobind Lâl had left Benares for home.
Hearing this, Bhramar comprehended that Gobind Lâl had given this out to deceive his mother, but had gone elsewhere. She had no hope of his coming home.
At this time Bhramar made constant secret inquiry for news of Rohini. She heard of her as being engaged in cooking, sewing, eating, bathing, fetching water, but nothing else for some time. At length one day news came that Rohini was ill, that she lay in her room with shaven head, unable to go out, and that Brahmânanda was cooking for himself.
Then it was said that Rohini was somewhat better, but the cause of her illness was not removed; that she had sharp internal pains which could not be cured; that she was going to the holy shrine at Târakeswar[1] to be cured by self-torture. Then news came that she had gone to Târakeswar, gone alone, for who was there to go with her?
Thus three or four months passed, Gobind Lâl did not return; five, six months, yet he came not. Bhramar wept ceaselessly. She thought incessantly, "Where is he? How is he? If I knew only this I could live. Why do I not hear even this?"
At length Bhramar spoke to her husband's sister, and got a letter written to his mother saying, "As his mother you certainly must have news of your son." The mother wrote that she had news of Gobind Lâl. He had been journeying to Allâhabâd, Mathurâ, Jâipur, and other places, and was now dwelling at Delhi. He would soon be going elsewhere, as he made no stay at any place.
Meanwhile Rohini did not return. Bhramar thought, "God knows where Rohini is gone. I, a sinful creature, will not utter my suspicions." Bhramar could endure no more; weeping incessantly, she gave notice to her sister-in-law, and then went by palanquin to her father's house. Finding it even more difficult at this place to obtain news of her husband, she returned to Haridrâ, and again wrote to her mother-in-law. This time the mother wrote, "Gobind Lâl no longer sends news. I do not know where he is now; I hear nothing." So passed the first year. At its close Bhramar was lying on a sick bed. The Aparâjitâ[2] flower had withered.