Asha gently released herself, and brushing away the last of the clinging vakula blossoms from her drapery, said, "No more of this, for shame! Go, I pray you, and bring mother back at once."
As she said this a shout of "Dada, Dada" was heard from the storey below.
"Hullo, is it you, come along," shouted Mahendra in reply. He was overjoyed to hear Vihari's voice.
After their marriage Vihari used to come now and then as an intruder into their happiness. The preservation of that happiness now seemed badly to want that same intrusion.
Asha also felt greatly relieved at Vihari's arrival. Seeing Asha start to her feet and veil herself with the upper fold of her sari, Mahendra said, "Where are you off to? It's only Vihari. You needn't treat him so formally as all that!"
"Let me go and bring some refreshment for brother Vihari," replied Asha, her heart feeling considerably lightened at having some definite duty to perform.
Asha, however, tarried a little, with veil adjusted,[1] waiting to hear news of her mother-in-law. She was not yet sufficiently familiar with Vihari to be on speaking terms with him.
"O Lord," ejaculated Vihari, as soon as he came to the verandah, "what a world of poesy have I stepped into! Dont worry, sister Asha, you stay on, I'll decamp!"
Asha looked towards Mahendra, and Mahendra inquired, "What news of mother, Vihari."
"'Such a night was not made for sleep'," quoted Vihari in English, "nor for mothers and aunts! Why bother about them now? There's time enough for that," with which he was about to turn and go, when Mahendra pulled Vihari down beside him by main force.
"Look here, sister Asha," said Vihari, "it's no fault of mine. The sin is Dada's, let not your curse lie on me!"
Asha used to wax all the more indignant at Vihari's chaff because she was not in a position to reply. Vihari took a peculiar pleasure in rousing her ire.
"The tidiness of the house," Vihari went on, "is perfectly plain,—don't you think it's high time to call mother home?"
"What d'you mean?" retorted Mahendra, "it's we who are waiting for her to come back."
"To write a line just to tell her so," said Vihari, "would take you very little time, but would make her infinitely happy. Sister Asha, my humble petition is that you spare him for just these two minutes."
Asha went off in high dudgeon, she was actually in tears.
"In what an auspicious moment you two must have first met!" said Mahendra, "you don't seem to manage to patch up any sort of peace. You're always at it!"
"First of all," said Vihari, "your mother has spoilt you. Now your wife has begun spoiling you over again. This sort of thing I can't stand, and that's why whenever I get a chance I let fly."
Mahendra—"What good does that do?"
Vihari—"It doesn't do you any good that I can see, but it does me."
(To be continued)
Translated by
Surendranath Tagore.
GLEANINGS
Are Red Indians Siberians?
Evidence that the original home of the so-called American Indian was in Siberia, whence the ancestors of the present tribes emigrated to America after the close of the glacial period, is presented in The Scientific American Supplement (New York, May 17) by Carl Hawes Butman. According to Mr. Butman, the probable ancestor of the Red Indians has been unearthed in Siberia by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, of the National Museum, in a course of a recent trip made to northern Asia for this purpose. Dr. Hrdlicka believes that many modern Siberian tribes are closely related to the Red Indians and show that relationship, not only in their customs and traditions, but in their physical characteristics and facial traits. Anthropolgists have long believed, Mr. Butman says, that some relationship of this kind exists. He writes in substance:
- ↑ Sign of respect and womanly reserve.
