Mahendra would resent this and say, "When does your friend intend to go back home? She seems to have become quite a fixture here."
"Oh! don't get angry with her," Asha would excitedly reply. "You don't know how she loves to hear all about you—how eagerly she dresses me up to please you!"
Rajlakshmi would not let Asha do a thing. But Binodini took her part and got her to take her share in the household work. Binodini was untiring and with herself she gave Asha no rest. She so linked together their daily duties that it became difficult for Asha to find any gap in the chain. And the thought of Asha's husband, kicking his heels in his lonely room upstairs, in helpless vexation, would rouse in Binodini's heart a hard and joyless smile.
Asha would now and then have qualms and say: "Let me go now, my Eyesore, He[1] must be getting impatient."
"Oh wait a little," Binodini would hurriedly interpose, "just finish this little bit, it won't take long."
After a while Asha would again get fidgetty and exclaim, "I must go now, dear. He'll be really annoyed. Do let me off."
"What if he does get a little angry?" Binodini would reply. "Love, without a little anger, loses its relish—like curry without the pepper!"
Of the pungency of the pepper Binodini had tasted in full measure—without the curry. Her blood was on fire. Sparks flashed from her eyes. So loving a husband, so happy a home! A home which might have been her kingdom, a husband who might have been the slave at her feet! Would then that home and that husband have remained in this miserable condition? And where she might have been queen there was this baby, this doll of a girl!
And with her arms round Asha, she would repeat: "Do tell me, my Eyesore, what happened! Did you tell him what I told you to? To hear of your love-making is more than food and drink to me."
XII
Mahendra in his annoyance said one day to his mother: "Is this proper? Why take on ourselves the responsibility of a young widow belonging to another family? I, for one, don't like it—who knows what might happen one of these days."
"She’s my Bipin's widow," said Rajlakshmi. "I don't look upon her as a stranger."
"No mother," insisted Mahendra, "I can't agree with you. She ought not to be kept here."
Rajlakshmi knew well that it was no easy thing to go against Mahendra's wishes, so she sent for Vihari and said: "Look here, Vihari, do explain matters to Mahin, there's a good soul. I'm getting a little rest in my old age by Bipin's widow being here. She may not belong to our family, but when did I ever get such care and attention from anyone in the house?"
Vihari without replying to Rajlakshmi went straight to Mahendra. "Dada," said he, "are you giving any thought to the question of Binodini?"
"Thought!" laughed Mahendra, "I can't sleep of nights for thinking! Ask your sister Asha whether the thought of Binodini has not driven all other thoughts from my mind."
Asha from behind her veil shook a warning finger at Mahendra.
"Chuni is now pining," Mahendra went on, "to have her sent away."
Asha's eyes again flashed reproof through her veil.
"Sending her away won't do," said Vihari. "What's to prevent her coming back! Get her married—that's the only way to get rid of the fangs!"
"To be serious," he continued, "I'm rather concerned about Binodini. She can't remain with you for ever; that's certain. Then again to consign her for life to the wilderness which I've just visited would be too rough on the poor girl."
Binodini had not yet appeared[2] before Mahendra. But Vihari had seen her. It was clear to him that she was not the sort of girl to throw away on a deserted village; at the same time he had his misgivings that the flame which could serve to light the lamp might also set fire to the house.
Mahendra chaffed Vihari about his concern for the fair widow; but he also inwardly arrived at the conviction that she was neither to be despised nor played with.
- ↑ The Bengali wife never takes the husband's name as being disrespectful. Some pronoun as with a capital letter, serves to denote him in the third person. Various makeshifts have to be adopted when he has to be directly addressed.
- ↑ It is possible in a big Hindu household for a girl to be staying there for years and yet remain practically unseen by the male members of the family.
