here, Vihari, you mustn't forget that Binodini isn't quite one of the family. I suspect she doesn't relish the familiarity of your coming into her presence."
"Oh indeed!" said Vihari. "In that case it's certainly not the thing to do. If she doesn't like it, why need I go?"
Mahendra felt greatly relieved. He was afraid of Vihari, and had not expected that this trying interview would pass off so easily.
That very day Vihari turned up in the inner apartments of Mahendra's house and said to Binodini: "Sister Binod, you must forgive me."
Binodini.—"What for, Vihari Babu?"
Vihari.—"Mahendra tells me you are annoyed at the liberty I've been taking, so I'm here to ask your forgiveness before finally ceasing my visits."
"Nonsense, Vihari Babu, why should you stay away because of a bird of passage like me? I'd never have come to this house had I known it would lead to all this trouble;" with which Binodini went off with troubled mien, as if to hide her tears.
It flashed across Vihari that perhaps he had been hasty in suspecting Binodini and had wronged the poor girl.
That evening Rajlakshmi came to Mahendra in great dismay. "Mahin," she cried, "Bipin's widow insists on going back home."
"Why, mother?" asked Mahendra, "what's wrong here?"
Rajlakshmi.—"Nothing, but she says people may begin to talk if a young widow like her goes on staying with another family."
Mahendra was hurt. "So we are strangers after all!" he said, and he glared at Vihari who was seated in the room.
"I must have let fall something savouring of a reflection on her, which has wounded Binodini," thought the repentant Vihari.
Both husband and wife made a regular onslaught on Binodini. "So we are only strangers, my dear!" said one. "After all this time we are nothing to you," added the other.
"Would you keep me captive for ever?" sighed Binodini.
"Dare we hope so much?" asked Mahendra. "Then why did you steal away our hearts," wailed Asha.
Nothing was settled that day. "No, my friends," said Binodini firmly, "why prolong the agony?—staying on would only make the wrench harder;" at the conclusion of which speech she threw a heart-broken glance at Mahendra.
The next day Vihari came and said: "Why are you talking of leaving, sister Binod, is it a punishment for any crime of mine?"
Turning away her face to hide her emotion Binodini replied: "Why your crime? 'Tis my fate!"
"If you go, I'll never forgive myself, said Vihari.
Binodini looked at Vihari with mournful pleading eyes as she asked: "Do you really think I ought to stay, tell me truly?"
Vihari was in a dilemma. How could he say that she really ought to? "Of course I know you must go," he said at length, "but what's the harm in staying on just for a while?"
"If all of you insist on my remaining," said Binodini with downcast eyes, "I suppose I must yield to your entreaties. But I tell you, you are not doing right." And from beneath her long eyelashes big tear-drops coursed down her cheeks.
These silent tears were too much for Vihari. "You've won everybody's heart in the short time you've been here, that's why nobody wants to let you go," said he consolingly. "Who'd willingly part with a treasure?"
After that Binodini did not again broach the subject of her departure.
XVII
With the idea of removing all traces of the recent unpleasantness Mahendra suggested: "Let's have a picnic next Sunday at the Dum-dum Villa[1]"
Asha's enthusiasm was unbounded; but Binodini would not be persuaded. Whereupon both Mahendra and Asha were bitterly disappointed. Binodini is getting more and more distant, thought they.
When in the evening Vihari turned up as usual, Binodini appealed to him: "Is this fair, Vihari Babu? Both of them are angry with me because I refuse to intrude on their picnic in the Dum-dum Villa."
"I can't blame them," replied Vihari, "I wouldn't wish my worst enemy the sort
- ↑ .Those citizens of Calcutta who can afford it often have a villa (lit. a garden-house) in its precincts, which is used for purposes of occasional relaxation and change. A Bengali picnic implies pot-luck cooked al fresco.
