and tried to take them away from his hand.
But Mahendra would not let her, and replaced them in his pocket saying: "I went at the call of duty, and you couldn't understand—you doubted me!"
"Forgive me this time, it'll never happen again," said Asha, tearfully.
"Never?" insisted Mahendra.
"Never!" repeated Asha.
And then Mahendra drew her to him and kissed her.
"Let me have the letters," said Asha. "I'll tear them up."
"Let them be," said Mahendra.
"'Tis my just punishment that he should keep the letters," thought Asha.
The episode of the letters set up a sort of barrier between Asha and her friend. She did not hasten to share with Binodini her rapture at her husband's return—but rather seemed to avoid her. This did not escape Binodini, who, on the pretext of some work or other, kept altogether at a distance.
"This is very strange," mused Mahendra. "I should have thought that Binodini would now bring herself a little more forward, hut it happens to he quite the reverse. What then could be the meaning of those letters?" Mahendra's mind had been quite firmly made up—he would make no attempt to unravel the mysteries of woman's ways. If Binodini tried to come near, he would remain distant, so he had decided. He now thought differently. "This is not right," he said to himself. "It's like admitting that something really is the matter. Why should we seem to distrust each other? This strained situation must be relieved by talking and laughing with Binodini in the old natural way."
Said Mahendra to Asha one morning: "It seems I have become your friend's eyesore! We never get to see her now-a-days."
"Goodness knows what's the matter with her," replied Asha unconcernedly.
On the other hand Rajlakshmi was in tears. "There's no keeping Bipin's widow with us any more," she said that afternoon.
Mahendra tried not to show how startled he was, as he asked: "Why, mother?"
"Who knows, my son, but she insists on going back. You people don't know how to treat her properly. Why should a well-bred girl want to stay on in a strange house if she's not made to feel at home!"
Binodini was in her room hemming a bed-sheet. Mahendra, as he went in there, called out: "Friend Eyesore!"
Binodini collected herself, and, sitting upright, replied: "What is it, Mahendra Babu?"
"O Lord!" he ejaculated. "Since when has Mahendra become Babu?"
"Then what am I to call you?" asked Binodini, with eyes fixed on her sewing.
"The same as you do your friend—your Eyesore."
Binodini seemed to be unready with her usual repartee and silently went on sewing.
"Too apt an epithet to serve as a pet-name I suppose?" suggested Mahendra.
Binodini paused a little to cut off a bit of thread with her teeth, and then said: "You know best, I don't." Without waiting for a reply she gravely continued: "How is it you have suddenly left your college quarters?"
"How long d'you expect me to go on dissecting dead bodies?" returned Mahendra.
Binodini had to bite off another bit of thread, and with it still in her mouth she said: "So you want live bodies now!"
Mahendra had come with the set purpose of entertaining Binodini with conversation and badinage in his most natural manner. But such a profound seriousness seemed to be settling down on him that nothing light by way of reply would come. Finding Binodini to-day bent upon maintaining a cold distance, Mahendra's whole being seemed to want to get closer, to shake down the obstructing barriers by main force. Without taking up Binodini's last challenge, he edged nearer and asked: "Why are you leaving us, what have we done?"
Bioodini shifted her position, sitting a little further back, as she raised her face from her work, and, fixing her glorious eyes on Mahendra, said: "Each of us has our own duties. Was it for anybody's fault that you went off to your college rooms? Haven't I also my place to fill?"
Mahendra could not think of a fitting reply. After a pause he hesitatingly asked: "What can be the duties which compel you to go?"
Binodini's whole attention was directed to threading her needle. "My conscience tells me of my duties," she replied. "What explanation of them can I give to you?"
