Srikanta
life, and for the integrity of her character. But when one day she slipped accidentally and became at the age of thirty a helpless cripple confined to her bed, none of her neighbours came forward to do anything for her in her distress. Immaculate Hindu society shut all its doors and windows in her face.[1] Niru Didi, after an illness of six months which she silently endured in ignominy, neglected by the very neighbours whom she had so often helped and cared for, at last passed away in the middle of a dark, rainy night, without the slightest medical aid to alleviate her pain.
No one but an old maidservant and I knew that my aunt helped Niru Didi in secret. She called me to her one day at noon and said, 'Srikanta, my boy, it is not unusual for you, I know, to attend on sick people: I should like you to go and see that poor girl now and then.' After that, I visited her from time to time and supplied her with a few necessaries which I purchased with the money my aunt gave me for the purpose. I was the only person who was with her at the time of her death. I have never seen in anybody else at the hour of death such a strange combination of hallucination with full possession of the faculties as I saw in her. I will tell the story to show that though one may not believe in anything uncanny or supernatural one cannot help instinctive reactions of fear.
It was a dark night of rain and storm: after midnight the howling tempest seemed ready to uproot the foundations of the earth in its fury. All the doors and windows
- ↑ Because her physical misfortune was considered to be the penalty for sin in a previous life.
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