RAMESH now intended to start practising as a pleader at the Alipore Courts in Calcutta, but he seemed to have completely lost energy. He lacked the necessary determination to set to work with a settled purpose and to overcome all the obstacles that beset the budding lawyer’s path. He contracted the habit of going for purposeless walks across the Hourah bridge or round College Square, and he was contemplating a trip to the north-west when he received a letter from Annada Babu. The old gentleman had written:
I saw in the Gazette that you had passed, but I was sorry not to hear this from you personally. It is a long time since we heard from, or of, you. You must allay your old friends’ anxiety by letting us know how you are and when you are coming to Calcutta.
It would not be out of place to mention here that the youth in England on whom Annada Babu had cast his eyes as a possible son-in-law had been called to the bar, had returned to India, and was already engaged to a young lady of means.
Ramesh doubted greatly whether after all that had occurred it would be right for him to renew his acquaintance with Hemnalini on the old footing. For the present, at all events, he could not reveal to any one the nature of his connection with Kamala, for that would involve exposing the innocent girl to social ignominy. And yet if he were to resume his former relations with Hemnalini he would have to make a clean breast of it.
In any case he could not, without being uncivil, delay answering Annada Babu’s letter; so he wrote:
Please forgive me for not calling on you; I have been prevented from doing so by circumstances over which I have no control.
But he did not give his new address.
The day after he had posted his reply he donned the traditional headgear of the pleader and set out to make his first appearance at the Alipore Courts.
One day he had walked part of the way back from the Courts and was on the point of hiring a cab to take him home when he heard a well-known voice exclaim: “Dad, there’s Ramesh Babu!”
“Stop, driver, stop,” cried a man’s voice, and a carriage drew up close to where Ramesh was standing. Annada Babu and his daughter were returning from a picnic at the Alipore Zoo, hence this unexpected meeting.
No sooner had Ramesh set eyes on Hemnalini in the carriage — Hemnalini with her sweet, serene face, her dress and her hair arranged in the distinctive style so familiar to him, the plain bangles and the gold bracelets cut in facets on her wrists — than a wave of emotion surged up in his breast and choked his utterance.
“So it’s Ramesh!” exclaimed Annada Babu. “What luck meeting you like this in the street! You’ve stopped writing to us nowadays, or if you do write you don’t give your address. Where are you off to now? Doing anything in particular?”
“No, just coming back from Court,” said Ramesh.
“Come along then and have tea with us.”
Ramesh’s heart was full, and there was no room in it for hesitation. He took his seat in the carriage and overcoming his diffidence by a tremendous effort asked Hemnalini how she was.
“Why didn’t you let me know that you had passed?” she inquired, instead of answering his question.
Ramesh could not think of any reply, so he merely remarked, “I saw that you had passed too.”
Hemnalini laughed. “Oh, well, you didn’t forget us altogether, that’s always something!”
“Where are you putting up now?” asked Annada Babu.
“In Darjjipara,” said Ramesh.
“Why, your old lodgings in Kalutola were all right,” remarked the old gentleman.
Hemnalini looked at Ramesh, intensely curious to see what his answer would be. Ramesh did not fail to notice her glance and he was conscious of the reproach in it.
“Yes, I’ve decided to go back to them!” he blurted out. Ramesh was fully aware that Hemnalini had sat in judgement on him and had mentally found him guilty of a serious crime in changing his domicile. The thought caused him acute distress and he could not immediately think out a line of defence. However, cross-examining counsel was silent for the moment and Hemnalini ostentatiously kept her eyes fixed on the road outside.
When the silence became unbearable Ramesh volunteered the statement:
“A relation of mine lives near Hedua and I took quarters in Darjjipara in order to keep in touch with him.”
This was not an absolute lie, but it sounded a pitifully inadequate explanation; as if Kalutola were not near enough to Hedua to enable him to make occasional inquiries after a distant relation!
Hemnalini kept her gaze fixed on the road and poor Ramesh racked his brains for another remark. Once only he asked, “What’s the news of Jogen?”
But it was Annada Babu who replied. “He failed in his law-exam, and has gone up-country for a change of air.”
When the carriage reached its destination the familiar rooms and furniture cast their spell over Ramesh. He heaved a sigh in which relief and regret were oddly blended and sat down without a word.
“It was business, I suppose, that kept you so long at home?” remarked Annada Babu suddenly.
“My father died—” began Ramesh.
“You don’t say so! Dear me! Dear me! How did it happen?”
“He was coming home up the Padma in a boat. A storm came on suddenly, the boat was swamped and he was drowned.”
As the sudden onrush of a high wind drives the cloudbanks before it and clears the sky, so the announcement of this misfortune swept away the misunderstanding between Ramesh and Hemnalini.
Hemnalini thought regretfully: “I did Ramesh Babu a wrong. He was distracted by sorrow at his father’s loss and by all the worries it entailed. He may be still grieving over it. We held him guilty, never stopping to inquire whether he might not have had family troubles or other preoccupations,” and she became very attentive to the fatherless youth.
Ramesh had little appetite and Hemnalini pressed him to eat.
“You’re not at all well,” she said, “you must look after your health.” Then she turned to Annada Babu. “Dad, Ramesh Babu must have supper with us here to-night.”
“Certainly,” said the old gentleman.
At this point Akshay arrived on the scene. For some time he had had no rival at Annada Babu’s tea-table and Ramesh’s unexpected appearance was a disagreeable shock to him. However, he pulled himself together and exclaimed cheerfully:
“What’s this? You here, Ramesh Babu! I say, you know, you had completely forgotten our existence.”
Ramesh only smiled feebly, and Akshay went on: “When I saw the way your father marched you off I felt certain he’d keep you under arrest till he had you married. Did you manage to escape that fate after all?”
A glance of indignation from Hemnalini stopped Akshay’s mouth.
“Ramesh has lost his father, Akshay,” said Annada Babu.
Ramesh bent his head to hide his sudden pallor. Indignant with Akshay for flicking him on the raw, Hemnalini hastened to intervene. “I’ve never shown you my new album, Ramesh Babu,” she said, and bringing the album she placed it on the table in front of Ramesh and began to discuss the photographs with him. She found an opportunity to remark in an undertone: “I suppose you’re living all alone at your new lodgings, Ramesh Babu?”
“Yes,” replied Ramesh, “quite alone.”
“Well, you must come back to the old place next door as soon as you can.”
“Yes, I’ll move in next Monday whatever happens.”
“You see, I’ll want you to help me now and then with the philosophy for the B.A.,” she added ingenuously.
Ramesh was delighted at the prospect.