JOGENDRA returned from up-country by the morning train next day. It was Saturday, and Sunday was to be Hemnalini’s wedding-day; yet as he approached the house he observed none of the signs of festivity that he had anticipated. No festoons of debdar leaves hung on the verandah. In fact there was nothing to distinguish the house from its dingy and unlovely neighbours.
He dreaded to hear a tale of sudden sickness, but as he hurried indoors there was no sign of anything untoward. A meal was ready for him, and Annada Babu sat at the table reading the newspaper with a half-finished cup of tea before him.
“Is Hem all right?” exclaimed Jogendra as he entered the room.
Annada Babu. “She’s quite well.”
Jogendra. “What about the wedding?”
Annada Babu. “It’s to be the Sunday after next.” Jogendra. “Why was it put off?”
Annada Babu. You had better ask your friend. Ramesh merely told us that he had some urgent business and that the wedding couldn’t take place on Sunday.”
Jogendra inwardly cursed his father’s supineness. “When I’m not here you people make an awful muddle of everything, dad,” he said. “What important business could he have? He’s his own master. He has no relations that count. If he has got into a mess over some business matter I don’t see what there was to hinder him from telling you all about it. Why did you let it rest at that?”
“After all he hasn’t run away! You had better go and ask him yourself.”
Jogendra swallowed a cup of tea and dashed off. “Hold on, Jogen,” called Annada Babu after him; “what are you in such a hurry about? You’ve had nothing to eat,” but Jogendra was out of earshot. He rushed into the next house and stamped upstairs calling “Ramesh! Ramesh!” but there was no sign of Ramesh, though he looked for him in the bedroom, the sitting-room, on the roof, and on the ground floor. After hunting high and low he found the bearer and asked him where his master was. “He went out early,” was the reply.
“When will he be back?”
The bearer informed him that Ramesh had taken a supply of clothes with him and had said that he might not be back for four or five days; but where he had gone the man did not know.
Jogendra wore a preoccupied air as he resumed his seat at the breakfast-table.
“Well, what luck?” asked Annada Babu.
“What can one expect?” replied his son testily. “Here’s a man who is about to marry your daughter and you take no interest in his actions and his movements; and that though he lives next door!”
“Why, he was there only last night!” said Annada Babu.
“You didn’t know that he was going anywhere,” exclaimed Jogendra, “and his bearer doesn’t know where he has gone. There’s something very fishy about it. I don’t like the look of things at all, dad. Why do you take it so coolly?”
In the face of this tirade Annada Babu was obliged to grapple with the situation.
“What’s the meaning of it all, then?” he asked, assuming the expression of gravity that the occasion seemed to demand.
Ramesh had really been let off very easily by Annada Babu on the previous night, but the lad was too ignorant of affairs to realise this. He supposed that in stating that he had something important to do he had said all that was necessary, and he had gone about his immediate business in the belief that this explanation gave him full liberty of action.
Jogendra. “Where’s Hemnalini?”
Annada Babu. “She had her tea earlier than usual this morning and then went upstairs.”
“Poor girl!” exclaimed Jogendra. “I suppose she’s thoroughly ashamed of Ramesh’s extraordinary conduct, and that’s why she doesn’t want to face me,” and he went upstairs to comfort his sister in her shame and distress. Hemnalini was alone in the large sitting-room. When she heard Jogendra’s step she hurriedly picked up a book and made a pretence of reading it. She laid the book down as he entered and greeted him cheerfully:
“Hullo, when did you come in? You’re not looking as well as you should be.”
“How could I be?” cried Jogendra as he flung himself into a chair. “I’ve heard all about it, Hem. However, don’t you worry; it’s only because I wasn’t here that such a thing happened. I’ll put things right again! By the way, Hem, did Ramesh not give you any reasons?”
Hemnalini found herself in a dilemma. She chafed at the suspicious attitude shared by Akshay and Jogendra, and she was reluctant to admit to Jogendra that Ramesh had given her no reason for postponing the wedding. On the other hand she refused to tell a downright lie.
“He was prepared to tell me but I didn’t think it necessary,” she answered.
“Pure pride,” thought Jogendra; “characteristic!”
Aloud he said, “All right, don’t be afraid; I’ll make him disclose his reasons this very day.”
“But I haven’t been afraid,” said Hemnalini, aimlessly turning over the pages of the book in her lap, “and I don’t want you to pester him for his reasons.”
“Pride again!” thought Jogendra. “All right,” he said, “you need have no anxiety on that score,” and he made as if to depart.
Hemnalini rose from her chair.— “Now mind, you’re not to say anything to him about this. You others may think what you like, but I don’t suspect him at all.”
It struck Jogendra that this hardly sounded like pride. His affection and compassion for his sister gained the upper hand and he smiled inwardly as he reflected:— “These learned ladies have no knowledge of the world; she knows a lot that she has learned from books; but when an occasion for suspicion arises she is as innocent as a babe!” Then Jogendra contrasted her simple trust with the other’s duplicity. His heart hardened against Ramesh, and his determination to force him to state his “reasons” became stronger than ever. Once more he rose as if to go out, but Hemnalini was too quick and caught him by the arm.
“Promise not to breathe a word of this to Ramesh,” said said.
“I’ll see,” replied Jogendra.
“There’s no ‘seeing’ about it. Promise me before you go. I assure you that there’s nothing for you to worry about. Just do this one little thing for me.”
Hemnalini’s insistence convinced Jogendra that Ramesh had given her a full explanation. Still it did not follow that the explanation was a true one; it would have been no very difficult task to deceive her with some cock-and-bull story, so he said: “Look here, Hem, it’s not a question of distrusting any one; but when a girl is going to be married her guardians have duties. He may have given you some explanation that you’re keeping to yourself, but that isn’t enough; he has still to explain matters to us. To tell the truth, Hem, at present it’s more our concern than yours to hear his explanation. Once you’re married we shan’t have much more say,” and Jogendra hurried off.
Of the veil with which lovers seek to shroud their ways not a shred remained! The bond between Ramesh and Hemnalini — a bond which in their fond hopes would grow more intimate with the passage of time till it created for the two a world apart — had become a target for the missiles of unsympathetic outsiders.
The onset of the storm so agitated Hemnalini that she shrank even from the sight of her friends and relations. After Jogendra’s departure she sank into a chair and spent the rest of the day in the seclusion of her room.
As Jogendra left the house he met Akshay, who greeted him with “Hullo, Jogen, you’ve turned up! Have you heard about it? What do you think of it all?”
Jogendra. “I’ve thought a lot about it; I don’t propose to go on talking it over and making useless conjectures. It’s no time for sitting round the tea-table, splitting psychological hairs.”
Akshay. “Splitting hairs isn’t much in my line, as you know, any more than psychology or philosophy or poetry. I’m a man of action — that’s what I came to tell you.”
“All right, I’m for action,” said the impetuous Jogendra. “Can you tell me where Ramesh has gone?”
“I can.”
“Where?”
“Shan’t tell you yet,” said Akshay. “I’ll confront you with him at three this afternoon.”
“Why can’t you tell me what it’s all about?” cried Jogendra; “you’re all so devilish secretive. I go off for a few days’ holiday, and as soon as my back’s turned fearful mysteries spring up on every hand. Come, Akshay, no more concealment! Out with it, man!”
Akshay. “I’m glad to hear you talk like that. It’s through not concealing things that I’ve got into hot water. Your sister won’t look at me, your father scolds me for having a suspicious nature, and Ramesh Babu doesn’t exactly jump for joy when we meet. Now you’re the only one left, and I’m afraid of you. You’re not a man for subtle argument. Downright action is more in your line. I’m a miserable specimen physically and I couldn’t stand up to you!” Jogendra. “Look here, Akshay, I don’t like all this crooked work. I know you have something to tell me. Why do you keep it back and haggle over it? Tell me the truth now; out with it!”
Akshay. “All right, I’ll tell you the whole story from the start; most of it will be new to you.”