3

Mahendra slept badly that night. At the very break of day he was at Bihari's lodgings.

"My friend," he said, "I have thought it over. Kaki's secret wish is that I myself marry her niece."

"There was no need to think it over afresh," said Bihari.

"She has made that wish known in a dozen different ways."

"That is precisely my point," said Mahendra.

"I feel that if I do not marry Asha, she will harbour a regret in her heart to the end of her days."

"That is likely enough," said Bihari.

"And I feel," said Mahendra, "that it would be quite wrong of me to allow that to happen." With an enthusiasm that was slightly unnatural, Bihari said, "That is a fine thought --- a very fine thought. If you are willing, there is nothing more to be said. This sense of duty ought to have come to you yesterday."

"What great harm has come from one day's delay?" said Mahendra.

The moment Mahendra slackened the rein of his mind in favour of marriage, patience became next to impossible for him. He kept thinking: the sooner this is done without further talk, the better. He went to his mother and said, "Very well, Ma --- I will do as you wish. I have consented to marry." His mother thought to herself: "Now I understand why Mejobou suddenly went off to see her niece the other day, and why Mahendra got himself dressed up and went out." That Annapurna's scheming had succeeded where her own repeated entreaties had failed left her aggrieved at the dispensation of the entire universe.

"I am looking for a good girl," she said.

Mahendra mentioned Asha and said, "The girl has already been found."

"She will not do, my dear," said Rajlakshmi.

"That I tell you plainly, here and now." Mahendra, with sufficient restraint, said, "Why, Ma? The girl is not bad."

"She has not a soul on any shore --- no family on three sides," said Rajlakshmi.

"What pleasure will there be in such in-laws for me?"

"I shall not be grieved by the want of in-laws," said Mahendra, "but the girl has taken my fancy, Ma." Seeing her son's obstinacy, Rajlakshmi's heart hardened further.

She went to Annapurna: "You intend to marry my only son to an ill-omened creature without father or mother, and use that marriage to tear him away from me? What brazen wickedness!"

"There has been no talk of marriage with Mahin," said Annapurna, in tears.

"What he has said to you of his own accord, I do not know." Mahendra's mother refused to believe a word of this.

Annapurna then sent for Bihari and, with eyes brimming, said to him: "It was all settled with you --- why have you upset everything? You must give your consent again. If you do not rescue me from this, I shall be in terrible disgrace. The girl is a true Lakshmi --- she will not be unworthy of you."

"Kakima," said Bihari, "that goes without saying. Since she is your niece, there is no question of my objecting. But Mahendra---"

"No, dear boy," said Annapurna.

"A marriage between her and Mahendra is out of the question --- I tell you this honestly. If it is you she marries, I shall be most at ease. I am not in favour of a match with Mahin."

"Kaki, if you are against it," said Bihari, "there is nothing more to be said." With that, he went to Rajlakshmi and said, "Ma, the marriage between myself and Kaki's niece is settled. There is no woman of my own family to go in my place --- so, at the cost of all modesty, I have come to tell you myself."

"What are you saying, Bihari!" said Rajlakshmi.

"I am so pleased. She is a fine girl, worthy of you. Do not on any account let her slip away."

"Why should she slip away?" said Bihari.

"It was Mahin-da himself who admired her and arranged this match for me." All these obstacles and reversals only inflamed Mahendra the more.

Enraged at both his mother and his aunt, he took himself off to lodge in some wretched student's hostel. Rajlakshmi came weeping to Annapurna's room: "Mejobou, my son has gone and left home in a fit of passion --- bring him back, I beg you."

"Didi, have a little patience," said Annapurna.

"His anger will pass in a day or two."

"You do not know him," said Rajlakshmi.

"When he wants something and cannot have it, there is no knowing what he might do. His marriage to your niece must somehow be---"

"Didi, how is that possible now?" said Annapurna.

"Matters are more or less settled with Bihari."

"What does it take to undo that?" said Rajlakshmi, and calling Bihari to her, said: "My dear boy, I will find you a proper match --- you must give up this girl; she is not worthy of you."

"No, Ma," said Bihari, "that cannot be. It is all settled." Then Rajlakshmi went to Annapurna: "I beseech you, Mejobou --- I throw myself at your feet --- if you tell Bihari, everything will be put right." Annapurna said to Bihari: "The words will not come easily from my mouth, Bihari, but what am I to do? I would have been most at ease with Asha in your hands --- but you know everything already---"

"I understand, Kaki," said Bihari.

"Whatever you command, so it shall be. But do not ever again ask me to marry anyone." With that, Bihari went away.

Annapurna's eyes filled with tears; she wiped them away, fearing some harm to Mahendra. Again and again she reasoned with herself: what has happened is for the best. And so, while this cruel, deep, silent war of thrust and counter-thrust played itself out among Rajlakshmi, Annapurna, and Mahendra, the day of the wedding arrived. The lamps burned brilliantly, the shehnai played sweetly, and the sweetmeats lacked nothing in the measure of their sweetness. Asha, beautiful in her wedding finery, with a look of shy wonder on her face, set her first foot into her new household; that somewhere within this nest there lurked a thorn --- of this her trembling, tender heart had no foreboding.

On the contrary, the knowledge that she was coming to Annapurna --- the one being in all the world who stood in the place of a mother --- filled her with such reassurance and joy that every fear and doubt was swept away. After the wedding, Rajlakshmi called Mahendra to her and said, "I think it best that our new bride stay on at her uncle's house for a little while."

"Why, Ma?" asked Mahendra.

"You have your examination coming," said his mother.

"Your studies may be disrupted."

"Am I a child?" said Mahendra.

"Can I not manage my own affairs?"

"Perhaps so, dear," said Rajlakshmi, "but it is only one more year."

"If her father and mother were living," said Mahendra, "I would have no objection to sending her to them --- but I cannot keep her at her uncle's house." Rajlakshmi, to herself: "Well, I never! He is already the master, and the mother-in-law counts for nothing! Such tenderness, the very day after the wedding! Our husbands married us too, once upon a time --- but there was nothing like this besottedness, this want of all dignity!"

"Do not worry yourself, Ma," said Mahendra firmly.

"The examination will not suffer."