43

The following morning Mahendra said to his mother, "Mother, I need a quiet room of my own for my studies. I will take the room where Kakima used to stay." His mother was delighted.

"So Mahin will stay at home after all. So there has been a reconciliation with his wife. Could Mahin go on treating my golden girl unkindly for ever? How long can a man remain bewitched by that scheming devil, forgetting this jewel here at home?"

"Very well then, Mahin," said his mother at once, and straightaway she brought out the key, unlocked the shut room, and set up a great commotion of dusting and sweeping.

"Bou! Oh Bou! Where has the girl gone?" After much searching, the shrinking daughter-in-law was found in a corner of the house and brought out.

"Lay out a clean carpet; there is no table here --- a table must be put in; this lamp won't do --- send down the lamp from upstairs." And so between them they fitted out Annapurna's room with an ample throne for the monarch of the household.

Mahendra, without so much as a glance at those who served him, sat himself down in the room with a grave face, his books and papers before him, and without wasting an instant began to read. In the evening, after supper, Mahendra sat down to his studies once more. Whether he intended to sleep upstairs in his own bedroom or below, no one could make out. Rajlakshmi, having dressed Asha up elaborately like a stiff and helpless doll, said to her, "Go, Bou-ma, go and ask Mahin whether his bed is to be made up upstairs." Asha's feet would not move at this proposal; she stood in silence, her head bent.

Rajlakshmi began to reprove her sharply and bitterly. With great difficulty Asha crept slowly to the door and could go no further. Rajlakshmi, watching this from a distance, stood at the far end of the verandah, signalling her anger. Asha threw herself forward in a kind of desperation and went into the room. Mahendra, hearing footsteps behind him, said without raising his head from his book, "I shall be some time yet --- I must be up again early to read --- I will sleep here." What shame.

Had Asha come to urge Mahendra to come and sleep upstairs? The moment she came out, Rajlakshmi asked with a note of irritation, "Well? What happened?"

"He is reading," said Asha, "and will sleep downstairs." And she went into her own humiliated bedroom.

There was no happiness for her anywhere --- the whole world, in every corner, seemed as scorched as the bare ground at midday. Late that night there came a knocking at the closed door of Asha's bedroom.

"Bou! Bou! Open the door." Asha opened the door at once.

Rajlakshmi had climbed the stairs in her asthma and was breathing with difficulty. She came in and sank onto the bed; as soon as she could speak, she said in a broken voice, "What are you about, Bou? You come upstairs and bolt the door! Is this a time for sulking? All this sorrow, and still no sense has come into your head. Go, go downstairs."

"He said he wishes to be alone," Asha said softly.

"He says he wishes to be alone, so that settles it! He said it in temper --- must you take everything he says literally and sit there on your dignity? So much pride will not do. Go, go quickly." In days of sorrow, a mother-in-law has no pride left before her daughter-in-law.

Whatever means she has, she must use them to bind Mahendra somehow. Speaking with such feeling brought on Rajlakshmi's breathlessness again most severely. She mastered it somewhat and rose. Asha, without further protest, took her arm and helped her downstairs. She settled Rajlakshmi on the bed in her own room, and began to arrange the bolsters and pillows behind her.

"Never mind, Bou-ma, never mind," said Rajlakshmi.

"Call Sudho. You go now --- don't delay." This time Asha did not hesitate for a moment.

She came out of her mother-in-law's room and went directly to Mahendra's. On the table before Mahendra lay an open book; his feet were propped up on the table, his head rested on the back of the chair, and he was deep in some private thought. Hearing footsteps behind him, he started up with a jolt and turned. For an instant --- as if in the depths of a reverie, he had mistaken the sound for someone else's approach. Seeing it was Asha, Mahendra recovered himself, put his feet down, and drew the open book onto his lap.

Mahendra was inwardly surprised. Lately Asha never came before him with such ease --- whenever they chanced to meet, she went away immediately. That tonight, so late, she should have walked in so naturally --- this was remarkable. Without lifting his face from the book, Mahendra understood that Asha had no intention of leaving. Asha came and stood before him quietly and steadily. Then Mahendra could no longer pretend to read; he looked up. Asha said clearly, "Mother's asthma has grown worse --- it would be well if you went and looked at her."

"Where is she?" asked Mahendra.

"In her own bedroom --- she cannot sleep."

"Come then," said Mahendra, "let us go and see her." After these few words spoken with Asha --- the first in so long --- Mahendra felt himself considerably lightened.

Silence had stood between husband and wife like the dark shadow of an impregnable fortress wall; from Mahendra's side there had been no weapon with which to breach it --- and then Asha, of her own accord, had opened a small door in the rampart. Asha remained outside Rajlakshmi's door; Mahendra went in. Rajlakshmi was alarmed to see Mahendra enter at such an hour, and feared that he had come to announce another departure after some quarrel with Asha.

"Mahin," she said, "you are not asleep yet?"

"Mother," said Mahendra, "has your asthma grown worse?" After so long a time, this question struck deep into his mother's heart.

She understood that Mahendra had come only because his wife had prompted him. The grief of this moved her breast all the more violently; with difficulty she formed the words: "Go, go --- go to sleep. There is nothing the matter with me."

"No, Mother," said Mahendra, "it is best to examine it once. This is not an illness to be taken lightly." Mahendra knew that his mother had a weakness of the heart; and this knowledge, combined with what he now saw in her face, filled him with anxiety.

"There is no need for examination," said his mother.

"This illness of mine will not be cured."

"I will send for a sleeping draught tonight," said Mahendra.

"Tomorrow we will look at it properly."

"I have had medicine enough," said Rajlakshmi.

"Medicine does nothing for me. Go, Mahin, it is late --- go to sleep."

"I will go when you are a little better," said Mahendra.

Then the wounded Rajlakshmi addressed her daughter-in-law, who stood hidden behind the door: "Bou, why have you brought Mahendra here to trouble him at this hour of the night?" And as she spoke, her difficulty in breathing grew worse still.

Asha came into the room and said to Mahendra, quietly but with decision, "Go now, go to sleep --- I will stay with Mother." Mahendra drew Asha aside and said, "I am sending for some medicine. The bottle will have two marks on it --- give her one measure, and if she does not fall asleep, give the second measure an hour later. If she grows worse in the night, do not fail to call me." He said this and went back to his own room.

The form in which Asha had appeared before him tonight was somehow new to Mahendra. In this Asha there was no timidity, no abjectness; she stood firm within her own domain and was not a beggar before Mahendra for the right to be there. He had treated his wife with contempt --- but for the mistress of this house he felt a dawning respect. That Asha had called Mahendra out of care for her --- Rajlakshmi was glad of it at heart, even as she said aloud, "Bou-ma, I told you to sleep, and instead you have dragged Mahendra here --- why?" Asha made no answer.

She sat behind Rajlakshmi with a fan and began to cool her.

"Go, Bou-ma, go to sleep," said Rajlakshmi.

"He asked me to sit here," said Asha softly.

She knew that Rajlakshmi would be pleased to hear that Mahendra had set her to watch over his mother.