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another suitor, but to forsake Kamala would be to cast her naked on the world. And yet — such a selfish being is man — Ramesh found no consolation in the fact that Hemnalini might forget him, that she had other resources, and that her sole salvation did not lie in him. Rather the thought intensified his craving for her. She seemed to hover before his vision, just out of reach, as though he had only to stretch out his hands to grasp her.

He had let his head fall on his hands as he medi- tated. In the distance a jackal howled and set some of the village dogs barking incontinently. He raised his head at the sound and his eyes fell on Kamala standing near him in the darkness by the rail. He rose from his chair. "Haven't you gone to bed yet, Kamala? It's quite late."

"Aren't you going to bed?"

"I'm just going; I've put my bedding in the star- board cabin. You shouldn't wait up any longer."

Kamala crept silently away to the cabin which had been allotted to her. She could not bring herself to tell Ramesh that she had just been listening to a ghost-story and that she dreaded solitude. The obvious reluctance shown in her dragging gait caused Ramesh a pang.

"Don't be afraid, Kamala," he called to her, "my cabin is next to yours and I'll leave the door open between them."

Kamala tossed her head defiantly. "What is there to be afraid of?"

Ramesh extinguished the light in his cabin and lay down to sleep.

"I can never desert Kamala," he said to himself, "so farewell, Hemnalini ! This is my final decision and there must be no more wavering." But as he lay in the darkness he brooded over all that he was losing in renouncing Hemnalini till his thoughts became unbear-

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