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THE WRECK

143

"Have you taken a dislike to me to-day, Uncle?" asked Kamala slyly.

"What can you expect when we quarrel from morn- ing to night?" he replied. "You know I've never got the better of you yet !"

Kamala. "You've been avoiding me all morning."

CJmkrahartti. "Do you dare to charge me with avoiding you? Why, it's you who are going to run away from me altogether."

Kamala stared at him, uncomprehending. "Hasn't Ramesh Babu told you?" the old man went on. "It has been decided that you're going to Benares."

Kamala neither admitted nor denied this. "You'll never be able to do that, Uncle," she remarked after a short pause. "Let me pack your box for you."

Chakrabartti was deeply hurt at Kamala' s indiffer- ence to the abandonment of the Ghazipur project. "Perhaps it's just as well," he said to himself. "What's the use of forming new ties at my time of life?"

Ramesh now appeared in person to announce to Kamala his change of plan. "T was looking for you," he remarked, whereupon she began to sort and fold Chakrabartti' s clothes.

"We're not going to Ghazipur for the present, Kamala," Ramesh continued. "I've decided to start practising in Benares instead. Are you agreed ?"

"No, I'm going to Ghazipur," replied Kamala with- out lifting her eyes from Chakrabartti's trunk. "I've packed up everything already."

"Are you going there alone, then?" asked Ramesh, taken aback by Kamala' s decided refusal.

"Oh, no; Uncle will be there -" this with an affectionate glance at the old man.

Chakrabartti did not altogether relish the situation. "My dear," he observed, "if you show me such partial- ity you'll make Ramesh Babu jealous," but Kamala

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