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CHAPTER XXXIV

Ramesh had been absent in Calcutta for nearly a month and to a girl of Kamala's age in the full current of adolescence a month is a long period. Just as the dawn-light is suddenly transformed into the glory of sunrise, so her womanhood had scarcely stirred from sleep before it burst into full consciousness. She might have had to wait long for this awakening had not her close intimacy with Sailaja and the light and warmth of love that Saila|a's personality shed on her accelerated the transformation.

Meanwhile Ramesh's tardiness and Sailaja's insist- ence had stimulated Uncle to go house-hunting in earnest and he had rented for the young pair a small bungalow standing outside the town on the bank of the Ganges. He had been assiduously employed in col- lecting such furniture as was necessary to make the house habitable and had engaged enough servants to enable them to start housekeeping.

When Ramesh returned to Ghazipur after his long absence Kamala had at last a house of her own and the young people were no longer dependent on Uncle's hospitality for a roof over their heads.

Ground sufficient for a garden surrounded the bun- galow. Between two rows of tall sisu trees ran a shaded path. The river was shrunken to its cold- weather dimensions and between the house and the channel stretched a sandy flat on which patches of young wheat alternated with melon-beds. On the southern edge of the compound towards the river stood a huge nim tree, with a pavement around its roots.

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