Page:The Wreck.djvu/186

to help you," and he laid his hand on his daughter's head.

Hemnalini took her father's trembling old hand in her own and stroked it "I can hardly recall mother at all," she said. "I remember that she used to lie down at midday, and read a book; I didn't approve of that and I used to try to snatch the book from her," and they fell to conversing once more on the past. Hem plied her father with questions about her mother's appearance and habits and the family life of those days and he answered them to the best of his ability. The sun went down while they talked and the sky turned to the hue of dull copper. That hour of quiet communion on the housetop amid the bustle and tumult of the great city set the seal on the mutual affection of the father and daughter, the old man and the young woman. They lingered till the daylight faded and the soft dews descended on them like tears.

Suddenly Jogendra's step sounded on the stair. The murmured talk came to a sudden end and both sprang to their feet.

"Hem seems to hold her receptions on the roof nowadays," Jogendra remarked with a searching glance at the two faces.

Jogendra was gravely dissatisfied with the turn affairs had taken. Day and night a pall of depression lay over the house and he found life at home almost unendurable; and yet he was disinclined to seek others' society, for whenever he visited the houses of friends or acquaintances he had to furnish explanations of the rupture of Hemnalini's engagement.

"Hemnalini is really carrying things too far," he would say on these occasions. "It comes of letting girls read English novels. Hem's idea is that as Ra- mesh has deserted her she must be broken-hearted ; so she has settled down to make a great parade of break- ing her heart. It's a unique opportunity for a novel-

Digitized by Google