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CHAPTER XLI

Annada Babu and Hemnalini returned from the meeting late in the afternoon.

"Well, that was indeed a treat," remarked the old gentleman as he seated himself at the tea-table.

He made no further comment, but his mind was so busy that when Hemnalini slipped upstairs after tea he failed to notice her departure.

The lecturer — this Nalinaksha — had looked aston- ishingly young and boyish on the platform. Although he had attained maturity his countenance retained the freshness of youth. Withal he had an air of mystic gravity that seemed to emanate from his inner consciousness.

The subject of his address was "Loss," and its burden was that without loss there can be no genuine gain. What we obtain without effort is not true gain; only what is acquired through sacrifice becomes our own in the true and inner sense. He who sees his tangible possessions glide out of his grasp is un- fortunate indeed ; but in truth the human soul, in the very act of losing, retains the power to win back with interest that which is lost.

If when we suffer loss we can bow our heads, clasp our hands, and pronounce the words: "It is a gift — a gift of renunciation, a gift of sorrow, a gift of my tears," then the merest trifle acquires signifi- cance, the transient becomes the eternal, and what was a mere instrument of our daily use becomes an ap- purtenance of our worship, stored up everlastingly in the treasure-house of the temple of our heart

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