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THE WRECK

Jogendra. "I'm no use at finesse; I prefer speaking out ; and I must confess I'm not greatly impressed by the fellow."

AksJmy. "Now, Jogen, if you bring in your own prejudices the whole thing will end in smoke. You mustn't expect to have everything exactly to your taste. We'll never succeed unless we can induce Hem- nalini to forget Ramesh altogether. Don't imagine for a moment that you can accomplish that by brute force. You must follow my advice to the letter if you want to produce the desired result."

Jogendra. "The fact of the matter is, I find Nalin- aksha a trifle mysterious. I'm nervous of dealing with that kind of person. It may be a case of 'out of the frying-pan into the fire.'"

Akshay. "Well, old man, if you get burnt it'll be your own fault. You tremble at a shadow these days. Where Ramesh was concerned you people were blind from the start. You thought the world of Ra- mesh — he was incapable of deceit, the greatest philoso- pher since Sankaracharyya, the most gifted writer of the century, and so on. Personally, I never took to Ramesh; I've seen lots like him in my time, people with the loftiest ideals. But I never dared open my mouth; you wouldn't have believed that a worthless incompetent like myself could have any motive but jealousy in criticising such a genius. I daresay you realise by this time that these supermen are best worshipped from afar; it's hardly safe to betroth one's sister to them. However, to return to the main issue. Remember the Sanskrit proverb, 'One thorn drives out another.' What I propose is the only course open to us at present, and you mustn't cavil at it."

Jogendra, "Look here, Akshay, you'll never make 'me believe that you were the first of us to see through Ramesh, not if you repeat it a thousand times. The . truth was, you were so prejudiced against him that

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