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THE WRECK

Nalinaksha. "What practices?"

Jogendra. I've been told that you breathe through your nostrils like a Yogi, and gaze at the rising sun, and that you can't eat or drink without all sorts of ceremonial. The result is that you're out of place — 'out of the scabbard' as we say — in ordinary society."

Hemnalini dropped her eyes in disgust at Jogendra's unmannerly outburst, but Nalinaksha only smiled.

"Well, Jogen Babu," he replied, "I admit that the man who is out of place in ordinary society must be at fault, but surely no human being, any more than a sword, should always remain in the scabbard? The part of a sword which the scabbard conceals is the es- sential part of the weapon, common to all swords. It is on the hilt that the artificer displays his individual craftsmanship in whatever design suits his taste. Sim- ilarly a human being finds scope for exhibiting his own peculiar pattern outside society's scabbard and you surely would not wish to deprive him of that liberty! But what astonishes me is how people can see and find opportunity to discuss what I do out of the public eye in the privacy of my own room."

Jogendra, "You are perhaps unaware that those who have imposed on themselves the task of regenerat- ing the world consider it their bounden duty to discover what is going on in their neighbours' houses. Even when knowledge is lacking they call in another faculty to supply the deficiency. It must be so, otherwise the process of remodelling the world would be arrested. Besides, Nalin Babu, it is when one does unconven- tional things, even in supposed privacy, that people take notice. Observe the ordinary conventions and no one will waste a glance on you. Why, Hem here has noticed your proceedings on the roof of your house and she told dad about them, though she hasn't assumed the task of regenerating you !"

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