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THE WRECK

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"Aren't you going to have any tea?" asked her brother.

Hemnalini knew that she must expect a scolding from Jogendra but she answered with perfect com- posure, "No, I've given up tea,"

Jogendra. "So you've turned ascetic in right earn- est. Tea-leaves don't contain enough of the true spiritual essence, I suppose? That's reserved for the myrobalans that ascetics use. This really is the limit ! For Heaven's sake drop it, Hem I Never mind if drinking a cup of tea does interrupt your penance. The most lasting things don't endure for long so why make a fuss about trifles;" and he poured out another cup and placed it before Hemnalini.

Leaving it untouched, she exclaimed, "Why, dad, you've taken nothing with your tea! Won't you eat anything?"

Annada Babu's voice and hands trembled as he replied: "Believe me, dear, if I tried to eat anything now it would choke me. I've been trying for a long time to submit in silence to Jogen's rudeness and I'm reduced to such a state that, if I spoke, I should say something in the heat of the moment for which I should be sorry afterwards."

Hemnalini rose and went over to her father's chair. "Don't be angry, dad," she murmured. "It was kind of Jogen to offer me a cup of tea and I'm not offended in the least. Come now, you must take some- thing. I know tea doesn't agree with you unless you eat something with it," and she brought a plate of cakes and laid it before him.

Annada began to eat very slowly.

Hemnalini returned to her own seat and was on the point of drinking out of the cup that Jogendra had poured out for her when Akshay jumped up and ex- claimed:

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