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THE WRECK

Ramesh leaped into the carriage and drove straight to Uncle's house. Everything there was in confusion and his first thought was that Kamala had been taken ill, but he was mistaken. Late in the evening Umi had suddenly commenced to scream, her face had turned blue, and her hands and feet had become cold as ice, to the great alarm of all the elders. The whole house- hold had been kept busy attending to her and no one had had a wink of sleep. Ramesh jumped to the con- clusion that Kamala had been called in to assist in nursing the sick child and he remarked to Bipin ac- cordingly: "Kamala must be greatly worried about poor little Umi." Bipin did not know for certain whether Kamala had come over during the night or not, so he simply nodded and answered, "Yes, she was very fond of the child and she must certainly be anx- ious. However, the doctor says there is no cause for alarm."

Reassuring as this might be, Ramesh's lively hopes had received a check ; he felt correspondingly depressed and it seemed to him that some malevolent agency was working against his union with Kamala.

Umesh now arrived from the bungalow. The boy had free access to the zenana and Sailaja was very fond of him.

Seeing him enter the house and approach her room, she had hastened to the door to warn him against wakening the child, when to her astonishment he asked where Kamala was.

"Why, dear me, you went off with her to your house yesterday !" said Sailaja. "I thought of sending Lachminia to her last night but Umi's sickness pre- vented that"

"And she's not here now?" groaned Umesh.

"What do you mean?" snapped out Saila. "Where were you all night?"

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