Page:The Wreck.djvu/272

This page needs to be proofread.

268

THE WRECK

please remember that I picked you off the road and gave you shelter here. That's a nice way to repay my kindness!"

Nabinkali was firmly convinced that the entire house- hold was engaged in a conspiracy to rob her. She believed that if you drew a bow at a venture at least fifty per cent of the arrows would find targets, and that the servants must be made to understand that she was always wide-awake and not easily deceived.

On this occasion, however, her outburst fell on deaf ears so far as Kamala was concerned. The girl pro- ceeded with her task like an automaton, her mind in the clouds.

She waited again at the kitchen-door for Tulsi's return, and he appeared in due course, but alone. "Has the doctor come, Tulsi?" asked Kamala. Tulsi. "No, he couldn't come." Kamala. "Why not?" Tulsi. "His mother is ill."

Kmmla, "His mother? Hasn't he any one to look after her?"

Tulsi. "No, he's not married.*'

Kmnala. "How do you know that?"

Tulsi. "I heard from the servants that he has no wife."

Kamala. "Perhaps his wife is dead." Tulsi. "Maybe; but his servant Braja said that when he was practising at Rangpur he had no -wife there either."

"Tulsi shrieked his mistress from the stairhead.

Kamala fled back into her kitchen and Tulsi hastened to obey the summons.

Nahnaksha — a practice at Rangpur — Kamala's doubts were completely set at rest. On Tulsi's next ap- pearance she put a further question to him.

"I say, Tulsi, I have a relation of the same name as the doctor — he's Brahman, isn't he?"

Digitized by Google

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.