Page:The Wreck.djvu/278

This page needs to be proofread.

274

THE WRECK

passed carrying a lamp with Nalinaksha following her across the courtyard. Kamala found herself apostro- phising him in the language of the poets.

"My lord, thy handmaiden is a slave under a stranger's roof; thou passeth her by and wottest not of it."

She watched Mukunda Babu leave the sitting-room in quest of supper and she crept into the room that he had vacated. She prostrated herself before Nalin- aksha's chair, touched the ground with her forehead, and kissed the dust. Alas ! that she was debarred from serving him ! Her heart was sick with the conscious- ness of devotion thwarted.

Next day Kamala learned that the doctor had pre- scribed for Mukunda Babu a prolonged stay at some health resort hundreds of miles west of Benares; preparations for the journey had already been set on foot

Kamala went straight to her mistress. "I'm afraid I cannot leave Benares," she an- nounced.

"We can; why can't you? You've become very devout all of a sudden!" said Nabinkali, who supposed that Kamala made religion a cloak for her reluctance to leave the holy city.

Kamala, "You may say what you like but I intend to remain here."

Nabinkali "Very well, we'll see."

Kamala. "I implore you not to take me away."

Nabinkali. "You really are a terror ! We have everything ready to start when you get some bee in your bonnet. How on earth are we to find another cook at such short notice ? We can't possibly dispense with you."

Kamala's entreaties were of no avail; she shut her- self into her room and wept and prayed alternately.

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.