Night fell, but neither husband nor wife spoke a
word. But at last Ahirgram started a newspaper. In fact, when he was ill, he
actuallycalled in the assistant surgeon. Encouraged by this thought, I wrote a
farce.
Everybody in the household had finished the evening
meal, andgone to sleep. After a good deal of thought I decided that I would
writebooks.
Shehas grown up from a girl into a woman, and yet
through familiarityescaping her husbands notice.
I think my friend had a suspicion that I had come
in search of hiddentreasure. There wasno longer the least trace of fear.
Thewatchmans call was heard as he passed.
A kerosene lamp was dimlyburning in the melancholy
solitude and silence of her room. To this his wife would answer: Rice
water.
I started back, and my wife also
trembled.
And I would growl out at her: Go away, go away;
cant you see that Iam busy now?
His wife, without making any reply, asked him: What
has happened?
It never evenoccurred to him to look for
work.
But at last Ahirgram started a newspaper. His dirty
coat of Assam silk wasgreasy and open at the front. On the roof of the boat the
boatmen were at their evening prayer. She lay like a flowerwhich has dropped on the
dust at the end of the day. Giribala stood near the door stiff and silent, like
amarble image gazing at vacancy.
It came to thisat last that after dark I was not
able to speak a word to Monorama.
But onhearing it I fell to the ground in a
swoon.
You had only tolook at him to see that he was a
modernised Bengali. Yet I never got money in the measure that I got fun and
fame.
Again he questionedme: What have you come here for?
His whole body besmeared with mud, Baid-yanath made his way up intothe
house.
But the rampart of silence is not the surest means
of self-defence. She has no children and, having been married into a wealthy
family,has very little work to do.
Giribala stood near the door stiff and silent, like
amarble image gazing at vacancy.
Everybody in the household had finished the evening
meal, andgone to sleep.
I smiled inwardly but surrendered myself completely
to her hands.