The haze cleared and bright moonlight covered the expanse of sand on the island btween two branches of the great Padma river-a tributery of the Ganges. When Ramesh regained consciousness he found himself lying on the margin of the sandy island. Some time elapsed before he could remember what had happened, then the whole catastrophe came back to him like a fevered dream, and he sprang to his feet.His first impulse was to find what had befallen his father and frtends. He gazed around, but nowhere was there sign of mortal man. He made hectic search to find any body on the island. Atlast he espied something like a red garment in moonlight. A young girl clad in the crimson dress of a bride.To bring her back to life he could use his knowledge of saving apparently drowned person and made efforts to restore respiration. At last she drew breath and her eyes opened.
Ramesh was completely exhausted and for the next few minutes he was unable to command enough breath even to question the girl. Nor had she, it seemed, fully regained consciosness, for hardly had she opened her eyes than she wearily closed them again. For a long time he sat gazing at her in pale moonlight.
Who had said that Susila was not good looking?Everything else was forgotten. "I am glad now," reflected Ramesh, "that I did not look at her in the bustle and turmoil of the wedding. I should never have had a chance to see her as I see her now. By bringing her back to life I have made her mine much more effectually than by repeating the prescribed formulas of the marriage rite.Now I have taken her as the special gift of a kindly Providence !"
The girl recovered complete consciousness and sat up. She pulled her disordered clothing round her and drew the veil over her head. The girl's face was now buried in her hands and she was trying to keep back the tears, but her bosom was rising and falling. He sat close up to her and stroked her bowed head and neck very gently. Finding her grief burst forth in a torrent of inarticulate utterance tears flowed from Ramesh's eyes in sympathy.
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