The sun went down behind the waste of sand. Ramesh was standing by the rail gazing across the river when Kamala stepped out her fenced-off kitchen and, halting at the cabin door, coughed gently to attract Ramesh's attention. As he did not turn his head she took her bunch of keys and rattled it against the door. She had to rattle loudly before he turned round and, seeing her, stepped across the deck to her side.
"So that's your way of calling me, is it ?" he remarked.
"I could not think of any other way."
"Why, what do you think my parents gave me a name for ? Why not call out, 'Ramesh Babu !' when you want me for anything ?"
Kamala felt distasteful pleasantry of a Hindu wife address her husband by his name ! The hue of Kamala's cheeks vied with that of crimson sunset. "I don't know what you're talking about !' she exclaimed with averted face. "Look here, your supper's ready ; you had better eat it at once, as you didn't have a good breakfast to-day."
The pleasure that he felt when she-without any reminder on his part-announced supper was an exhilarating reflection that someone had taken thought for him and that a beneficent agency had been at work on his behalf.
After his supper, Ramesh dragged a cane chair up to the bow and sat there in the faint light of the new moon. He started recollecting how he got introduced to Hemamalini by Jogendra and the intimacy with her culminating in ineffable love. When Kamala appeared on the scene and made the riddle of of his existence an insoluble one, then only, in the swirl of opposing currents, did his love for Hemamalini take true shape and become a living thing. He threw up his head in the heat of resolve, and as he did so he caught sight of Kamala standing close by him with her arms resting on the back of another cane chair. His gesture startled her. "You must have been asleep, and now I've wakened you !" she exclaimed, and was turning penitently to leave him when he called her back. "It's all right, Kamala ; I wasn't asleep. Come and sit down, and I'll tell you a story."
The prospect of a story gave Kamala a thrill of delight ; she pulled her chair close up to his and nestled into it. Ramesh had decided that she must know the whole truth, but he felt that without some preparation the shock of his avowal would be too much for her ; hence his invitation to her to sit down and hear a story.
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