Ramesh intended to dispatch his business in Calcutta with all possible speed, and on no account to set foot in Kalutola, where Hemamalini resides. He went to his old quarters in Darjjipara, but his business occupied very little of his time each day and remaining hours of the day dragged interminably. He could not face any of his former acquaintances and he even took precautions to avoid chance encounters in the street.
He found, however, that the return to his old haunts had unconsciously worked a change in him. He vowed repeatedly that he would never again harbor a thought of Hemamalini, yet her memory rose vividly before him day and night. His rigid determination to forget her became a potent ally to his memory of her. The unbending self-control that he had exercised had gone completely unrewarded. It would do no harm, he reasoned, to pay one secret visit to Kalutola before he left Calcutta.
Having decided on this course he sat down and indited a letter to Hemamalini giving her a full and detailed account of all his relations with Kamala, and he went the length of revealing his intention of making that helpless unfortunate his wife in reality when he returned to Ghazipur. It was message of farewell, in which he unbosomed himself to his old love before his final and complete separation from her. He enclosed the letter in an envelope, but neither outside nor inside did he inscribe the name of the person addressed.
Ramesh had some servants of Annada Babu to whom he had a soft side and had been lavish with gifts in cash and kind on the slightest excuse. Taking the help of such servants he planned to visit the neighborhood as soon as dusk had fallen and to try to obtain a glimpse of Hemamalini from a distance ; he would then hand the letter to one of the servants with instructions to convey it unostentatiously to Hemamalini, and this must be the final severance of the old ties between them.
At nightfall he sallied out with his letter and crept with quaking limbs and palpitating heart into the street of ineffaceable memories. He found the door closed, and looking up saw that all the windows were shuttered. The house was untenanted and in darkness.
He knocked at the door. A bearer undid the bolts and opened. He found him to be Sukhan, a servant known to him and having reverence to him when Ramesh was a frequent visitor there.
"Where has your master gone ?" asked Ramesh.
"He has gone up-country with the young mistress for a change of air," he replied. He also told Ramesh that he didn't know the places of their visit, but told that the father and daughter were accompanied by a young gentleman, named Nalin Babu, who had been a frequent visitor at the house of late. Though Ramesh had renounced all hopes of Hemamalini for himself, he felt distinctly prejudiced against Nalin Babu.
"Was the young lady in good health when she left ?" he asked.
"Oh yes, she was quite well"-the answer was intended to be reassuring and to please Ramesh, but Heaven only knows how far out Sukhan was in his calculations !
With the help of Sukhan Ramesh surveyed the entire house reminiscing the old memories. Wounded pride raged in Ramesh's breast.
Next day, after nearly a month, he took a train to Ghazipur and started planning for a trip to Allahabad for his enrolment at the provincial bar.
During the absence of Ramesh Babu, just as the dawn-light is suddenly transformed into the glory of sunrise, so Kamala's womanhood had scarcely stirred from sleep before it burst into full consciousness. She might have had to wait long for this awakening had not her close intimacy with Sailaja and the light and warmth of love that Salaja's personality shed on her accelerated the transformation.
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