Kamala read the letter through ; she stood motionless.
"Why do you stand there and say nothing, mother ?" asked Umesh ; "it's getting Dark." Kamala's expression alarmed Umesh.
" Don't you hear me, mother ? We must be going home ; It's late," he pleaded ; but she did not stir till one of Uncle's servants came in and announced pointedly that the carriage had been standing for a long time.
" Aren't you well to-day, dear," asked Sailaja when Kamala returned ; "have you a headache ?"
" No,I'm all right ; why isn't Uncle hear ?"
" Mother sent him off to Allahabad to see my sister there; she hasn't been well for some time."
" When will he come back ?"
" He'll be away for a week at least, they say. You've been overdoing it, working at that bungalow of yours all day. You're looking very tired. Have your supper early and go to bed."
Kamala's only salvation at this stage would have been to take Saila in to her confidence, but that, she felt, was impossible. Nothing would induce her to confess to Saila of all people that the man whom she supposed to be her husband was not her husband at all.
Kamala shut herself into her own room and read Ramesh's letter again by the light of her lamp.
Neither the name nor the whereabouts of the person addressed appeared in the letter, but the contents clearly indicated that that person was a woman, that she had been betrothed to Ramesh, and that his connection with Kamala had caused the engagement to be broken off. Further, Ramesh had not concealed the fact that he loved with all his heart the woman to whom he was writing and that it was for the sake of the hapless Kamala, whose fate had been so curiously linked with his own, that he had severed connection with her.
Kamala recalled bit by bit the whole of her life with Ramesh from the first meeting on the sandbank to their arrival in Ghazipur, and what had been obscure before became clear as day light. Ramesh had known throughout that she was not his wife, and had been at his wits' end wondering how he could dispose of her, while she had calmly assumed him to be her husband and was preparing, unabashed, to settle down with him in lifelong companionship.
She threw open the door and passed out into the garden behind the house. Shame pierced her heart like a dagger, and as various incidents recurred to her memory she shivered to every limb. At last, when the waning moon cleft the darkness, she slowly rose, retired to her own chamber, and closed the door.
In the morning when she opened her eyes Saila stood by her bed. Kamala sat up at once, ashamed that she had slept so late.
" Don't get up , dear," said Saila, "you had better sleep on for a little ; I'm sure you're not well. You look very much tired. Tell me what the matter is, dear," and Saila sat down beside her and put her arm round Kamala's neck.
Kamala's breast heaved and she could not restrain her tears any longer. She hid her face on Saila's shoulder and wept freely, while Saila held her in a firm embrace, making no attempt at consoling speeches.
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