The last glimmer of the wintry twilight soon faded from the sky. The moonless sky studded with unwinking stars breathed gently down on the deserted river-bank. Kamala proceeded forward and she never paused to consider what lay at the end of her march.
Kamala had been walking for some hours before the day dawned and meanwhile found a village on the river bank. As she approached it with beating heart it became apparent that all the inhabitants were sound asleep. Strength began to fail her and when at last she reached the top of an apparently sheer declivity she sank down at the foot of a banyan tree and slept the sleep of utter exhaustion.
When she awoke towards dawn, besides her stood an elderly woman who plied her with questions in her own tongue. "Who are you there ? What are you doing, sleeping under a tree on a cold night like this ?"
Kamala started up in alarm. Looking around she espied near at hand a landing-place at which two barges were moored and the old lady appeared to be on a journey and had risen early to bathe in the river.
"You look like a Bengali, you do," she went on.
"I am a Bengali," said Kamala.
"What are you doing lying here ?"
"I started off for Benares. Late at night I felt sleepy so I lay down here."
"Did you ever hear the like ? Going to Benares on foot ! Well, you had better get on board that barge. I'll be along as soon as I've had my bath."
The old lady bathed and then joining Kamala launched forth into her account of herself and her errand. She was related to the Sidhu Babu in Ghazipur, one of the members of whose family had just been married with great pomp and circumstance. Her own name was Nabinkali and her husband's name was Mukundalal Datta ; they were Kayasthas by cast, natives of Bengal, but they had been residing for some time in Benares.
"What is your name ?" she asked.
"Kamala."
"I see you're wearing iron bangles ; your husband is alive then ?" asked Nabinkali.
"He disappeared the day after our wedding."
"Well I never ! you look quite young too ! Why, you can't be more than fifteen," she went on, after scanning Kamala from head to foot.
"I'm not certain about my age, but I must be about fifteen."
"You're a Brahman, aren't you ?" asked Nibankali.
"Yes."
"Where do your folk live ?"
"I've never been to my husband's native place ; my father came from Bisukali," (though she never had been there Kamala knew that Bisukali was the name of her father's birth place). "Both my father and my mother are dead."
"Bless my soul ! What are you going to do ?" asked the old woman.
"I only want a roof over my head and two meals a day. If I can find some decent people in Benares who will give me these I'll work for my keep. I know how to cook," said Kamala.
Nibankali was secretly delighted at the prospect of obtaining the services of a Brahman lady-cook gratis. She took care, however, to dissemble her joy.
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