Kamala thought it a good opportunity to cook and expressed her hearts desire, "please let me cook to-day, mother."
Kshemankari smiled. "The storeroom and the kitchen are housewife's kingdom. Very well, you do the cooking to-day, dear, and for two or three days more if you like ; I've no doubt that in course of time you'll find yourself doing the whole of the work. Then I'll have my time for my devotions. It's never ending responsibility and I'll be glad to be free of it for a few days. The housewife's throne is not embowered in roses !"
Kamala made all preparations for cooking with her accustomed thoroughness.
Nalinaksha came in and made,as usual, a point of seeing his mother before he did anything else, for her health was a matter of constant anxiety to him. As soon as he entered the house on this particular morning his ears and nostrils informed him that cooking was in progress. Assuming that hi mother was in the kitchen he went there and halted in the doorway.
Startled by the sound of footsteps, Kamala turned round and found herself staring straight into Nalinaksha's face. She dropped her ladle and made an unsuccessful attempt to pull her veil into position, forgetting that it was tied round her waist. Before she could disentangle it and raise it to her face, Nalinaksha, who was no less surprised than she, had turned and gone.
Kamala's hand trembled as she took up the ladle again.
When Kshemankari finished her devotions and repaired to the kitchen, she found that cooking was over. Kamala had washed the room out and cleaned it thoroughly ; the kitchen was as tidy as it could be.
"Well, dear, you're a true Brahman girl and no mistake !" exclaimed Kshemankari in delight.
When Nalinaksha sat down to breakfast, his mother took her place opposite him and a certain very nervous little person stood listening outside the door. She could not summon up courage to peep in and she was frightened almost out of her wits at the thought that her cooking might be a failure.
"What is the cooking like to-day, Nalin ?" asked Kshemankari.
His mother was normally not in the habit of questioning him about his food, but this time there was a real note of eagerness in her voice. She did not know that Nalinaksha was already aware of the installation of a mysterious stranger in the kitchen. As his mother's strength declined with age he had done his best to persuade her to engage a cook, but he had never been able to win her consent. He had accordingly been delighted to see a new face in the kitchen, and though he had taken no particular note of the quality of the viands he answered enthusiastically, "It's splendid, mother !"
Unable to sustain the role of eavesdropper after hearing this compliment to her cooking, Kamala fled into another room and clasped her arms over her heaving breast.
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