Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay

“ I have robbed her of her peace and happiness, I have given her a heart-ache for life. And what are you, Rohini, that I should have given up all that I most valued on earth to go and become your slave!—your slave! What a fool I was to have yielded to the witchery of your fair face!"
He suddenly rose, and carried away by rage, grief and remorse kicked her down.
"Get up, woman," he growled, resuming his seat.
She obeyed tremblingly. She sobbed, but he cared not.
"Stand where you are," he said. "You wished to die once. You attempted to commit suicide by drowning. Do you dare again to die?" ”

“ She felt as if some one had struck her a deadly blow. Tears started to her eyes, but by an uncommon effort she quickly mastered them and sent them back to the source from which they sprung. "Go," she said with agony in her eye, "and return not if that, as you say, be your intention. I am innocent, you know I am, and yet you want to forsake me. But remember there is a God! Remember you will have to repent one day! If you think you can find one who can love you as truly and devotedly as I love you, you are greatly mistaken. ”

“ He cast his eyes toward Gobindalal's house, which looked gay with the light that gleamed through the open windows. He sat watching the light, and could not but feel some pity for Rohini who, in the midst of her fancied security, was happy in the life she was leading. Yet why, he thought, should she not reap the consequence of her sin? She had blighted the happiness of Gobindalal's wife. She had reduced her to the verge of death. He had sworn to his friend to punish her as she deserved. But who was he, he thought again, to punish her? Every one was accountable to God for his own actions. ”

“ The cattle were being driven home from the field, the lowing herd moving on at a quick pace, kicking up the dust with their feet. By and by the shades of evening closed in. The waters of the tank looked black, and the birds took shelter among the trees. Then the moon rose, shedding its silvery beams upon the earth. But Rohini—she was still there and weeping, her head leaning on her right hand. "Why, I think I will ask why she is weeping," said Gobindalal to himself. He rose to go to her.
"Rohini," said he, going down very quietly to her, "why are you weeping? What is the matter with you?" ”

“ His love had turned our home into an Eden, and I thought myself the happiest of women in the world. Oh, it is so hard!—so hard! To have won the greatest joy that life can give—and then to lose it all!"
It seemed to her that God was cruel, and she could do nothing but weep. So she wept and cried, and she prayed God to end her sorrows by putting an end to her existence.
Leaving his wife Gobindalal walked pensively to the outer house. He felt the sting of his conscience. How happy he had been with her! The thought of it was enough to draw a tear from his eye. ”

“ It is not like you to hide anything from me."
"A man may think of a woman and not be to blame," said Gobindalal. "There is nothing very bad or improper in that, I suppose."
"One thinks of one he loves," said Bhramar. "I think of you because I love you."
"Well, if that be your argument, then I love Rohini," said her husband with a smile.
"It is false," she said. "You cannot love her. You love me, and I am your wedded and lawful wife."
"Well," said Gobindalal, "widows are to eat no animal food. The shastras prohibit them from eating it. ”

“ Then slowly she moved up to where Gobindalal sat.
"Rohini!" cried Gobindalal, an agreeable surprise marking his tone. "Why have you come out in the rain, Rohini?"
"Did you call me, sir?" said Rohini. "I thought you called me."
"No," said he; "but I called out to say that the stairs were slippery. One might catch a fall stepping carelessly, you know. But why do you stand in the rain?"
She found courage, and stepped into the bower.
"Oh, what will a person think if he should see us alone together and in such a solitary place? You expose yourself to scandal." ”

“ Who knows where he is hiding?"
"Gobindalal, I trust, will himself soon feel that he will be more safe to live at his own house at Haridragram than elsewhere."
"I doubt he will come."
"Oh, he will, I tell you. My prediction will come true, you will see."
"Well," said Bhramar, "if no harm could ever come to him at Haridragram, then I would a thousand times wish him to come, and would fervently pray God to bring him home. But if he cannot be safe to live at his own house, then may his instinct keep him away. God have mercy on him!" ”

“ Am I not a fool, the greatest fool that the world has ever seen?"
She was silent. She dared not utter a word and hung down her head.
"Yes," he continued, "the greatest fool that the world has ever seen! I have sacrificed everything for you. My wife, poor artless creature—I have made her life miserable, I have blighted her happiness. With her I was happy as never a husband was happy with his wife. When I left her to go and live with you it broke her heart. ”

“ There were the koels [1] whose loud clear calls were heard from time to time. On other days their notes made no impression on her mind, but on this day when she heard them a strange feeling came over her. She thought as if she had lost something; as if something was wanting; as if her life was a blank. She thought of her late husband, and of her lonely state of a widow of her age, and of widow-marriage, which she had heard was not forbidden by the shastras. "Why should I not," she said to herself, "enjoy my spring of life? ”

“ The doctor could well see what the end would be, and ventured one day to pronounce that her case was hopeless.
"Dear sister," said Bhramar to Jamini, "I shall never get well again. It is no use my taking medicine any longer, for I feel that the cold hand of death is upon me. I love a moon-light night. If I die next month I wish it could be on the night of the full moon. I shall wait the day, sister. Something in me tells me that I shall not outlive it." ”

“ The one pure and unselfish, the other impure and selfish. The one love, the other desire. The one heaven, and the other hell. His behaviour to his wife broke her heart and finally laid her on a bed of sickness which she never left again. When she died he felt that he had murdered her with his own hands just as he had murdered Rohini, and great was the agony of the remorse he experienced. Away from his wife he had never for a moment been able to forget her. ”

“ He used pretty often to come out to the garden, which was once his uncle's favourite resort, but which now had the look of a desert. Often would the young man's eyes fill with tears whenever he mused over the mournful end of his uncle's life and the sufferings his good young wife had been through.
Months had gone by. Sachikanta reclaimed the garden. In it he planted varieties of flower trees, constructed spacious gravel walks and set up new marble figures in place of those that were either broken or deformed, so that it looked as beautiful again as in the old happy days of Gobindalal's life. ”

“ It is no sin to love; and to love is natural.
Thus reasoned Gobindalal in his mind. Thus even will a saint reason on the first setp to ruin. Gobindalal was so fascinated by Rohini's beauty that he thought it was no sin to wish to get her. His passion for her consumed him night and day like a flame. Sigh after sigh broke from him; and he seemed to have no wish, no thought, no hope beyond her. This went on for a time till one day in an evil hour he slipped and sold himself to the devil.
Krishnakanta knew nothing of his going wrong, but after a time it got to his ears. ”

“ Rohini wanted to make a clean breast of everything to Gobindalal.
"Uncle says," continued he, "you stole into his room to secure his will and put a forged will in its place. Is it true?"
"No," said Rohini.
"What is true then?"
"It is useless to tell it, I fear," she said after a pause.
"Why?" asked Gobindalal.
"Because... you will not believe my words."
"How do you know that?" said Gobindalal. "I know what to accept as true and what not. I sometimes believe what other people will not like to believe." ”

“ I am suffering hunger. I think I will go to Haridragram. You will ask how I can show my face there—I who am a disgrace to the name of Roy, I who committed murder. But what care I now for what people will say? Do you, however, not think worse of me than you can help. ”

“ And he showed him how the arms should be raised slowly and brought slowly down again while he blowed into her mouth. Gobindalal put his mouth to hers to blow. A thrill ran through his frame. But he was awake to nothing—nothing but his sacred duty—the duty to try his utmost to save her life. The operation of moving her arms up and down, and blowing continued for nearly two hours, at the end of which Rohini breathed. She belonged to the world again. ”

“ No sooner did the last speaker utter these words than the rest turned sharply upon her and taunted her, saying that she was too good and honest a woman to make herself a busybody in things that did not concern her. They made other cutting remarks, and were so clamorous in condemning her as a hypocrite that at last Bhramar cried, "Hold your tongues, you noisy rabble. I wish I could have you taught a good lesson for creating this disturbance in the house. Why don't you hang yourselves and let us be rid of you?" ”

“ Darkness now fell upon the quiet village and enveloped the garden and the tank. The stars shone out one by one in the black azure of the sky; everything was still. But Gobindalal saw nothing. He was in the midst of a waking nightmare in which only Bhramar and Rohini prevailed. ”

“ After such fearful storms as I have seen in my life I have come to a haven than which a better and safer one can never be. God is my haven. My life, as long as it is spared, I will devote to His service, He helping me. ”

“ Gobindalal loved to rove about among the flowers, stopping near a plant here and a plant there as his fancy led him. In one part of the garden there was a fine one-storied house furnished with pictures and other movables. Gobindalal loved to sit in a grove of variegated leaves where it was very cool in the time of summer. Near by on a pedestal was a stooping marble figure, in a sort of undress, of a lovely young woman pouring water over its feet out of a pot. Bhramar often used to come out to the garden with her husband ”

“ Gobindalal had loved two persons—Bhramar and Rohini. His love for the former lay in his heart, and she was his true and devoted wife. The latter he loved for her looks. His love for her lay in his eyes, and therefore it was bound to be shortlived. His senses had been caught by her beauty, although his heart was elsewhere. When he left his wife he knew that he was doing her a great wrong, but he was so mad after Rohini that he was determined to have her at any cost. ”

“ Gobindalal sat down, as directed, on an armless cushioned chair near by, expecting his uncle would open a conversation by talking about Rohini, which would give him an opportunity of requesting him to pardon her; but he made no mention of her at all. Krishnakanta having cunningly guessed his business with him, talked only of business matters until the young man who could find no very great interest in them, began to exhibit signs of impatience; and the old man, who could well see that, laughed in his sleeve and enjoyed his disappointment and vexation very much. ”

“ The women-servants were a very troublesome set in the house, and could hardly be kept under control even by Bhramar's mother-in-law who was the mistress of the house.
"What's all this noise about? What's the matter," cried Bhramar as soon as she appeared before them. They paid no heed to her words. As soon as they saw her they burst into loud exclamations of horror and astonishment. "I am sure I have never heard such a thing in my life," said one. Another cried, "How daring! I wish I could teach her a good lesson with my broom!" A third wished she could cut off her nose and ears. ”

“ Often from his gloom, which was so trying to him, Gobindalal loved to seek refuge in the comforting thought of Rohini. Poor Bhramar! she in her anguish called upon Death to take her, for she had no peace, no happiness in her. ”

“ He saw her heart as in a mirror, and he very much pitied her.
"Don't talk of dying, Rohini," he said. "We all have our duties to perform for which we have come into the world. You sin to wish to go off before your time, and death never comes for courting, you know."
He paused for a moment, and then said, "Rohini, I think you will do well to live away." ”

“ But, I don't think he is in earnest."
"I know he is," said Haralal. "You write the will of course?"
"Why, I can't refuse, you know," said Brahmananda.
"Nobody wants you to refuse," said Haralal. "But come, I want to give you something."
"What? a drubbing?" said Brahmananda with a laugh.
"Damn you," said Haralal. "I am serious. A thousand rupees. Would you like to take it?"
"Where is the fool who will not like to take it if he can get it for nothing?"
"I don't mean, for nothing," said Haralal. "If you wish to get it you will have to earn it."
"How? By marrying a widow?" ”

“ Who was so silky and smooth in order to deceive a poor woman by taking advantage of her simplicity? Can there be anything more wicked and dishonourable than this? And you plume yourself on being the son of Krishnakanta Roy! Shame on you. Had you been a woman I wouldn't have spared the broom. But a wretch as you are, I allow you to depart in peace."
Haralal was cowed by her sudden and very bold attack. ”

“ If Rohini could have foreseen what was at the end of the path she was going to pursue, she would certainly have recoiled in horror. Could Gobindalal love her? What would she do if he could not! If she was to live to drudge and toil, why should she not die? What hope or comfort had she? And drowning she had heard was the best and easiest of all means of suicide.
She was, however, keenly sensible of the wrong she had done to Gobindalal by stealing the will. So she resolved she would go and get the forged will and put Krishnakanta's will again where it was in the drawer. ”

“ Will you not forgive and forget? To forgive is divine: you said it yourself."
"Yes; but you are the possessor of the half share of the estate. I shouldn't wonder if you think that you are now free to do as you like." ”