As I came out into the passage leading to the zenana
I found my sister-in-law, standing near a window overlooking
the reception rooms, peeping through the venetian
shutter.
“You here?” I asked in surprise.
“Eavesdropping!” she replied.
------
11. The Jupiter Pluvius of Hindu mythology.
When I returned, Sandip Babu was tenderly apologetic.
“I am afraid we have spoilt your appetite,”
he said.
I felt greatly ashamed. Indeed, I had been too
indecently quick over my dinner. With a little
calculation, it would become quite evident that my
non-eating had surpassed the eating. But I had
no idea that anyone could have been deliberately calculating.
I suppose Sandip Babu detected my feeling of shame,
which only augmented it. “I was sure,”
he said, “that you had the impulse of the wild
deer to run away, but it is a great boon that you
took the trouble to keep your promise with me.”
I could not think of any suitable reply and so I sat
down, blushing and uncomfortable, at one end of the
sofa. The vision that I had of myself, as the
__Shakti__ of Womanhood, incarnate, crowning Sandip
Babu simply with my presence, majestic and unashamed,
failed me altogether.
Sandip Babu deliberately started a discussion with
my husband. He knew that his keen wit flashed
to the best effect in an argument. I have often
since observed, that he never lost an opportunity
for a passage at arms whenever I happened to be present.
He was familiar with my husband’s views on the
cult of __Bande Mataram__, and began in a provoking
way: “So you do not allow that there is
room for an appeal to the imagination in patriotic
work?”
“It has its place, Sandip, I admit, but I do
not believe in giving it the whole place. I
would know my country in its frank reality, and for
this I am both afraid and ashamed to make use of hypnotic
texts of patriotism.”
“What you call hypnotic texts I call truth.
I truly believe my country to be my God. I
worship Humanity. God manifests Himself both
in man and in his country.”
“If that is what you really believe, there should
be no difference for you between man and man, and
so between country and country.”
“Quite true. But my powers are limited,
so my worship of Humanity is continued in the worship
of my country.”
“I have nothing against your worship as such,
but how is it you propose to conduct your worship
of God by hating other countries in which He is equally
manifest?”
“Hate is also an adjunct of worship. Arjuna
won Mahadeva’s favour by wrestling with him.
God will be with us in the end, if we are prepared
to give Him battle.”
“If that be so, then those who are serving and
those who are harming the country are both His devotees.
Why, then, trouble to preach patriotism?”
