The Home and the World

as gone wrong. I got an in

it from the zenana, it was not barred to me from the outer side. If we had only gone slow, and made use of our privileges with some

with a shade of unnecessary vehemence; the bookcase is a trifle stiff and creaks if jerked open. When I enter I find Bee, with her back to the door, ever so b

ll of these same sounds. There was a man on guard in the passage. I walked on without so much as

hat wa

Mother i

r Rani Mother that Sandi

e, sir. It is

nt. "I order you!" I

announ

had neared the door. I was on the point of reaching it, when he foll

m and gave the man a sounding blow. At this moment Bee

ll, slim figure these boors would call "lanky". But it is just this lithesomeness of hers that I admire-like an up-leaping fountain of life, comin

stood in the doorway, pointin

aid I. "If it is against orde

trembling as she rep

e i

yself with a fan which was on the table. Bee scribbled something with a pencil on a sheet

was unable to control myself

him right,

low's fault, after all. He w

my seat with a rapid movement and went and st

s insulted Sandip Bab

stare at him. Even an outrageously good man fails in keeping up his pr

Sandip Babu was coming in here," cont

ders?" as

Bee impatiently, her eyes br

ed him. "It was not my fault," Nanku

e you th

ra Rani

ile. After the man had left

oblem. Bee was not the woman to take things lying down. She would have to get even with her sister-in-law by punishing this fellow. And as Nikhil remained sil

t that he had been sent off to some other part of the esta

ng over this, behind the scenes. All I can say is, that

broad hint: the implied came to be expressed. The daughter-in- law of a princely house lives in a starry region so remote from the ordinary outsider that there is not even a regular road f

st upwards, is ranged on its side. And yet men would keep it hidden away out of sight, behind a tissue of words; and with home-made sanctions and

at a gnashing of teeth and beating of breasts is there! But can one carry on a q

y others, but also Bee herself. When Reality has to meet the unreal, deception is its principal weapon; for its enemies always try to shame Reality by calling it gross, and so it needs must hid

ch peeps through the luxuriant masses of her hair, with its flush of secret longing, it is the lolling tongue of the red storm cloud

Satan; and so it has to steal into the garden of paradise in the guise of a snake, and whisper secrets into th

h way she is treading. It would not be safe to awaken her before

mean! As my eyes met hers, she turned away with a flush. "You are surprised at my appetite," I remarked. "

ore furiously, as she stamm

m the upper hand. The indulgence which I have always received at their hands has made me all the more shamel

it lying in the sitting-room. As I went there the next afternoon, for something or other, I found Bee seated with this book in

, or what not-may well feel ashamed. If we must read poetry, it should be at dead of night, within closed doors. But you women ar

"No, no, pray read on. I will just take a book I left here, and run away." With which I took up my book from the

Why?" a

lunt things, bluntly put, without any finic

as she murmured: "Wha

d. Have you not observed how this trait of his makes him look on __Swadeshi__ as if it was some poem of which

book to do with

erything else; so he knocks up against human nature at every turn, and then falls to abusing it. He

ely said: "Is it not a part of human nat

a healthy human being. Your flesh and blood have responded to the call of reality. You are burning in every v

poisoning the ears of men by repeating these shibboleths. Nature h

mala. "So I suppose we must joi

nner minds are aware of their bondage. They have manufactured scriptures with their own hands to bind themselves; with their very idealism they have made golden fetters of women to wind round their body and mind. If men had not that extraordinary facul

give in to my arguments. "If that were true," she ob

g their own phrases. They know that man, the drunkard, values intoxication more than food, and so they try to pass th

u troubling to des

ountry to be free. I want

-

o the Hindu cal

w is the pet of a

f the adoration of the Divinity serve as well