Krishna Kanta's Will (Chatterjee, Knight)/Part 1/Chapters 16 & 17
CHAPTERS XV. & XVII.
Gobind Lâl immediately dived into the water, lifted up Rohini and laid her on the steps. He could not tell if she still lived; she was senseless, her breathing had ceased. He called to one of the gardeners, and with his assistance bore Rohini to one of the summer houses for the needful attention. So, whether in life or in death, Rohini at length entered Gobind Lâl's house. Other than Bhramar no woman had ever entered that summer house. Like a champak flower battered by wind and rain that lifeless woman's form stretched upon the couch appeared beautiful in the lamplight. The long and massive tresses of her dark black hair lay straightened with the wet, the water dripping from it like rainfall from the clouds. Her eyes were closed, but the beauty of the eyebrows above them was increased by the deeper black caused by the water. Her brow, calm, high, untinged by fear or shame, full of unexpressed thought, her cheek even now bright, her lower lip so full of sweetness, even yet shaming the Rattikâ (a red seed with a black spot). Tears sprang to the eyes of Gobind Lâl as he said, "Alas! alas! why did the Creator send you into the world with such beauty? and having formed you so beautiful, why did He not make you happy? Why have you gone away thus?" He felt himself the cause of this beautiful woman's self-destruction, and his heart felt ready to burst.
If Rohini still lived she must be saved.
[The rest of Chapter XVI. is taken up with a somewhat lengthened description of the methods usually adopted in reviving the drowned. As this is not likely to interest the English reader it has been omitted. The author represents Gobind Lâl as becoming enamoured of Rohini during this process. The text is resumed at Chapter XVII.]
As soon as Rohini began to breathe Gobind Lâl gave her some physic. It was a powerful restorative, and gradually Rohini gained strength. Looking round she saw herself to be in an elegantly adorned room. A cool, gentle wind was coming in from the open window. A soft, mild light burned in a crystal lamp at one side, at the other side the living lamp, her heart's keeper, burned. Here Rohini, drinking the restorative held to her lips by Gobind Lâl, was recovering life, there life-restoring words entering her ear aroused her faculties. First breath, then consciousness, sight, hearing, then speech, was restored to her. Rohini said—
"I was dead, who has restored me to life?"
Gobind. "Never mind who saved you; that you are saved is enough."
Rohini. "Why did you save me? Have you such enmity towards me that you stand in my way even in death?"
Gobind. "Why should you die?"
Rohini. "Have I not even the right to die?"
Gobind. "No one has the right to commit sin; self-destruction is sinful."
Rohini. "I don't know good from evil. No one has taught me. I don't heed sin or righteousness; for what sin am I thus punished? If for no sin am thus afflicted, what worse can befal me if I sin? I will die. Not this time. I fell in your sight and you have saved me. I will do it again where you shall not see me."
"Why should you die?" Gobind Lâl asked, in much distress.
"Far better to die outright than to be always expecting death, day and night, from hour to hour, moment by moment."
"On what account do you suffer so much?"
Rohini. "Night and day terrible thirst, a burning heart; before me cool water, but in this life never to touch that water. Not even the hope of it."
Gobind. "It is of no use to talk in this way. Come, I will see you to your home."
Rohini. "No, I will go alone."
Gobind Lâl understood why Rohini objected to his accompanying her. How could he persist? She went alone.
Then Gobind Lâl in the now vacant room, suddenly falling to the floor, rolling in the dust, gave way to weeping. Hiding his face on the ground, with fear-strained eyes, he pleaded, "O Lord, preserve me from this danger. If Thou dost not strengthen me, in whose strength shall I escape this evil? I shall die. Bhramar will die. Do Thou shine in this heart and in Thy strength I shall conquer myself."