CHAPTER VII
Ramesh now intended to start practising as a pleader at the Alipore Courts in Calcutta, but he seemed to have completely lost energy. He lacked the necessary determination to set to work with a settled purpose and to overcome all the obstacles that beset the bud- ding lawyer's path. He contracted the habit of going for purposeless walks across the Hourah bridge or round College Square, and he was contemplating a trip to the north-west when he received a letter from Annada Babu. The old gentleman had written:
I saw in the Gasette that you had passed, but I was sorry not to hear this from you personally. It is a long time since we heard from, or of, you. You must allay your old friends' anxiety by letting us know how you are and when you are coming to Calcutta.
It would not be out of place to mention here that the youth in England on whom Annada Babu had cast his eyes as a possible son-in-law had been called to the bar, had returned to India, and was already engaged to a young lady of means.
Ramesh doubted greatly whether after all that had occurred it would be right for him to renew his acquaintance with Hemnalini on the old footing. For the present, at all events, he could not reveal to any one the nature of his connection with Kamala, for that would involve exposing the innocent girl to social ignominy. And yet if he were to resume his former relations with Hemnalini he would have to make a dean breast of it.
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