CHAPTER XXI
RAMESH carried Kamala off to Sealdah Station at nine o'clock that night. Under his instructions the driver took a circuitous route by the Kalutola lanes, and Ra- mesh thrust his head eagerly out of the window as the carriage passed a certain house. He noticed no change in any of its familiar features.
He sighed so deeply that Kamala started out of her doze and asked what was the matter. "Nothing," said Ramesh and subsided into his seat, where he remained till the carriage reached its destination. Kamala lay back in her corner and soon fell asleep again. Ramesh could not resist a momentary impulse of resentment at her very existence.
They arrived at the station in good time and were soon ensconced in the second-class compartment which Ramesh had engaged for the journey. Ramesh made a bed for Kamala on one of the lower bunks, lowered the lightt closed the shutters, and remarked, 'It's long past your bed-time; you had better go to sleep now."
"Mayn't I sit here and look out till the train starts? I'll go to sleep after that." Ramesh assented, so Kam- ala drew her veil over her head and seated herself on the edge of the bunk by the window to watch the crowds, while Ramesh himself sat on the centre bunk gazing out absent-mindedly. The train had just begun to move when his eye fell on a belated passenger who was hurrying up the platform and whose features seemed vaguely familiar to him.
Next moment Kamala began to shriek with laughter. Ramesh put his head out and observed the late arrival
87
Digitized by Google
