THE WRECK 93
Though love had sustained Hemnalini's faith in Ramesh, it could not hush the voice of reason alto- gether. She had proclaimed her belief in him to Jogendra before she swept out of the room two days before, but in the solitude of the night-watches her faith had weakened.
She could not, to tell the truth, conceive any plausi- ble explanation of Ramesh's extraordinary conduct. She laboured to bar out suspicion from the stronghold of her faith, yet doubts rained blows on the postern. Like a mother who endeavours to protect her babe by clasping it to her breast, she clutched her trust in Ramesh to her heart when assailed by the damning evidence against him. But alas! would her strength always be equal to the effort?
Anna da Babu had again slept in the room next to Hemnalini's and he knew what a restless night she had passed. Several times he had gone into her room and found her awake. Her answer to his anxious inquiries had been, 'Why aren't you asleep yourself, dad? I feel sleepy enough; Tm just dropping off,"
She rose early and walked on the roof. Every door and window in Ramesh's lodging was shut and barred. The sun climbed slowly over the eastern escarpment of roofs, but to Hemnalini the new-born day seemed so dull, so listless, so joyless and dreary that she sank down in a corner of the roof, buried her face in her hands, and burst into tears. The day would pass with- out a visit from her lover. Even at the festive evening hour she would not have his advent to look forward to; and the empty consolation of feeling that he was near her, in the neighbouring house, that, too, was denied her.
She was startled by her father's voice calling, "Hem! Hem!" She hastily wiped away the traces of her grief and responded, "Yes, dad?"
Digitized by Ggogle
