Chapter IV.
IT was now six months since Kamala had come to her husband’s house. Her first experiences were happy. Gungi disliked her, but both her father-in-law and her mother-in-law treated her kindly. Gungi, finding that Kamala was superior to her in many respects, felt herself thrust in the background, and this she could not forgive. What was there about Kamala that won people’s hearts? Her eyes appealed to one even when she was spoken to roughly, and she moved about with a pose of the head and an air that marked her out as distinctly superior to those around her. For a time Gungi was baffled by her soft sweet ways and her willingness to do every duty that was laid upon her. The heaviest drudgery was light in her eyes, for she was doing it for her own father. He would know that she did not shrink from anything. The old man, her father-in-law, resembled her own father very much, for he was a shastri also, and like him fond of the same musty old books. He would pat her when she looked eagerly into his face as she had done into her father’s; and the little girl, feeling the loss of her own father, drew near to the old man. He used to wonder at first at her little attentions to him, her guileless ways, and her total ignorance of the relationship he bore to her as a father-in-law, a man more to be feared than loved. When he was in his study, a front room set apart for him into which no one dare go, she would fearlessly go to him after her work was over and stay there quietly arranging his books for him or watching him with a mute love while he was deep in study. At first he felt uncomfortable at the little stranger’s taking to him so, but after some time he got accustomed to it and even looked out for her coming. She appeared somehow to help him in his studies, and one day he discovered to his great surprise that she knew what was inside the books, for once when arranging and dusting them she said very naively: “Shall I keep the book with the shlokas of creation on the top? Shall you require it to-day?”
“What do you know of the shlokas of creation?” he asked, turning round sharply on her. She was frightened at first, but replied innocently with an upward glance: “I know them. My father was very fond of them. I think I understand them.”
Oh! those dark large eyes! what a world of innocence, love, and trust they expressed! He felt the look go through him and said gently: “You understand? Tell me, are you able to read?”
“Very little,” she said with a sigh, “but father used to repeat the shlokas so often that I knew them all long ago, when I used to lie in his arms and be lulled to sleep by them.”
“And who taught you to read?”
“I don’t know how I learnt. I used to play at learning to read on the sand when I was small, and father used to put me right and say that it was right that the daughter of a reading man should know how to read. He would add: ‘Lakshmi could read.’”
“And who was Lakshmi?” said her father-in-law.
“She must have been my second self, for he called me Lakshmi at times, and spoke of her as one who lived long ago. I used to say she was my shadow, for there was Kamala in front and Lakshmi her shadow behind. Isn’t that funny?” And she laughed and hid her face, while he stroked her head and wondered at her innocence.
Now it was against all rules of decorum for a daughter-in-law to be so very familiar with her father-in-law, and to be in such favour with him. Gungi found cause to misinterpret this dreadfully. She assigned all kinds of wicked motives to Kamala, saying that she despised the company of herself and her mother, she was immodest and bold, and that the air of humility which she put on was but a mask to conceal her boldness. She worked well, Gungi said, in order that she might have more time to be in the company of her father-in-law, and influence him against his own daughter. At first these complaints were not listened to by Gungi’s mother, who petted Kamala and said: “Let her get as much love as she can. Poor girl! she has no father.”
Gungi’s mother was a simple impressionable sort of woman, very easily led by others, and under the excitement of the moment expressed her feelings, in rather strong language. Hence, prevailed upon by the continued complaints of Gungi, she covertly scolded the old man for what she considered his callous indifference to the family, now and then throwing out hints against Kamala. “Don’t you see how common Gungi looks beside Kamala? Yet you don’t make any efforts to get her married. Her jewels and clothes are so ordinary, and you are all for your daughter-in-law. She will of course be in the house. I am tired of hearing people say:—’Oh see what a good daughter-in-law you have. How pretty she is! Where did you get her?’ But they take no notice of my girl. If our son also takes to her as you do, why, she will wean away his heart from us and where shall we be? He won’t take the least notice of us. Oh! wretched was the day she set foot in this house. The relations murmur, Gungi feels slighted.” Thus she tried to poison the old man’s mind. He gave up taking Kamala with him to the temple-a distinction conferred on none of the other members of the family. Every action of Kamala’s was looked upon by the people in the house with suspicion, and her father-in-law himself began to be indifferent towards her. Gungi triumphed and Kamala pined and shed silent tears, and often hid herself in corners and out-of-the-way places. What could she do? People did not like her. She had done something wrong, something to displease the old man, for when she now and then ran to him with joy he would set her aside and give her some work to do. She would cast furtive glances at him and try to talk; but he would say: “Girls ought to keep silence when elders are busy.” This was a mild check but it suppressed the flow of innocent spirits, and damped the joy that arose in her heart.
Her husband she scarcely knew. He left immediately after the marriage ceremony and went to a city not far away for the purpose of study. He was expected to return when he had passed all his examinations. She had a faint recollection of a young man who was made to sit beside her during the marriage ceremonies and feasts, when she had felt most awkward and flurried and had tried to run away. She knew that he was her husband and that by the ceremony and tamasha they had been bound together in some unknown, mysterious way, but she never thought of him or cared to see him again. The outside world began to engage her attention more and more. She began to make the acquaintance of girls of her own age, and their talk revealed a new and dreadful world to her. Her life was no more the life of her childhood. The sweet innocent freedom that belonged to it seemed to have vanished. She learnt many a thing that horrified her. Her eyes would dilate with fear and wonder, and she grew more reserved and quiet.
Kamala’s special friends were four in number. They came from neighbouring houses and she frequently met them by the well. At first they avoided the stranger who had come in their midst, and who was seen going about bedecked as a bride. They were jealous, but her frank innocent ways won them. One day they chid her good humouredly for having won the hearts of her mother-in-law and her father-in-law, a thing that was never known before in a Brahman family. “You turn them round your fingers,” they said. “We hear that ‘the syrupy sugar is running in streams in your house.’ How did you manage it, you with no father and no mother? Why, you must be a little witch!”
“I have done nothing of the kind,” Kamala said, and added with tears: “It is not as you say.”
“Yes, we know it won’t be very long before you will be brought down from your pedestal. You have such an affectionate sister-in-law!”
“But that is not it,” remonstrated Kamala, and was going to explain herself when Bhagirathi, a tall, dark girl, the oldest of them, stopped her, saying: “Yes, yes, we know everything. We have gone through it all ourselves. Only we are astonished at your foolishness and your belief in them. Why, child, don’t look so distressed, we each have our troubles at home and the mothers-in-law and the sisters-in-law are not so sweet and innocent as you imagine. A time will come when not a day will pass without your getting a good beating from them or from your husband, and they will try to poison your very food for you. Don’t look so blank with wonder. Did not your mother tell you all this? But you had no mother. Poor child! You don’t look as if you would stand much beating.”
“But we have all to go through it, and you must not be frightened. It is a woman’s lot,” added Rukhma, the shastri’s daughter.
“But why will they beat me?”
“For your misconduct, of course. It is always misconduct. If the ghee is spilt and you are near it, it must be you, though it was your sister-in-law that did it. You are the evil influence.”
“Why, last night I had a beating,” said Harni, a soft, fair looking chit of twelve, with tears in her eyes, “because my husband did not take his food. My mother-in-law said that it was I, and though I cried and said I was innocent in the matter, they beat and starved me too.”
“That is nothing,” said Bhagirathi. “Wait till you get older. You will have enough to suffer from your husband’s behaviour. Did you hear of Seeta in the opposite street? Poor girl! Her husband wanted some of her jewels which his own mother had just put on her, and when she would not give them he actually brought a dancing girl to the house and would not send her away till poor Seeta had parted with some of her jewels.”
Hearing this Kamala unconsciously put her hand to her necklace, and they all burst out laughing.
“No, not such a jewel as that. Why, it is a mere baby’s toy. Your husband won’t care for that,” said Rukhma.
“But I will give it to him if he wants it,” said Kamala in an earnest tone, “and he won’t beat me then.”
Bhagirathi, moved at her innocence, drew Kamala, near to her and said: “No, child! Nobody will beat you. I will see who will. We ought not to tell you all this. ‘Whom the gods have not enlightened why should man?’ You go in and do everything that they tell you and don’t think anybody will beat you.”
“What a little simpleton!” said Bheema, a big fat bouncing girl, who all this time was silently looking on. Coming near to Kamala she said: “I will be your friend.”
“And I will, too,” added fair little Harni, and the four drew near Kamala by the well and their hands met in a solemn compact while Kamala with tears in her glistening eyes looked into their faces.
Kamala’s father-in-law, in spite of all the influences brought to bear upon him, had a tender spot in his heart for the little girl. His indifference was only assumed. He was a man of a determined will and once he made up his mind to believe anything it was hard to move him. He felt instinctively that his daughter-in-law was very different from the other girls, and considered himself her special guardian. The scene of the morning of her marriage day, when he found her enjoying nature and revelling in its freedom so unlike other girls, was fresh in his memory, and he could not think that she was capable of deceit of any kind whatever her other qualities might be. In deference to the wishes of his wife, however, he had prevented Kamala from coming often to his study. But from the day of her arrival he had let her pour water on his hands for washing before he took his meals, and had even made her sit near him while he was being served. She took a special delight in sitting near him, and, though other things had changed, this custom was allowed to remain. But the very day her sister-in-law Ramabai came, she ordered Kamala to go and stand inside; and when the old man missed her and inquired for her, Ramabai officiously came forward and said: “Oh, she sits with us women afterwards,” for the girls were afraid of the father and did not like him to think that they were unkind to his daughter-in-law. “See to her,” he said, “she eats very little, poor child.” He even called out to her, but she had been given some work to do just then. After that Kamala never saw her father-in-law during meals.
One evening both the sisters were very grandly dressed, for they were going out to witness a ceremonial to which the whole family had been invited. “Take Kamala, too,” said their mother, to which the sisters replied that as Kamala knew nobody it was no use taking her. They asked permission of their mother, however, to let them wear some of Kamala’s jewels; and so Kamala was divested of them all—even the pearl necklace and earrings, her father’s gifts, which Gungi wore. Then the sisters both went out. Immediately afterwards Kashi entered. Kamala was feeling wretched, but when she saw Kashi her face brightened and she ran to her. But Kashi with a look of anger held her back.
“Who told you to make such a fool of yourself and give away all your jewels to that brat to wear? I just saw her outside. I cannot take you now. I came all this distance to take you to the ceremonial at Ranıchandrapunt’s house. It is a grand affair and all the world is to be there except of course the old, the lame, the deaf, and the widows. But, my Kamala! What mean those tears and that starved face of yours? Are you not happy?”
“Oh! I don’t want to go anywhere. Only you stay near me a little while, and I shall be satisfied. I was feeling so miserable, and I don’t know why. I know nobody and I ought not to go. I never felt like this before. I wish I was in my old home far away.”
“The truth is, nobody loves you, and there is something wrong somewhere, but come, I must not waste time. You wear this and this,” taking off two necklaces from her own neck—“and there you look all right. We must make haste now. How well you look with even those few jewels. We shall baffle them yet.”
“But my mother-in-law?”
“I got her permission long ago, and she told me to take you.” Kamala, her eyes sparkling with delight, followed her friend to the gathering, and forgetting all her sorrow, spent a happy evening with Kashi.
After Ramabai’s return there was a great deal of stir in the house. She rushed up and down, and talked with eager excitement to everybody. She would often take her mother into a room and there form all kinds of plans. Her husband followed her, suggested, discussed, argued, and did as much talking as Ramabai herself. Ramabai’s husband had not approved of the marriage, for he seemed to have had some plan of his own. He was disappointed at the turn affairs had taken and found fault with the whole thing. He prided himself on his shrewdness and was ready with interpretations of Kamala’s conduct and behaviour which were anything but favourable to her. “What! an only son, the heir to so well known a man to be married to a penniless man’s daughter, the antecedents of her mother all unknown and the father none else than a wandering mendicant. What a degradation! Where was the hurry? I fully thought you would wait a year or two more. Able to read and write! A woman cleverer than her husband! This is what the world is coming to. She has already usurped the best place and when the son comes we don’t know what tricks she will be up to.” He spoke, too, of the great loss that the family had suffered in not getting the son married to the girl he had recommended.
“She is a big man’s daughter,” he said, “the very alliance would have given your son a lift,” and then added: “Even now, well, I don’t know what to say, the difficulty is so great.” He also spoke in ambiguous terms about some plan he had in view, and threw out certain hints about a young man to whom Kamala had been promised in marriage and who was very much disappointed at not getting her.
Kamala did not understand the reason of all this excitement, nor why they held such hot discussions. Her father-in-law did not join them, and in fact when he was seen to approach there was a calm and hush as if they were afraid of him, though even in his presence Ramabai hurled her stinging remarks at persons and things. Kamala admired the spirit and energy of the woman, but wondered why she herself was so ignored. When in her ignorance she happened to approach the excited party a blight seemed to fall upon them and all eyes were turned on her. Her walk and appearance were marked minutely, and feeling uncomfortable in their presence she would take herself away to some quiet corner. She did not know that she was the subject of a great deal of their excited conversation, neither was she aware that it was partly owing to her husband having passed his examinations and secured an appointment under Government.
Sacred verses
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