Stories of Bengalee Life/Signs of the Times/Chapter 4
CHAPTER IV.
Binod's sister-in-law said to the mother of the newly-made bride—"It will take time to make the ornaments, so we cannot send the bride home to you in less than a fortnight."[1]
The mother answered—"That will be all right. You are quite near, and I will send a palanquin now and then to bring her over for a few hours; this will suffice for the time." A young lady who was standing by remarked—"Nowadays, brides don't weep as they did formerly when going to the mother-in-law's house. In a couple of days they become chums with their husbands."
A week passed after the wedding, yet Binod said no word of going to Calcutta. Jesting relatives began to wink, and say—"One bunch before reaching the top of the tree."[2] The sister-in-law approaching Binod, said to him—"Brother, further delay in getting the ornaments made will not look well. I met the bride's aunt yesterday, and she enquired if the ornaments had come yet."
Binod said—"Do you wish to drive me away, sister-in-law? You are a friend indeed!"
"I quite understand, brother; but you must do something to satisfy the family. Go early in the morning to Calcutta, spend the day there; buy the gold, call in the goldsmith, give the measures, and charge Abala Didi to see them done, and then return by the evening train, which gets in here about midnight. I will leave food for you in your bedroom."
"How wise you are, sister-in-law!"
It was arranged that early the next morning Binod should go to Calcutta. Evening fell; supper over, bedtime came. Placing their bed before the open venetians Binod and Sarat Kumari lay down. The garden lay bathed in moonlight; a pleasant air was blowing.
Binod was more silent than usual. Sarat Kumari said—"Of what are you thinking?"
"Of much trouble."
"What trouble,"—the girl asked, anxiously.
Binod answered—"If I tell you, you won't trust me any longer."
Sarat said—"Can a wife distrust her husband?"
Binod kept his eyes on his wife's face. Her hair lay in loose curls upon her temples. Sincerity beamed from her eyes.
Binod said—"I am an evil man. I have deceived you all."
The girl looked at her husband in silence. Binod continued—"I have no employment in Motihari, neither have I 120 rupees a month."
In great astonishment Sarat said—"Where, then, do you work?"
"I have no employment. I was in the railway office at Allahabad, but I lost that post. Seeing no other resource, I thought I would get some money by marrying, and so used this stratagem. I knew that if I succeeded in effecting a marriage by means of the pretended excellent post, discovery must immediately follow; so I meant to fly at once with the money."
A little earlier, in deep sincerity and boundless faith, the girl had said—"Can a wife ever distrust her husband?" But as at the touch of dawn the darkness of night quickly vanishes, so at this revelation of her husband's true character her faith in him rapidly melted away. She remained voiceless, as though under the weight of a heavy blow.
Placing a hand on his wife's shoulder, Binod went on—"When, before the marriage, I said I would have the ornaments made in Calcutta, it was with this design. Under the pretext of getting them made, I meant at some time to go off with the money. You have brought these schemes to the ground."
Sarat, with a shiver, removed her shoulder from beneath her husband's hand, and sat up in the bed, saying—"What have I done?"
"You have bound me in golden fetters. I cannot leave you. Nevertheless, I cannot stay. If I do, the thing will come out—to-day or to-morrow. I could not show my face for shame."
The girl's heart was bursting with anger, contempt and shame. Then she asked—"Where did you mean to go?"
"I meant going to the coal mines; and it is there I will go and take a contract. The work is hard, but profitable."
Suddenly Sarat said—"I will go with you."
Binod sprang up in the bed. "You will go, Sarat?"—he said, joyfully. "Can you go?"
"I can. Have you thought for a moment what I shall have to endure from people's tongues if you go and I stay? The whole country will jeer at us; people will say whatever comes into their minds, and I shall have to sit and listen to them."
Binod's joy was overcast. Sarat's flight meant not self-devotion only, but self-protection. After a while he said—"Then we will go together."
"When?"
"It is arranged that I shall go to Calcutta early on the day after to-morrow. So before we sleep I will put the money in the hand bag and place it in this room. At about two o'clock in the morning we will go. We will take a small cottage near the mines. The place is quite unknown. There we will begin a new life."
What was it that arose in the girl bride's mind amid anger and sorrow? One phrase kept thrusting itself upon her—"You have brought my schemes to the ground." The thought was a sweet one. Her husband had been unable to fly, leaving her behind. It was like one sweet fruit in a forest of thorns. She fell asleep with this atom of joy ever rising amid the confusion of her thoughts.
When, on the day but one after, Bou Didi came to arouse Binod as agreed upon, there was no one to be found. On the bed there lay a letter addressed to her husband:—
"Honoured Brother,—I have gone West with my wife. I have imposed upon you all. I am not employed at Motihari. I had a small post in the railway office at Allahabad, but that I lost through drinking. Then being destitute, I resolved upon helping myself by marriage. Lest I should be found out, I searched the Directory to see whether anyone of my name held a good post anywhere. I found that in Motihari a certain Binod Bihari Mitra had a good berth. Fixing his salary in my mind, I came home and got married.
"I have not a single copper. My cash box is filled with broken glass. My sister-in-law's bracelets are not yet made. Please have them made with the thousand rupees I obtained in the marriage. I have resolved to use the jewel money in business. If some day I am able to retrieve my character and condition, you will see me again; for the present I bid you a respectful farewell.
On reading the letter, Bou Didi was astounded; but since he had gone confessing the truth, she was not so very angry with her young brother-in-law. But the fact that the girl yet so young had accompanied her husband struck the sister-in-law as being very extraordinary, and in her mind she began to ponder—"What are the times coming to?"
- ↑ After a short visit to her mother-in-law, it is usual for a bride to return to her parents for a time before settling down in her husband's home.—Translator
- ↑ On a dark night a thief went out to steal dates from a neighbour's tree. Another thief was there before him, who, having plucked a bunch, let it down with a string to avoid noise. The second thief, when half-way up, caught the bunch (not perceiving the first thief) and exclaimed: "Hullo, what luck! a bunch before reaching the top." This proverb is used when something happens before its time. Binod was just married, and his devotion to his wife was quite premature. In such marriages men do not fall in love with their wives until one or two years have passed.