Stories from Tagore
"I came hours ago," said Venu. "I did not know that you returned so
late."
They went upstairs together and Haralal lighted the lamp and asked Venu
whether all was well. Venu replied that his college classes were
becoming a fearful bore, and his father did not realize how dreadfully
hard it was for him to go on in the same class, year after year, with
students much younger than himself. Haralal asked him what he wished to
do. Venu then told him that he wanted to go to England and become a
barrister. He gave an instance of a student, much less advanced than
himself, who was getting ready to go. Haralal asked him if he had
received his father's permission. Venu replied that his father would not
hear a word of it until he had passed the Intermediate, and that was an
impossibility in his present frame of mind. Haralal suggested that he
himself should go and try to talk over his father.
"No," said Venu, "I can never allow that!"
Haralal asked Venu to stay for dinner and while they were waiting he
gently placed his hand on Venu's shoulder and said:
"Venu, you should not quarrel with your father, or leave home."
Venu jumped up angrily and said that if he was not welcome, he could go
elsewhere. Haralal caught him by the hand and implored him not to go
away without taking his food. But Venu snatched away his hand and was
just leaving the room when Haralal's mother brought the food in on a
tray. On seeing Venu about to leave she pressed him to remain and he did
so with bad grace.
While he was eating the sound of a carriage stopping at the door was
heard. First a servant entered the room with creaking shoes and then
Adhar Babu himself. Venu's face became pale. The mother left the room as
soon as she saw strangers enter. Adhar Babu called out to Haralal in a
voice thick with anger:
"Ratikanta gave me full warning, but I could not believe that you had
such devilish cunning hidden in you. So, you think you're going to live
upon Venu? This is sheer kidnapping, and I shall prosecute you in the
Police Court."
Venu silently followed his father and went out of the house.
IX
The firm to which Haralal belonged began to buy up large quantities of
rice and dhal from the country districts. To pay for this, Haralal had
to take the cash every Saturday morning by the early train and disburse
it. There were special centres where the brokers and middlemen would
come with their receipts and accounts for settlement. Some discussion
had taken place in the office about Haralal being entrusted with this
work, without any security, but the Manager undertook all the
responsibility and said that a security was not needed. This special
work used to go on from the middle of December to the middle of April.
Haralal would get back from it very late at night.
One day, after his return, he was told by his mother that Venu had
called and that she had persuaded him to take his dinner at their house.
This happened more than once. The mother said that it was because Venu
missed his own mother, and the tears came into her eyes as she spoke
about it.
One day Venu waited for Haralal to return and had a long talk with him.
"Master Mashai!" he said. "Father has become so cantankerous of late
that I cannot live with him any longer. And, besides, I know that he is
getting ready to marry again. Ratikanta is seeking a suitable match, and
they are always conspiring about it. There used to be a time when my
father would get anxious, if I were absent from home even for a few
hours. Now, if I am away for more than a week, he takes no
notice,--indeed he is greatly relieved. If this marriage takes place, I
feel that I cannot live in the house any longer. You must show me a way
out of this. I want to become independent."
Haralal felt deeply pained, but he did not know how to help his former
pupil. Venu said that he was determined to go to England and become a
barrister. Somehow or other he must get the passage money out of his
father: he could borrow it on a note of hand and his father would have
to pay when the creditors filed a suit. With this borrowed money he
would get away, and when he was in England his father was certain to
remit his expenses.
"But who is there," Haralal asked, "who would advance you the money?"
"You!" said Venu.
"I!" exclaimed Haralal in amazement.
"Yes," said Venu, "I've seen the servant bringing heaps of money here in
bags."
"The servant and the money belong to someone else."
Haralal explained why the money came to his house at night, like birds
to their nest, to be scattered next morning.
"But can't the Manager advance the sum?" Venu asked.
"He may do so," said Haralal, "if your father stands security."
The discussion ended at this point.
X
One Friday night a carriage and pair stopped before Haralal's lodging
house. When Venu was announced Haralal was counting money in his
bedroom, seated on the floor. Venu entered the room dressed in a strange
manner. He had discarded his Bengali dress and was wearing a Parsee coat
and trousers and had a cap on his head. Rings were prominent on almost
all the fingers of both hands, and a thick gold chain was hanging round
his neck: there was a gold-watch in his pocket, and diamond studs could
be seen peeping from his shirt sleeves. Haralal at once asked him what
was the matter and why he was wearing that dress.
"My father's marriage," said Venu, "comes off to-morrow. He tried hard
to keep it from me, but I found it out. I asked him to allow me to go to
our garden-house at Barrackpur for a few days, and he was only too glad
to get rid of me so easily. I am going there, and I wish to God I had
never to come back."
Haralal looked pointedly at the rings on his fingers. Venu explained
that they had belonged to his mother. Haralal then asked him if he had
already had his dinner. He answered, "Yes, haven't you had yours?"
"No," said Haralal, "I cannot leave this room until I have all the money
safely locked up in this iron chest."
"Go and take your dinner," said Venu, "while I keep guard here: your
mother will be waiting for you."
For a moment Haralal hesitated, and then he went out and had his dinner.
In a short time he came back with his mother and the three of them sat
among the bags of money talking together. When it was about midnight,
Venu took out his watch and looked at it and jumped up saying that he
would miss his train. Then he asked Haralal to keep all his rings and
his watch and chain until he asked for them again. Haralal put them all
together in a leather bag and laid it in the iron safe. Venu went out.
The canvas bags containing the currency notes had already been placed in
the safe: only the loose coins remained to be counted over and put away
with the rest.
XI
Haralal lay down on the floor of the same room, with the key under his
pillow, and went to sleep. He dreamt that Venu's mother was loudly
reproaching him from behind the curtain. Her words were indistinct, but
rays of different colours from the jewels on her body kept piercing the
curtain like needles and violently vibrating. Haralal struggled to call
Venu, but his voice seemed to forsake him. At last, with a noise, the
curtain fell down. Haralal started up from his sleep and found darkness
piled up round about him. A sudden gust of wind had flung open the
window and put out the light. Haralal's whole body was wet with
perspiration. He relighted the lamp and saw, by the clock, that it was
four in the morning. There was no time to sleep again; for he had to get
ready to start.
After Haralal had washed his face and hands his mother called from her
own room,--"Baba, why are you up so soon?"
It was the habit of Haralal to see his mother's face the first thing in
the morning in order to bring a blessing upon the day. His mother said
to him: "I was dreaming that you were going out to bring back a bride
for yourself." Haralal went to his own bedroom and began to take out the
bags containing the silver and the currency notes.
Suddenly his heart stopped beating. Three of the bags appeared to be
empty. He knocked them against the iron safe, but this only proved his
fear to be true. He opened them and shook them with all his might. Two
letters from Venu dropped out from one of the bags. One was addressed to
his father and one to Haralal.
Haralal tore open his own letter and began reading. The words seemed to
run into one another. He trimmed the lamp, but felt as if he could not
understand what he read. Yet the purport of the letter was clear. Venu
had taken three thousand rupees, in currency notes, and had started for
England. The steamer was to sail before day-break that very morning. The
letter ended with the words: "I am explaining everything in a letter to
my father. He will pay off the debt; and then, again, my mother's
ornaments, which I have left in your care, will more than cover the
amount I have taken."
Haralal locked up his room and hired a carriage and went with all haste
to the jetty. But he did not know even the name of the steamer which
Venu had taken. He ran the whole length of the wharves from Prinsep's
Ghat to Metiaburuj. He found that two steamers had started on their
voyage to England early that morning. It was impossible for him to know
which of them carried Venu, or how to reach him.
When Haralal got home, the sun was strong and the whole of Calcutta was
awake. Everything before his eyes seemed blurred. He felt as if he were
pushing against a fearful obstacle which was bodiless and without pity.
His mother came on the verandah to ask him anxiously where he had gone.
With a dry laugh he said to her,--"To bring home a bride for myself,"
and then he fainted away.
On opening his eyes after a while, Haralal asked his mother to leave
him. Entering his room he shut the door from the inside while his mother
remained seated on the floor of the verandah in the fierce glare of the
sun. She kept calling to him fitfully, almost mechanically,--"Baba,
Baba!"
The servant came from the Manager's office and knocked at the door,
saying that they would miss the train if they did not start out at once.
Haralal called from inside, "It will not be possible for me to start
this morning."
"Then where are we to go, Sir?"
"I will tell you later on."
The servant went downstairs with a gesture of impatience.
Suddenly Haralal thought of the ornaments which Venu had left behind. Up
till now he had completely forgotten about them, but with the thought
came instant relief. He took the leather bag containing them, and also
Venu's letter to his father, and left the house.
Before he reached Adharlal's house he could hear the bands playing for
the wedding, yet on entering he could feel that there had been some
disturbance. Haralal was told that there had been a theft the night
before and one or two servants were suspected. Adhar Babu was sitting in
the upper verandah flushed with anger and Ratikanta was smoking his
hookah. Haralal said to Adhar Babu, "I have something private to tell
you." Adharlal flared up, "I have no time now!" He was afraid that
Haralal had come to borrow money or to ask his help. Ratikanta suggested
that if there was any delicacy in making the request in his presence he
would leave the place. Adharlal told him angrily to sit where he was.
Then Haralal handed over the bag which Venu had left behind. Adharlal
asked what was inside it and Haralal opened it and gave the contents
into his hands.
Then Adhar Babu said with a sneer: "It's a paying business that you two
have started--you and your former pupil! You were certain that the
stolen property would be traced, and so you come along with it to me to
claim a reward!"
Haralal presented the letter which Venu had written to his father. This