Page:Broken Ties and Other Stories.pdf/33



Since the partition of the house, Harimohan had not once entered the house to see his elder brother. But that day he came in, dishevelled, and said:

‘Dada, what disaster is this you are planning?’

‘I am saving everybody from disaster,’ said Jagamohan.

‘Satish is just like a son to you,’ said Harimohan, ‘and yet you can have the heart to see him married to that woman of the street!’

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘I have brought him up almost as my own son, and I consider that my pains have borne fruit at last.’

‘Dada,’ said Harimohan, ‘I humbly acknowledge my defeat at your hands. I am willing to write away half my property to you, if only you will not take revenge on me like this.’

Jagamohan started up from his chair and bellowed out:

‘You want to throw me your dirty leavings, as you throw a dog a bone! I am an atheist—remember that! I am not a pious man like you! I neither take revenge, nor beg for favours.’

Harimohan hastened round to Satish’s lodgings. He cried out to him: