Page:Broken Ties and Other Stories.pdf/34

Rh ‘Satish! What in the world are you going to do? Can you think of no other way of ruining yourself? Are you determined to plunge the whole family into this hideous shame?’

Satish answered: ‘I have no particular desire to marry. I only do it in order to save my family from hideous shame.’

Harimohan shouted: ‘Have you not got the least spark of conscience left in you? That girl, who is almost like a wife to your brother—’

Satish caught him up sharply: ‘What? Like a wife. Not that word, sir, if you please!’

After that, Harimohan became wildly abusive in his language, and Satish remained silent.

What troubled Harimohan most was that Purandar openly advertised his intention to commit suicide if Satish married Noni. Purandar’s wife told him that this would solve a difficult problem—if only he would have the courage to do it.

Satish sedulously avoided Noni all these days, but, when the proposed marriage was settled, Jagamohan asked Satish that Noni and he should try to know each other better before they were united in wedlock. Satish consented.

Jagamohan fixed a date for their first talk together. He said to Noni: