Page:Broken Ties and Other Stories.pdf/89

 ‘Command me!’ said Damini, making humble obeisance.

‘You must join us, and not keep aloof like this.’

‘I will join you,’ said Damini. ‘I will sin no more.’ Then, as she bowed low again to take the dust of his feet, she repeated, ‘I will sin no more.’

The stone was melted again. Damini’s bewildering radiance remained undimmed, but it lost its heat. In worship and ritual and service her beauty blossomed our anew. She was never absent from the kirtan singing, nor when the Master gave his readings and discourses. There was a change in her raiment also. She reverted to the golden brown of plain tussore, and whenever we saw her she seemed fresh from her toilet.

The severest test came in her intercourse with the Master. When she made her salutation to him, I could catch the glint of severely repressed temper through her half-closed eyelids. I knew very well that she could not bear to take orders