Page:Gora - Rabindranath Tagore.pdf/22

6 arguing till two o clock in the morning, waking up startled when the sun arose to find that they had fallen asleep together on the mat. When they had no more college examinations to pass then it was on this roof that the meetings of the Hindu Patriots' Society were held once a month with one of the friends as Chairman and the other as Secretary.

The name of the Chairman was Gourmohan, called by his friends and his relations Gora. He seemed to have utterly outgrown all around him. One of his college Professors used to call him the Snow Mountain, for he was outrageously white, his complexion unmellowed by even the slightest tinge of pigment. He was nearly six feet tall, with big bones, and fists like the paws of a tiger. The sound of his voice was deep and rough that you would be startled if you suddenly heard him call out, "Who is there?" His face seemed needlessly large and excessively strong, the bones of his jaws and chin being like the massive bolts of a fortress. He had practically no eyebrows, his forehead sloping broadly to the ears. His lips were thin and compressed, his nose projecting over them like a sword. His eyes, small but keen, seemed to be aimed at some unseen distant object like the point of an arrow, yet able to turn in a flash to strike something near at hand. Gourmohan was not exactly good-looking, but it was impossible to overlook him, for he would have been conspicuous in any company.

His friend Binoy was modest and yet bright, like the ordinary run of educated Bengali gentlemen. The delicacy of his nature and the keenness of his intellect combined to give a special quality to the expression of his face. At college he always got high marks and won scholarships, while Gora had been quite unable to keep pace with him, not having the same taste for reading. He could not understand things so quickly as Binoy, nor had he such a good memory. So Binoy, as his faithful steed, had to bear Gora along with himself through all their college examinations.

This was the conversation which engrossed the two friends that wet August evening.

"Let me tell you," Gora was saying. "When Abinash abused the Brahmos the other day, it only showed what a healthy moral vigour he enjoys. What made you flare up at him like that?"

"What nonsense !" replied Binoy. "Surely there can not be two opinions about his taste !"

"If you think so, the evil must be in your own thoughts.