Page:Mashi and Other Stories.djvu/217

Rh And because Paresh did not dare to hint at any suspicion against him, his jealousy ate its way into his heart like a hidden cancer.

One day some trifling circumstance made the poison overflow. Paresh reviled Paramananda to his wife as a hypocrite, and said: "Can you swear that you are not in love with this crane that plays the ascetic?"

Gouri sprang up like a snake that has been trodden on, and, maddened by his suspicion, said with bitter irony: "And what if I am?" At this Paresh forthwith went off to the Court-house, and locked the door on her.

In a white heat of passion at this last outrage, Gouri got the door open somehow, and left the house.

Paramananda was poring over the scriptures in his lonely room in the silence of noon. All at once, like a flash of lightning out of a cloudless sky, Gouri broke in upon his reading.

"You here?" questioned her Guru in surprise.

"Rescue me, O my lord Guru," said she "from the insults of my home life, and allow me to dedicate myself to the service of your feet."

With a stern rebuke, Paramananda sent Gouri