Page:The Home and the World.djvu/31

30 defied and humiliated him. But he did not say a word ... which I did not like either.

He should have said: 'Sandip has brought me to my senses. I now realize how mistaken I have been all this time.'

I somehow felt that he was spitefully silent, that he obstinately refused to be enthusiastic. I asked how long Sandip Babu was going to be with us.

'He is off to Rangpur early to-morrow morning,' said my husband.

'Must it be to-morrow?'

'Yes, he is already engaged to speak there.'

I was silent for a while and then asked again: 'Could he not possibly stay a day longer?'

'That may hardly be possible, but why?'

'I want to invite him to dinner and attend on him myself.'

My husband was surprised. He had often entreated me to be present when he had particular friends to dinner, but I had never let myself be persuaded. He gazed at me curiously, in silence, with a look I did not quite understand.

I was suddenly overcome with a sense of shame. 'No, no,' I exclaimed, 'that would never do!'

'Why not!' said he. 'I will ask him myself, and if it is at all possible he will surely stay on for tomorrow.'

It turned out to be quite possible.

I will tell the exact truth. That day I reproached my Creator because he had not made me