Asha offered to help, albeit very hesitantly, but Behari stopped her. Mahendra, inept as he was, did not even proffer his services. He leaned against the tree trunk, hoisted one leg over the other and immersed himself in watching the play of light on the trembling leaves of the banyan tree.

When lunch was nearly ready, Binodini said, ‘Mahinbabu, you won’t ever finish counting those leaves. Go and have your bath.’

By now the bunch of servants had arrived with their cargo. Their carriage had broken down on the way.

After lunch a game of cards under the tree was proposed. Mahendra refused to join in and by and by he drifted off to sleep in the shade. Asha went indoors, shut the door and planned to have a lie-in.

Binodini raised her sari a little over her head and said, ‘In that case let me go inside too.’

Behari said, ‘Where are you off to? Sit for a while and chat. Tell me about your home.’

Every now and then the warm afternoon breeze shivered through the leaves and branches, a koel twittered through the thick foliage of the berry tree beside the pond. Binodini spoke of her childhood, her parents, her playmates. As she spoke, the sari slipped off her head. The brightness of her sharply etched beauty was softened by the shadows of childhood memories. The mocking, knife-edge flash of her eyes, that had made Behari feel much concern heretofore, settled into a calm and serene look as she spoke, and Behari glimpsed a different person altogether. The tender heart that was at the centre of her flashing radiance was still full of gentle affection and the burning embers of unquenched desires and all her sharp banter had not yet succeeded in withering the woman in her. Never before had Behari been able to visualize Binodini tending to her husband as a shy, homely wife or holding her child in her arms like a loving mother—but today, all of a sudden, the performing stage that he always seemed to see her on, vanished before his eyes, and he could envisage her in a happy home. He said to himself, ‘Binodini may appear to be a teasing, coy temptress, but deep in her heart a chaste woman rests in silent prayer.’ He heaved a sigh as he thought, ‘One doesn’t know one’s own true self completely; that is only known to God. The self that emerges circumstantially is the one that the world takes for real.’ Behari didn’t let the conversation drift. He badgered Binodini with questions and kept her talking; she had never before found a listener like this and never had she so forgotten herself, spoken so much about herself to a strange man. Today, the endless torrent of words spoken so simply and from the heart made her entire self feel drenched, as though cleansed by the first rain shower, tranquil and at peace.

Mahendra woke up at five, still tired from having woken up early that morning. Quite irritated, he said, ‘Let’s start getting back now.’

Binodini said, ‘What’s the harm in staying a little while longer?’

Mahendra said, ‘Oh no, then we’d run into drunken white men on the way back.’

By the time they finished packing and were ready to leave it was nearly dark. At this point a servant came and informed them that the rented carriage was nowhere to be seen. It had been left waiting outside the gates. Two white men had bullied the coachman and taken it off to the station. The servant was despatched to go and fetch another carriage. Mahendra was thoroughly put out as he thought, ‘The day has been an utter waste.’ He could scarcely conceal his impatience.

Gradually, the full moon disentangled itself from the web of boughs and branches, and rose high in the sky. The silent, still grounds were etched with shadows. This evening, in this charming, magical world Binodini felt her own identity defined as never before. Today, when she went and put her arms around Asha in the forested grove, her affection was entirely genuine. Asha saw that Binodini’s cheeks were wet with tears. Concerned, she asked, ‘What’s this, Chokher Bali, why are you crying?’

Binodini said, ‘Oh it’s nothing, my dear; I am fine. It’s just that I had a wonderful day.’

Asha asked, ‘What was so great about it?’

Binodini replied, ‘I feel as if I have died and come to heaven, as if I can get everything here.’

A dumbstruck Asha could make neither head nor tail of this.