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The six peons displayed a dozen rows of teeth and said: "Bakshish Babu-Sahib." From a side room Nilratan came out, and said in an irritated manner: "Bakshish? What for?" The peons, grinning as before, answered: "The Babu-Sahib went to see the Magistrate so we have come for bakshish." "I didn't know," laughed out Labanya, "that the Magistrate was selling rose-water nowadays.
Nabendu blurted out: "Do you suppose I pass sleepless nights through fear of that?" "We won't publish your name in the papers," said Nilratan reassuringly. Labanya, looking grave and anxious, said: "Still, it wouldn't be safe. Things spread so, from mouth to mouth " Nabendu replied with vehemence: "My name wouldn't suffer by appearing in the newspapers."
So saying, he snatched the subscription list from Nilratan's hand, and signed away a thousand rupees. Secretly he hoped that the papers would not publish the news. Labanya struck her forehead with her palm and gasped out: "What have you done?" "Nothing wrong," said Nabendu boastfully.
"But but ," drawled Labanya, "the Guard sahib of Sealdah Station, the shop-assistant at Whiteaway's, the syce-sahib of Hart Bros. these gentlemen might be angry with you, and decline to come to your Poojah dinner to drink your champagne, you know. Just think, they mightn't pat you on the back, when you meet them again!" "It wouldn't break my heart," Nabendu snapped out. A few days passed.
Nabendu, free from anxiety, was merrily engaged in a game of cards with his sister-in-law, when Nilratan Babu came upon him with a subscription-book in his hand, and said: "Your signature, please." From old habit Nabendu looked horrified. Labanya, assuming an air of great concern and anxiety, said: "Never do that. It would ruin your racecourse beyond repair."
This torrent of merriment had the effect of overthrowing Nabendu completely, and he said in pitiable accents: "Do you imagine that I am afraid to contradict it?" "Oh, dear, no," said Labanya; "I was thinking that you haven't yet ceased trying to save that race-course of yours, so full of promise. While there is life, there is hope, you know." "That's what I am afraid of, you think, do you?
Labanya banished all traces of inward merriment from her face, and kept on enquiring in anxious tones: "What has happened to you? You are not ill, I hope?" Nabendu made great efforts to smile, and find a humorous reply. "How can there be," he managed to say, "any illness within your jurisdiction, since you yourself are the Goddess of Health?" But the smile soon flickered out.
"He isn't going to grow a tail," said Labanya, "by becoming a Rai Bahadur, is he? Why should you feel so very humiliated?" "Oh, no, sister dear," replied Arunlekha, "I am prepared to be anything but not a Rai-Baha-durni." The fact was that in her circle of acquaintances there was one Bhutnath Babu, who was a Rai Bahadur, and that explained her intense aversion to that title.
"Is it necessary?" said Nabendu loftily. "Must I contradict every little thing they choose to say against me?" Labanya filled the room with a deluge of laughter. Nabendu felt a little disconcerted at this, and said: "Why? What's the matter?" She went on laughing, unable to check herself, and her youthful slender form waved to and fro.
Labanya laughed inwardly, and said to herself: "Well -well you have to pass through the ordeal of fire yet." One morning when Nabendu, before his bath, had finished rubbing oil over his chest, and was trying various devices to reach the inaccessible portions of his back, the bearer brought in a card inscribed with the name of the District Magistrate himself! Good heavens! What would he do?
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