Part 6 (1/2)
”But,” he added severely, ”Raicharan, you must not stay here.”
”Where shall I go, Master?” said Raicharan, in a choking voice, folding his hands; ”I am old. Who will take in an old man as a servant?”
The mistress said: ”Let him stay. My child will be pleased. I forgive him.”
But Anukul's magisterial conscience would not allow him. ”No,” he said, ”he cannot be forgiven for what he has done.”
Raicharan bowed to the ground, and clasped Anukul's feet. ”Master,” he cried, ”let me stay. It was not I who did it. It was G.o.d.”
Anukul's conscience was worse stricken than ever, when Raicharan tried to put the blame on G.o.d's shoulders.
”No,” he said, ”I could not allow it. I cannot trust you any more. You have done an act of treachery.”
Raicharan rose to his feet and said: ”It was not I who did it.”
”Who was it then?” asked Anukul.
Raicharan replied: ”It was my fate.”
But no educated man could take this for an excuse. Anukul remained obdurate.
When Phailna saw that he was the wealthy magistrate's son, and not Raicharan's, he was angry at first, thinking that he had been cheated all this time of his birthright. But seeing Raicharan in distress, he generously said to his father: ”Father, forgive him. Even if you don't let him live with us, let him have a small monthly pension.”
After hearing this, Raicharan did not utter another word. He looked for the last time on the face of his son; he made obeisance to his old master and mistress. Then he went out, and was mingled with the numberless people of the world.
At the end of the month Anukul sent him some money to his village. But the money came back. There was no one there of the name of Raicharan.
THE KINGDOM OF CARDS
I
Once upon a time there was a lonely island in a distant sea where lived the Kings and Queens, the Aces and the Knaves, in the Kingdom of Cards.
The Tens and Nines, with the Twos and Threes, and all the other members, had long ago settled there also. But these were not twice-born people, like the famous Court Cards.
The Ace, the King, and the Knave were the three highest castes. The fourth Caste was made up of a mixture of the lower Cards. The Twos and Threes were lowest of all. These inferior Cards were never allowed to sit in the same row with the great Court Cards.
Wonderful indeed were the regulations and rules of that island kingdom.
The particular rank of each individual had been settled from time immemorial. Every one had his own appointed work, and never did anything else. An unseen hand appeared to be directing them wherever they went,--according to the Rules.
No one in the Kingdom of Cards had any occasion to think: no one had any need to come to any decision: no one was ever required to debate any new subject. The citizens all moved along in a listless groove without speech. When they fell, they made no noise. They lay down on their backs, and gazed upward at the sky with each prim feature firmly fixed for ever.
There was a remarkable stillness in the Kingdom of Cards. Satisfaction and contentment were complete in all their rounded wholeness. There was never any uproar or violence. There was never any excitement or enthusiasm.
The great ocean, crooning its lullaby with one unceasing melody, lapped the island to sleep with a thousand soft touches of its wave's white hands. The vast sky, like the outspread azure wings of the brooding mother-bird, nestled the island round with its downy plume. For on the distant horizon a deep blue line betokened another sh.o.r.e. But no sound of quarrel or strife could reach the Island of Cards, to break its calm repose.
II