Nabendu. "There has been a
mistake--some confusion," and wet with perspiration, he tumbled out
of the room somehow. And that night, as he lay tossing on his bed, a
distant dream-like voice came into his ear with a recurring persistency:
"Babu, you are a howling idiot."

On his way home, Nabendu came to the conclusion that the Magistrate
denied having called, simply because he was highly offended.

So he explained to Labanya that he had been out purchasing rose-water.
No sooner had he uttered the words than half-a-dozen chuprassis wearing
the Collectorate badge made their appearance, and after salaaming
Nabendu, stood there grinning.

"Have they come to arrest you because you subscribed to the Congress
fund?" whispered Labanya with a smile.

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. Coolness wasn't the special feature of his trade
before."

Nabendu in trying to reconcile the story of his purchase with his visit
to the Magistrate, uttered some incoherent words, which nobody could
make sense of.

Nilratan spoke to the peons: "There has been no occasion for bakshish;
you shan't have it."

Nabendu said, feeling very small: "Oh, they are poor men--what's
the harm of giving them something?" And he took out a currency note.
Nilratan snatched it way from Nabendu's hand, remarking: "There are
poorer men in the world--I will give it to them for you."

Nabendu felt greatly distressed that he was not able to appease these
ghostly retainers of the angry Siva. When the peons were leaving, with
thunder in their eyes, he looked at them languishingly, as much as to
say: "You know everything, gentlemen, it is not my fault."

The Congress was to be held at Calcutta this year. Nilratan went down
thither with his wife to attend the sittings. Nabendu accompanied them.

As soon as they arrived at Calcutta, the Congress party surrounded
Nabendu, and their delight and enthusiasm knew no bounds. They cheered
him, honoured him, and extolled him up to the skies. Everybody said
that, unless leading men like Nabendu devoted themselves to the Cause,
there was no hope for the country. Nabendu was disp