" She did
not utter these thoughts aloud, but continued fanning.
Noticing her silence, Nagendra said: "Why do you not talk? Are you
angry?"
"No," she replied.
"Is a bare 'no' all you can say? Do you not longer love me?"
"Do I not love you!"
"'Do I not love you!' Words to soothe a boy. Kunda, I believe you
never loved me."
"I have always loved you," said Kunda, earnestly.
Wise as Nagendra was, he did not comprehend the difference between
Surja Mukhi and Kunda Nandini. It was not that Kunda did not feel the
love for him that Surja Mukhi felt, but that she knew not how to
express it. She was a girl of a timid nature; she had not the gift of
words. What more could she say? But Nagendra, not understanding this,
said: "Surja Mukhi always loved me. Why hang pearls on a monkey's
neck? an iron chain were better."
At this Kunda Nandini could not restrain her tears. Slowly rising, she
went out of the room. There was no one now to whom she could look for
sympathy. Kunda had not sought Kamal Mani since her arrival. Imagining
herself the one chiefly to blame in the marriage, Kunda had not dared
to show herself to Kamal Mani; but now, wounded to the quick, she
longed to go to her compassionate, loving friend, who on a former
occasion had soothed and shared her grief and wiped away her tears.
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