Abuse such as the foulest women use she poured upon him, till he,
losing patience, kicked her out of the pleasure-garden. Hira was a
sinner; Debendra a sinner and a brute.
Thus ended the promise of eternal love.
Hira, thus abused, did not go home. In Govindpur there was a low-caste
doctor who attended only low-caste people. He had no knowledge of
treatment or of drugs; he knew only the poisonous pills by which life
is destroyed. Hira knew that for the preparation of these pills he
kept vegetable, mineral, snake, and other life-destroying poisons.
That night she went to his house, and calling him aside said--
"I am troubled every day by a jackal who eats from my cooking-vessels.
Unless I can kill this jackal I cannot remain here. If I mix some
poison with the rice to-day he will eat it and die. You keep many
poisons; can you sell me one that will instantly destroy life?"
The _Chandal_ (outcast) did not believe the jackal story. He said--
"I have what you want, but I cannot sell it. Should I be known to sell
poison the police would seize me."
"Be not anxious about that," said Hira; "no one shall know that you
have sold it. I will swear to you by my patron deity, and by the
Ganges, if you wish.
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