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"Now, Maan, how could I know you loved me when you went away and never said a word?" she began, in a tenderly reproachful tone, thinking of the hard week she had spent ever since she found out that he has left and no one knew where he went. In this one week, her world has turned upside down. She not only discovered (through Meera & Adi) how blameless Maan has been throughout, and how much she has wronged him through her false accusations, but also had to endure the slander, accusations, and law suits that Nayantara had thrown her way in order to save her own skin. All through this, she felt so alone and so lost without her Maan, and she could not blame him either because she knew that she was the reason he left. She went every day to see Daadima, who found herself lonely, though much better than usual. When she entered the house today, Nakul told her that Maan has returned and she could not contain her joy. But, the very minute she came face to face with him, she could not help but reproach him for leaving her all alone to cope up with all this.
"And how could I have the courage to say a word, when I had nothing on the face of the earth to offer you but my worthless self?" answered Maan, warmly.
"You were all I ever wanted!" whispered Geet, in a tone which caused him to feel that the race of angels was not entirely extinct.
"I've always been in love with you, my Geet, but I got deeply hurt by your lack of trust in me, and what you did in the aftermath to prove that you did not need me. After that, I thought you can never again hold the same value in my life, but I never realized how much you really meant to me till I went away."
"It is strange; I don't understand it myself; but women are queer creatures, and there's no accounting for their actions," said Geet, with a sly look, which Maan fully appreciated.
"You made me realize with your slap how much of an animal I have become in those last days. I shouldn't have tried to force you into situations that hurt us both equally. After that realization, I came very near to speaking out, but couldn't bear to seem to be offering you a poor, disgraced sort of fellow, whom you wouldn't have, and did not seem to think worth much. 'No,' I said to myself, 'Geet ought to have the best; I'll try to be better worthy of her love, anyway; and perhaps when I've proved that I can do something, and am not ashamed to face her, then I shan't be afraid to try my chance.' So I held my tongue, worked hard this entire week to collect the evidence that would counter the wrong done to you, and then came home to see if there was still any hope for me."
"And I was waiting for you all the time," said a soft voice close to his shoulder; for Geet was much touched by Maan's manly efforts to deserve her. Her hand stole up to his cheek, and she leaned her own confidingly against his chest, as she said, in her frank, simple way,' "Maan, dear, don't say that, as if I was the best girl in the world. It should be me who should ask your forgiveness, and I know I do not deserve it. I've got ever so many faults, and I want you to know them all, and help me cure them, as you have always done even through your anger. Waiting has not done us any harm, and I love you all the better for this trial. But I'm afraid your week has been harder than mine, you look so much more graver than when you went away. You never would complain; but I've had a feeling that you were going through a good deal more than anyone can guess."
"There is no need for forgiveness in love, my love. I love you and you love me and that is all that matters in the end. I didn't mean to do this the first minute I came back. I wanted to first look about me a little, and be sure all was right. But just now the look in your face settled it. Geet, will you marry me? I couldn't wait another minute, or let you either, and I couldn't help stretching out my arms to my little wife, God bless her, though I know I don't deserve her." As he spoke, Maan stretched out his arms to her, with the sort of mute eloquence that cannot be resisted, and Geet went straight into them, without a word.
Never mind what happened for a little bit. Love scenes, if genuine, are indescribable; for to those who have enacted them, the most elaborate description seems tame, and to those who have not, the simplest picture seems overdone. So readers had better let imagination paint for them that which is above all art, and leave the lovers to themselves during the happiest minutes of their lives.
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