‘I’m really worried, though I don’t believe she would ever come to that,’ she said, and tried to believe what she said. ‘Any way, she’s too decent to end up depraved.’
‘It’s a pity Roopa would have to suffer all the more for her sense of decency,’ he said himself feeling the pain. ‘A life of despair, in spite of her disposition, would leave her exposed to the seducers, and the strain of resisting their advances could sap her resolve at some stage. Added to that is the burden of having had to remain a dutiful wife, and you could figure out the stress on her soul. All of which might combine to make her vulnerable to the male advances. So the boasts of men about their conquests would seem hollow since it’s the vulnerability of women that fetches them their favors. In her case anyway, were she to succumb in her moment of weakness, then she would suffer even more for having failed to desist from it.’
‘Oh, God,’ she sounded helpless. ‘But what can be done?’
‘I don’t think her problem lends itself to a clear-cut solution,’ he said, thoughtfully. ‘Surely, her destiny would have its own idea about reconciling her fate. Only we’ve to wait and see.’
Seeing her lost in contemplation, he thought over the matter, ‘how my analysis has upset her. Well, won’t I like to be proved wrong? Isn’t the possibility of Roopa’s fall for real? Someone might be lurking in the street corner to barge into her bed to bring about that.’
‘But why didn’t it occur to me when I was with her?’ he thought as such a prospect pained him. ‘Oh, how my fascination for her overshadowed my faculties! Why, she could drive men into distraction! Isn’t she likely to attract many? If only her favored man happens to be a genuine lover, then that liaison is bound to be a blessing in disguise for her. I could be the one, but would her fate let her wait for me? What with the passage of time, won’t her enamored feelings for me wane and her passion pale? Why shouldn’t someone with the right access replace me in her heart? Anyway, her affection for me didn’t cross the threshold of infatuation, did it?’
As the possibility of losing her unnerved him, be began to think, ‘Were she to come across the right man, won’t she be steady with him. Left in the lurch then, won’t I languish for her all my life? Were she to abandon herself, won’t her depravity cast its shadow on my life as well? Even if she were to come into my life after a couple of flings, wouldn’t the purity of our love get polluted by then? Why, as affairs tend to be physical escapades, won’t she miss the essence of love in the whirlwind of passion?’