While Vasu waited for her reply in anticipation, Nithya made Vasavi seem younger by three months. Thereafter, they all had a heck of a time, pepped up by Vasavi's pranks and a sumptuous meal that jelled.
When the Vasus hit the road, having invited the Chandras for a return dinner, Prema found Vasu was in high spirits.
“Didn't we have a good time?” said Vasu to Prema.
“Well, after a long time,” she said and added thoughtfully, “really they're fine people.”
“Don't you think he's a little odd looking?”
“Only at first sight,” she said and added appreciatively, “but you'll begin liking him once you've interacted with him.”
“What of Nithya?”
“It's the question I better asked you,” she said dryly. “Weren't you hanging around her all the time?”
“You know we knew each other before,” he said taking cover. “Don't you think there would be common topics to talk about?”
“I felt you were at courting her.”
“It's all in your head, that's all,” he said and asked as though for a cue to Vasavi's paternity. “How do you find the kid?”
“Why, it's so apparent,” she said, “that she's taken after her mother,”
“I too felt so,” he said still doubtful about its paternity.
"It's clear, he has designs on Nithya,‟ Prema found herself contemplating on the way. "But why is she trying to appear friendly with him if not overtly flirting! Where went all that indifference! What has brought about this change in her? It's apparent they were close before, possibly, he could've jilted her and married me for money, and now he seems all too eager to curry her favor. Is he blackmailing her by any chance? Oh, is he not capable of that, as he suffers from no qualms whatsoever? Won't I know about the hole in his soul?”
What with that thought putting her on a stream of consciousness, she began looking at Vasu, who was at the steering. When he looked at her, he was perturbed by her stare and avoided it all the way.
"Nithya was lucky to have married Chandra,‟ Prema thought as she turned her focus away from herself. "Surely, he's a gentleman and seems broad-minded and well-bred. Clearly he's knowledgeable and mature as well. What's more, he seems to be a good natured man and an understanding husband. Won't Nithya be aware of his qualities, she being sensible herself. Would she ever think in terms of deceiving such a man! Why, it's worth watching.‟
When the guests departed, the hosts exchanged notes.
Chandra said that he found Prema interesting, though a little bit intriguing. Likewise, though friendly by nature, he thought, she was reserved by disposition. She had a warm heart and a cool head as he saw it. That she had ideas of her own became apparent to him from her articulation. His reading of her was that, she had a practical outlook about human frailties. However, she seemed unforgiving when it came to meanness in man. Her only fault, he felt, lay in her fatalistic approach to life.