in the
quest for truth he left me free to select my path. He was not deterred
by the danger of my making mistakes, he was not alarmed at the prospect
of my encountering sorrow. He held up a standard, not a disciplinary
rod.

I would often talk to my father of home. Whenever I got a letter from
anyone at home I hastened to show it to him. I verily believe I was
thus the means of giving him many a picture he could have got from none
else. My father also let me read letters to him from my elder brothers.
This was his way of teaching me how I ought to write to him; for he by
no means underrated the importance of outward forms and ceremonial.

I am reminded of how in one of my second brother's letters he was
complaining in somewhat sanscritised phraseology of being worked to
death tied by the neck to his post of duty. My father asked me to
explain the sentiment. I did it in my way, but he thought a different
explanation would fit better. My overweening conceit made me stick to my
guns and argue the point with him at length. Another would have shut me
up with a snub, but my father patiently heard me out and took pains to
justify his view to me.

My father would sometimes tell me funny stories. He had many an anecdote
of the gilded youth of his time. There were some exquisites for whose
delicate skins the embroidered borders of even Dacca muslins were too
coarse, so that to wear muslins with the border torn off became, for a
time, the tip-top thing to do.

I was also highly amused to hear from my father for the first time the
story of the milkman who was suspected of watering his milk, and the
more men one of his customers detailed to look after his milking the
bluer the fluid became, till, at last, when the customer himself
interviewed him and asked for an explanation, the milkman avowed that if
more superintendents had to be satisfied it would only make the milk fit
to breed fish!

After I had thus spent a few months with him my father sent me back home
with his attendant Kishori.

PART IV

(16) My Return

The chains of the rigorous regime which had bound me snapped for good
when I set out from home. On my return I gained an accession of rights.
In my case my very nearness had so long kept me out of mind; now that I
had been out of sight I came back into view.

I got a foretaste of appreciation while still on the return journey.
Travelling alone as I was, with an attendant, brimming with health and