Lives of Alcyone

he had succeeded in amassing much wealth, though its possession
was, strictly speaking, contrary to the rules of his caste. He also
owned a good deal of land, and stood well in the favour of the King,
to whom he now and then made politic presents. Jagannadha was
by no means unkind, and he gave his children a good education; but
unfortunately, as soon as they were old enough, he also trained
them zealously in his own peculiar methods of increasing the family
fortunes. The mother was a kindly and gentle woman, careful and
thorough in fulfillment of her household duties, but with little interest
in anything beyond them—religious as far as the punctual
performance of ceremonies went, but not capable of comprehending
metaphysics or philosophy. She had had several children, but only
Alcyone (whose name this time was Shivashankara) and his sister
Muli survived. Jagannadha had also adopted another boy, Mizar,
who was the son of a cousin of his, and had been left an orphan at
an early age. Mizar’ s name this time was Nirvana, and he was two
years younger than Alcyone. The affection between the boys could
not have been stronger if they had been brothers, though their
dispositions differed widely. Alcyone was dreamy and romantic, with
high ideals, while Mizar was keen and practical. But not always
scrupulous. While they were still young their mother died, and they
were left much to their own devices, as Jaganndha was always
occupied with his schemes, or at least so full of them that he could
talk of nothing else, which made Alcyone think him rather an
uninteresting companion. Mizar entered much more fully into them,
and even sometimes made ingenious suggestions, whereby the
gains could be increased.