Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/268

Rh Nath Pandit, Ram Gopal Ghosh, Raja Dakshina Ranjan, and some others, appear prominently. Most of them had sent in their daughters to the school, and co-operated so largely, that each of them might be separately called the founder of the institution. They had to suffer a great hardship at the hands of their countrymen; particularly Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, who was even boycotted from society, as he was the pioneer of them all, having been the first to send in his daughters, Bhuvanmala and Kundamala. Even the news-papers of the time indulged in side-glances and inuendoes against these martyrs.

Bethune often visited his dear school, in company with Vidyasagar. Like David Hare, he used to take with him toys of a great variety for the little girls. He distributed the toys among the girls, and played with them, as if he was a little boy himself. Babu Jogendra Nath Bandyopadhyay, in his biography of Madan Mohan Tarkalankar, says that Bethune generally took the two girls, Bhuvanmala and Kundamala, to his house, and there patiently bore with their childish freaks of naughtiness. He also says, that Bethune's excessive fond attachment to these two little girls was the incentive that generated Lady Dalhousie's fondness for them.

One of Vidyasagar's chief merits was, that when he knew anything to be good and beneficial, he espoused its cause in right earnest, and applied