Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/437

394 are ready to consult my convenience, hearing your name; now that I see land ahead offering me protection from the perish of the tempestuous deep, my heart dies within me, when I think that I must lose all this and sink and perish for such a small sum as Rs. 2,000! Will you let destruction overtake me, my old friend and protector? If you see the Rajeeb and with your fervid eloquence rekindle in his heart his old love for me, now bowed down with shame and sorrow, he will not lend you a cold ear. What is a loan of 2,000. to him? I have to meet 3 Dears next Tuesday, my landlord won't wait any longer and all my pretty creditors are up against me. Two thousand rupees would save me and I could at once remove to a smaller house and begin a most rigid system of economy. I must have this money by to-morrow evening, or mine will be the lot of the fugitive or something still more horrible! I pray God, that this may sound on your gentle ears like a lay of anguish from a breaking heart!

This was the letter Michael wrote to Vidyasagar on the eve of the return of his family from Europe. The reader may well guess the result of this pathetic appeal. Vidyasagar's benevolent heart would not suffer him to lend a deaf ear to the pitiful cries of an humble supplicant. He