Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/460

Rh with his wife and numerous children in a low, damp, dingy, filthy hovel. The unfortunate man had practically no means of subsistence. Vidyasagar personally visited the man in his hut, and provided for his easy, comfortable living.

One morning, when he was taking an airing walk in company with one of his friends by Cornwallis Square, he saw a Brahman, returning from his Bhagirathi bath, with a most cheerless face and tears trickling down his breast. Vidyasagar asked him the cause of his grief. The Brahman was not at first dispose d to answer the question, for he saw that his interrogator was very plainly dressed in a coarse Dhuti and Chadar and a pair of ordinary slippers (be it remembered that Vidyasagar never dressed himself gaudily), and that he would not be able to do anything for him. Besides, he had heretofore appealed to many millionaires of Calcutta for assistance, but all of them had turned to him a cold ear. He was therefore disinclined to say anything. But when Vidyasagar insisted on hearing his sad tale, the Brahman said, that he had borrowed some money for his daughter's marriage, but that he had had no means to repay the debt, and the creditor had consequently brought a case against him in the Court of Small Causes. Vidyasagar again asked him what was the date for the hearing of the case; to which the Brahman replied that the date fixed for the hearing was on the third day