Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/683

636 would I have been reckoned, and what I am now! I am mean in Society. I have put up with all this. But what can be more misfortune to me than that I cannot attend your sick-bed in this your advanced age? I have been unable to fulfil the chiefest duty of my life. On one occasion, when you were going to serve your father's feet at Benares, one of your friends tried to prevent you, saying,—'Vidyasar, you intend going to Benares in this hot season; there is every fear of danger.' You at once replied cheerfully,—'I am going to do my duty; fear of life should have no consideration at such a time.' From that very moment, those heavenly words of the great man have been engraved in my heart. I am, at the present day, debarred from the accomplishment of that duty by my own faults.

'I do not at present want to approach you. When you are unwilling to cast your eyes at the face of this mean person, how can I venture to go to stand beside or before you? I will remain near, but hidden from your view. When you will require the services of a servant, I will call the servant to you; when you will require any one to send to some place, I will go there like a servant. I will remain like a domestic; if, by degrees, you are favourably disposed to give your permission, I will approach you; otherwise, I will lie on one side like a dog. Whatever I may be, I am your son. I too have passed my