Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/49

 with his mother, in her brother’s house. While here he attended Babu Sriprasad Lahiri’s school, and gained some knowledge of English and Bengali. When he was fifteen years old, something happened to cause his mother great trouble; and thinking that poverty was at the root of this he quitted his uncle’s house, with the resolution of trying his fortune in the wide world, and seeing if he could, with his earnings, make her independent and happy. He resolved, too, that should he fail in his endeavour, he would end his days in obscurity far from home. Starting with a few pieces of copper in his pocket, he tramped continually for two or three months, till he arrived in Agra, and found shelter in the house of a Bengali gentleman, who not only supplied him with the necessaries of life, but bore the expense of his education. Dwarkanath in a few years distinguished himself as an English scholar, and secured a lucrative position in the city. On getting his salary for the first month, he wrote to his mother asking her to come to him, and sent her the fare for her journey. It is not difficult to imagine the joy the mother felt in realising that her only son whom she had given up as lost was still alive, and in affluent circumstances! Tears of gladness rolled down her cheeks, when she raised her thankful heart to the Great Disposer of all events. After a short preparation she undertook the journey, and reached Agra, to meet her son, whom she found unremitting in his attentions to her. In course of time Dwarkanath married, and was blessed with two daughters.

In a short time an important, perhaps the most important, event happened in Dwarkanath’s life. Being naturally of a religious turn of mind, he would often study works on religion, and think of such momentous questions as had reference to man’s destiny here, and