Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/82

 Mohan to Mr David Hare, who was then living with Mr Grey in his house on the riverside. Mr Hare was every morning and evening visited by a large number of situation-hunters and schoolboys. The latter were so much loved by him that he would never send them away without treating them to sweets of different kinds. There was a confectioner near his house, who had orders to supply the boys with what they wanted. On the day in question, Gaur Mohan, leaving Ramtanu in the sweet-meat shop, went to Mr Hare and asked him to take the boy as a free student. The gentleman was not then in a mood to confer the favour. He had received too many applications of the kind. In fact, he could hardly come out of his house without being pestered by such requests as “Me poor boy, have pity on me and take me into your school”; and the suspicion had taken possession of him that Bengalis were taking advantage of his philanthropy. It was under these circumstances that he flatly refused to comply with Vidyalankar’s request, saying that the list of free students was full. But the pandit knew Mr Hare’s nature, and he hoped that a little importunity would serve the purpose. So he told Ramtanu for a few days continually to run with the sahib’s palanquin, and to repeat in his ears the prayers of being taken in as a free pupil. The boy did accordingly. After an early breakfast, some times without it, he would walk from Hatibagan, where Vidyalankar lived, to Mr Grey’s gate, there watch the coming out of Mr Hare’s palanquin and then trot by its side. One evening, alighting from his conveyance, the sahib noticed how pale and tired the boy looked, and, rightly conjecturing that he had had no food during the day, asked him if he would eat anything. Ramtanu, fearing to lose his caste, denied having fasted the whole day; but when he was told that the food would be supplied