Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/107

 After her return to Calcutta in November 1873, Toru Dutt continued her French studies, and also applied herself to the study of Sanskrit, under the direction of her father, who also cultivated and encouraged her talent for writing in general and for poetry in particular, and it was to his instructions that she always ascribed her facility in the latter branch of literature.

On their return to India, the Dutts once more took up their abode in Calcutta, where they resumed the quiet and retired life they had led before their visit to Europe.

To those unacquainted with India it will no doubt appear rather strange that a family who had been so well received in England, and had been welcomed in the most cultivated circles, should on their return home have been so little noticed by the English residents in Calcutta. It should, however, be remembered that fifteen years ago it was an exceedingly rare thing for an Indian lady to wish to mix in English society, or to possess the education that would fit her for doing so; and so it came to pass, not unnaturally, that the existence of two well-bred, well-read girls like Toru Dutt and her sister, was not even suspected by those who, if they had known it, would have been only too well pleased to have made friends with them.

So incredible, indeed, did it appear in those days