Page:Stories of Bengalee life - Prabhat Kumar Mukerji.pdf/46

34 A great hubbub followed. Many persons were seen getting ready to depart. At this juncture Subodh stood up and said—"Gentlemen, pray be seated. It is not proper that so many of you should go away because of one man. I would much rather go away myself, gentlemen, and leave you to enjoy yourselves."—Having delivered this speech, Subodh shot out of the room.

Poor Kishori Babu was greatly distressed at this unexpected calamity. He ran after Subodh, caught hold of him near the gate of his house, and besought him to remain and have his dinner in a separate room, all by himself.

Subodh set himself free from the poor old man's grasp with a violent jerk, saying—"No, thank you, Sir. I did not come here to be insulted like this. It is too much—really too much."

Coming home, he drafted a long telegram giving a full description of the incidents of the evening with embellishments calculated to greatly heighten the effect, and despatched copies of it to different Calcutta dailies regardless of cost. He of course took care not to put his own name down as the sender of these telegrams. Once again the newspaperdom of Calcutta, both Indian and Anglo-Indian, was on fire. Some Indian newspapers wrote—"The noble example set by Dinajshahi in thus boycotting a traitor to the country should