Page:The Spoilt Child.djvu/111

 Beni.-- You may well ask that: it is indeed extraordinary, but there is a reason for it. You may perhaps remember my having told you some time back about Babu Barada Prosad Biswas. Well, for some time past that gentleman has been living at Vaidyabati. I had been thinking a good deal on the subject, and I saw that if Baburam Babu's youngest son, Ramlall, grew up like Matilall, the family would very soon become extinct, but that here was an excellent opportunity for the boy to learn to grow up a good man. I considered the matter well, and went to the gentleman I have mentioned, taking Ramlall with me. The boy has ever since then exhibited such an extraordinary affection for Biswas Babu that he is constantly at his side: he is very rarely at home, for he regards Biswas Babu as a father.

Becharam.-- You did, it is true, once relate to me all the virtues of this Biswas Babu, but, to tell you the truth, I have never heard of a single individual possessed of so many virtues before: how is it, that now he has attained to so good a position, he is so modest, and unpretending?

Beni.-- It is generally very difficult for a man to be humble and unassuming who has been accustomed to wealth from his boyhood, and who has never encountered adversity, but gone on steadily piling up riches. A man like this has, as a rule, no perception of the feelings of others: I mean by that, he has no idea what is pleasing or what is distasteful to others, for his thoughts are centred in himself: he considers himself a great man, and his people all encourage him in the idea by extolling his magnificence. Under these conditions pride reaches a fearful height: modesty and kindliness can never take firm root in such soil. It is on this account that in Calcutta the sons of rich men so rarely turn out well. Puffed up by their