Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/132

 his usual acts of charity. In this way three long years rolled away.

On the New Year's day of 1880 he was invested by Government with the Companionship of the Order of the Indian Empire. He had always been adverse to titular distinctions but in deference to the wishes of his friends he accepted the honour.

His Rijupatha Part III, which had been a text-book for the last sixteen years, was excluded from the list in 1882 and he suffered heavily. Two years later one of his closest friends Rai Kristo Das Pal Bahadur, the great orator, politician and journalist of Bengal, resigned his being. He now left for Cawnpur to seek change of air, but returned to Calcutta only after a few days' absence. He was in the highest of spirits when a student from his college topped the list of successful candidates at the B.A. Examination (Philosophy, Honours) of 1885. A branch Metropolitan School was opened at Burabazar next year and another at Bowbazar the year following. A branch