Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/136

 the last six years now grew very serious. Incessant hard work and the loss of his beloved friends and kinsfolk aggravated the malady. He was advised by his medical attendants to leave the town and its surroundings. In December he left for French Chandernagore where he showed signs of improvement. From time to time he paid flying visits to places in the neighbourhood. Once he with his younger brother Sambhu Chandra rambled to the house of a Brahmi of Bhadreswar. The host's son, a leper, offered him tobacco prepared by his own hands. Without a moment's hesitation he accepted the hooka and began smoking with undisturbed serenity. On the way back his brother remonstrated with him on his objectionable conduct. "God forbid," interrupted he, in an accent that savoured of reproach, "suppose you or I were a leper; how would we act?" A cynic might have smiled at the simplicity of his reasoning. Sambhu Chandra, having nothing to