Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/63

 the money. What harm is there if I absent myself?" Vidyasagar's temper was up. His voice failed him, his heart swelled with indignation, his eyes flashed fire. But no desertion, no ingratitude, ever stirred him to vindictive measures. After a few minutes' silence of disdain he pointing to the portrait of Raja Ram Mohan, hanging on the wall, replied in a tone of bitter scorn, "Throw it away at once!" With that he left the house of the seceder, never again to set foot in it.

In this case, as in all subsequent cases, he had to pay the piper. To complete what he considered the noblest and most sacred work of his life, he ran heavily into debt. Luckily he lived long enough to pay it up.

Whilst other things had thus engaged his attention, he had been busy off and on with his pen. Varna Parichaya, an elementary reader, had appeared in April 1855, followed two months later by the second part. To him belongs the credit of having first classified the Bengali alphabet into