TORU DUTT. 533 "All look for thee, Love, Light, and Song; Light, in the sky deep red above, Song, in the lark of pinions strong, And in my heart, true Love. "Apart, we miss our nature's goal, "Why strive to cheat our destinies ? Was not my love made for thy soul ? Thy beauty for mine eyes ? No longer sleep, Oh, listen now ! I wait and weep, But where art thou ? " " When poetry is as good as this," continues Mr. Gosse, it does not much matter whether Rouveyre prints it upon Whatman paper, or whether it steals to light in blurred type from some press in Bhowanipore." The volume which thus pleasantly surprised an accom- plished reviewer was the work of a young Hindu girl, then only twenty years of age. Toru Dutt was the youngest child of Govin Chunder Dutt, a retired Indian officer of high caste. She was born in Calcutta on the fourth of March, 1856, and, with the exception of a year's visit to Bombay, her childhood, and that of her elder sister Aru, was passed at her father's garden-house in the city of her birth. Her parents, whom she dearly loved, were devout Christians, and brought her up to share their faith. She was well acquainted, however, with all the ancient songs and legends of her own people, and always retained ior them a tenderness of which she sometimes speaks half apologetically, while at other times she grows warm in their praise. Often her mother, herself, and Aru,— for both sisters possessed very clear, and well-trained contralto voices — would sing these strange old ballads in the evening, when the sudden descent of the tropic night brought welcome dusk and coolness after the glare and heat of an Indian day.
