Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/204

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APPOINTMENT IN THE SANSKRIT COLLEGE.
163

revenged upon Mr. Karr, who had offered him so great an insult. He was not long in finding one. In a few days, Mr. Karr had an occasion to call on Vidyasagar on business. Now, thought Vidyasagar, was the time to teach the haughty European a good lesson. When Mr. Karr's card was presented to him, he placed his slippered legs upon the table in his front, and lay reclining in his chair, in a half recumbent posture. When he had thus seated himself, he directed Mr. Karr to be ushered in. There was no seat for the visitor; he had removed all the extra seats previously. Mr. Karr was highly offended at such unmannerly conduct on the part of a native, and as soon as his business was finished, he left the place in great wrath.

Mr. Karr reported Vidyasagar's improper conduct towards himself to Dr. Mouat, the Secretary to the Educational Council, who called on Vidyasagar for an explanation. The explanation, submitted by him, was rather novel and curious. The purport of what he said was,—'I thought that we (i. e. natives) were an uncivilised race, quite unacquainted with refined manners of receiving a gentleman visitor. I learned the manners, of which Mr. Karr complains, from the gentleman himself, a few days ago, when I had an occasion to call on him. My notions of refined manners being thus formed from the conduct of an enlightened, civilised European, I behaved myself as respectfully towards him, as he had himself done. I do not think that,