, and crying out so that I could hear: 'What is
this? Who is this lady who is going to school with boots and stockings
on?' Does not this show that the Kali Ugla has stamped its character on
the minds of the people? Ladies and gentlemen, you can easily imagine
what effect questions like this would have on your minds if you had been
in my place!

"Once it happened that I was obliged to stay in school for some time,
and go twice a day for my meals to the house of a relative. Passers-by,
whenever they saw me going, gathered round me. Some of them made fun and
were convulsed with laughter. Others, sitting respectably on their
verandas, made ridiculous remarks, and did not feel ashamed to throw
pebbles at me. The shop-keepers and venders spit at the sight of me, and
made gestures too indecent to describe. I leave it to you to imagine
what was my condition at such time, and how I could gladly have burst
through the crowd to make my home nearer.

"Yet the boldness of my Bengali brethren cannot be exceded, and is still
more serious to contemplate than the instances I have given from Bombay.
Surely it deserves pity. If I go to take a walk on the strand,
Englishmen are not so bold as to look at me. Even the soldiers are never
troublesome, but the Baboo boys[6] have their levity by making fun of
everything. 'Who are you?' 'What caste do you belong to?' 'Whence do you
come?' 'Where do you go?'--are in my opinion, questions that should not
be asked by strangers. There are some educated native Christians here in
Serampoor who are suspicious; they are still wondering whether I am
married or a widow; a woman of bad character or excommunicated. Dear
audience, does it become my native and Christian brethren to be so
uncharitable? Certainly not. I place these unpleasant things before you
that those whom they concern most may rectify them, and that those who
have never thought of the difficulties may see that I am not going to
America through any whim or caprice.

[Footnote 6: Educated Hindoo of the middle class.]

"Shall I not be excommunicated when I return to India? Do you think I
should be filled with consternation at this threat? I do not fear it in
the least. Why should I be cast out, when I have determined to live
there exactly as I do here? I propose to myself to make no change in my
customs and manners, food or dress. I will go as a Hindoo and come back
here to live as a Hindoo. I will not increase my wants, but be as plain
an