The
experiment which was then made awakened some anxieties. Would it be
possible for Indian ladies to study in a mixed College class? How would
the men be likely to conduct themselves in the new situation?--these
were questions which naturally presented themselves. The result of
the experiment disappointed from the beginning all such fears. From
the first day the presence of these ladies elevated the tone and
discipline of the College class in a manner most creditable to the
ladies and to the men. The success of this experiment paved the way
for the admission during subsequent years of an increasing number of
lady students to the privileges of a University education, who are
under no small obligation to the courage and character displayed by
these two sister pioneers. They both came to the University under the
impulse of a real love of learning, and their success in the pursuit
of it was assured from the beginning.

In this prefatory note I confine myself to the career of the younger
sister. The elder, after her graduation as Bachelor of Arts in Bombay,
entered upon a course of medical study which led her ultimately to
London and Glasgow. From the Glasgow University she received the
degrees of M.B., C.M., and is now exercising her profession in her
native city.

The younger sister, Ratanbai, never left home. The strength of her
attachment to her home in Bombay was quite remarkable. She found
little enjoyment even in those temporary absences from Bombay during
the hot season vacation which prove so attractive to many. Her life
moved in two spheres--the College and her home, and these two sufficed.

Born in December, 1869, she was a girl of sixteen when she entered upon
her studies for her degree. She passed through the ordinary curriculum
of study, which included English and French Literature, Mathematics,
Elementary Science, History, and Logic. The subjects in which she was
specially interested were English and French Literature. French was
recognised by the University as one of the languages which might be
studied in the course for the degree of Bachelor of Arts when she
entered upon her studies, and she was one of the first to select
this language. She had as her instructor the late Signor Pedraza,
a gentleman whose name will always be associated with the history of
the progress of French studies in Western India. Under his competent
guidance she acquired a great love for French literature, and found
in this side