Lalla, sitting next to him, remarks that no doubt one person is of one disposition and another of another disposition. “If it had been my destiny to remain in the service of Colonel Balloonpeel, all my days would have passed in peace; but he went to England when he got his _pencil_. Who can describe the calmness and goodness of his _madam_. She never asked a question. She put the keys in the Butler’s hand, and if he asked for money she gave it. But one person is of one disposition and another is of another disposition.” “That is true,” replies the ex-butler, “but the _sahebs_ are better than the _mem sahebs_. The _sahebs_ are hot and get angry sometimes, but under them a man can live and eat a mouthful of bread. With the _mem sahebs_ it is nothing but worry, worry, worry. Why is this so dirty? Who broke that plate? When was that glass cracked? Alas! why do the _sahebs_ marry such women?” Old Ramjee then withdraws his _beeree_ from his mouth and sheds light on the subject. “You see, in England there are very few women, for which reason it is that so many _sahebs_ remain unmarried. So when a _saheb_ goes home to his country for a wife, he must take what he can get.” “It is a question of destiny,” says Lalla, “with them and with us. My first wife, who can tell how meek she was? She never opened her mouth. My present wife is such a _sheitan_ that a man cannot live under the same roof with her. I have sent her to her country ten times, but what is the use? Will she stay there? The flavour has all gone out of my life.” [Picture: A plot against the butler] And they all make noises expressive of sympathy. The Butler being commander-in-chief of the household forces, I find one quality to be indispensable in him, and that is what the natives call _hookoomut_, the faculty of so commanding that other men obey. He has to control a sneaking _mussaul_, an obstinate _hamal_, a quarrelsome, or perhaps a drunken cook, a wicked dog-boy, a proud coachman, and a few turbulent _ghorawallas_, while he must conciliate, or outwit, the opposition headed by the _ayah_. If he cannot do this there will be factions, seditions, open mutiny, ending in appeals to you, to which if you give ear, you will foster all manner of intrigue, and put a premium on lies and hypocrisy; and it will be strange if you do not end by punishing the innocent and filling the guilty with unholy joy. In this country there is only one way of dealing with the squabbles of domestics and dependents, and that is the method of Gallio, who was a great man.