FIRST ACT—THIRD SCENE. THE FACTORY OF BEGUNBARI. THE VERANDA OF THE LARGE BUNGALOW. ------- _Enter_ J. J. WOOD _and_ GOPI CHURN DAS, _the Dewan_. _Gopi._ What fault have I done, my Lord? You are observing me day by day. I begin to move about early in the morning, and return home at three o’Clock in the afternoon. Again, immediately after taking dinner, I sit down to look over papers about Indigo advances; and that takes my time to twelve and sometimes to one o’Clock in the night. _Wood._ You, rascal, are very inexperienced. There are no advances made in Svaropur, Shamanagar, and Santighata villages. You will never learn without Shamchand, (the leather strap). _Gopi._ My Lord I am your servant. It is through favour only that you have raised me from the _peshkári_ business to the Dewani. You are my only Lord, you can either kill me or can cut me in pieces. Certain powerful enemies have arisen against this Factory; and without their punishment, there is no cultivation of Indigo. _Wood._ How can I punish without knowing them? As for money, horses, latyals (club-men), I have a sufficiency; can they not be punished by these? The former Dewan made known to me about those enemies. You do not. I have scourged those wicked people, taken away their kine, and kept their wives in confinement, which is a very severe punishment for them. You are a very great fool; you know nothing at all. The business of the Dewan is not that of the Kayt caste; I shall drive you off, and give the business to a Keaot. _Gopi._ My Lord, although I am by caste a Káystha, I do my work like a Keaot (a shoe-maker). The service which I have rendered in stopping the rice cultivation and making the Indigo to grow in the field of the Mollahs, and also to take (_lákhraj_) his rent-free lands of seven generations from Goluk Chunder Bose, and to take away the iron crow[6] from the Government; the work I have done for these, I can dare say, can never be done by a Keaot (a shoemaker). It is my ill-fortune only (evil forehead) that I don’t get the least praise for doing so much. _Wood._ That fool, Nobin Madhab, wants the whole account settled. I shall not give him a single cowrie. That fellow is very well versed in the affairs of the Court; but I shall see, how that braggart takes the advances from me.