I was disgusted—angry. Though I did not care a fig about the church and its worship, yet I have always been a stickler for decency, even in a church, or among my dogs. The thought of such a depraved thing reading prayers—the Scriptures, styled sacred—and in what is called the house of God, and while going through with his farce of worship, looking around over the congregation to find some one on whom to rest his lustful eyes! Evidently his eyes were not made for the good of his soul. For several weeks I often noticed the Barra Sahib among the children, as they seemed suddenly to have become special favorites of his; but he was always near the governess. Some months after this we lost our magistrate, for he was promoted to the Commissionership of a distant province. The governess also disappeared. CHAPTER XIII. I had frequently in going about the station, seen a European whose name I learned was Jasper. He had a beautiful house and well kept grounds on a retired road. This much I saw as I passed his place, but had never spoken to him. One morning he came, as I was sitting in the veranda, and handing me his card said that his mali had told him that I had some very fine crotons, and with my permission, he would like to see them. We went into the yard, and through the garden, and I found he was greatly interested in botany. This suited me exactly, as I began to have a special delight in adding to my knowledge of that science, as well as increasing my stock of plants. He praised my collection of crotons saying that they could not be excelled in India. After a pleasant round of seeing and chatting, he invited me to call on him, as he had some things to show me and bade me “Good morning.” Thus commenced one of the most pleasant friendships I could have formed, which continued until his death. He was about middle age, of good parts, well read, and I had not been with him an hour before I knew that he did his own thinking. He always showed great respect for the opinions of others, the same that he claimed they should have for his.