"I would not be content with a fat Hindu cow after having known English girls. Thou shouldest see those of London, old man. How they love us of dark skin and believe our tales that we are Indian princes!" The father leered unpleasantly. "Thou hast often told me that these white women are shameless. Is it needful to pay the price of marriage to possess this one?" "I want her, if only to anger the white men among whom I live," replied his son sullenly. "Like all the English out here they hate to see their women marry us black men." "There is a white man in the Palace who is not like that." "A white man in the Palace?" echoed his son. "Who is he? What does he here?" "A Parliamentary-_wallah_, who is visiting India and will go back to tell the English monkeys in his country what we are not. He comes here with letters from the _Lat Sahib_." "From the Viceroy?" "Yes; thou knowest that any fool from their Parliament holds a whip over the back of the _Lat Sahib_ and all the white men in this land. This one hath no love for his own country." "How knowest thou that?" "Because the _Dewan Sahib_ loves him. Any foe of England is as welcome to the _Dewan_ as the monsoon rain to the _ryot_ whose crops are dying of drought. Thou wilt see this one, for he is ever with the _Dewan_, who has ordered that thou goest to him before seeing the Rajah. "Ordered? I am sick of his orders," replied the son, petulantly. "Am I his dog that he should order me? I am not a Lalpuri now. I am a British subject." "Thy father eats the Rajah's salt. Thou forgettest that the _Dewan_ found the money to send thee across the Black Water to learn thy trade." The younger man frowned discontentedly. "Well, I see not the colour of his money now. Why should I obey him? I will not." "Softly, softly, son. There be many knives in the bazaars of the city that will seek out any man's heart at the _Dewan's_ bidding. Thou art a man of Lalpuri still." His son rose discontentedly from his chair. "_Kali_ smite him with smallpox. I suppose it were better to see what he wants. I shall go." Admitted to the presence of the _Dewan_, Chunerbutty's defiant manner dropped from him, for he had always held that official in awe. His swagger vanished; he bent low and his hand went up to his head in a salaam. The Premier of the State, a wrinkled old Brahmin, was seated on the ground propped up by white bolsters, with a small table, a foot high, crowded with papers in front of him. He was dressed simply and plainly in white cotton garments, a small coloured _puggri_ covering his shaved head. Although reputed the possessor of finer jewels than the Rajah he wore no ornaments. Sprawling in an easy chair opposite him was a fat European in a tight white linen suit buttoned up to the neck. He evidently felt the heat acutely, and with a large coloured handkerchief he incessantly wiped his red face, down which the sweat rolled in oily drops, and mopped his bald head.