"Certainly not! There will be four rupees fine to-morrow; four rupees kept back until the missie has twelve good, sweet-smelling double pink roses." "I am a very poor man!" whined the gardener. "I have a large family and two wives, both big hungry women. What can I do if missus stops my pay?" "You should have thought of that before you spoilt the roses," said Mrs. Hulver, showing no sign of relenting. "I am not a bad man," pleaded the gardener. "Missus must please forgive. I am same religion as missus--a Christian----" "What!" cried Mrs. Hulver, with such startling emphasis that they all jumped, butler, gardener and gardener's assistants. "A Christian, a poor worm of a Christian, same religion as missus and master and missie!" "How dare you call yourself a Christie?" cried Mrs. Hulver, in deep indignation. "How dare you say that you belong to the same religion as me and the master and our missie? You! a spoiler of roses! you! a lazy idle budmash of a gardener! You! with two big hungry wives!" The unfortunate bigamist trembled visibly before this outpouring of wrath. He felt that he had made a false step. "Ramachetty! is that man a Christian?" she asked, turning to the butler with an abruptness that upset his self-possession. "I never heard that he was, ma'am. He doesn't belong to my Church, the Roman Church." "Is it true that he has got two wives?" "Yes, ma'am; one to cook and keep the house, and the other to mind the field and the buffalo and make the butter. My Church doesn't allow two wives." "No; nor any other Christian Church. He calls himself a Christian because he thinks I shall be sorry for him and let him off his fine. Tell him that only heathen people marry two wives and turn pink roses into red. He is the sort of budmash who brings Christianity into disgrace. I'll double his fine if he dares to say again that he belongs to my religion. When he has learned to keep pink double roses pink and double, then we will talk about his being a Christian and belonging to our religion; but mind! I don't give him much hope. I never knew any missionary that allowed two wives." The butler was not indifferent to the pronoun used by Mrs. Hulver when she spoke of "our religion." He dismissed the gardener to his duties and followed the housekeeper to the back verandah. She retired to her room to make out the pay-list for the establishment. Against the gardener's name she ventured to write the full sum of his wages and made no note of any fine. "Those four missing plants will all be back by to-morrow unless I am very much mistaken. Christian or heathen, I'll keep him and the rest of them up to the Christian standard or my name is not Maria Hulver. As William my third used to say, he having been in the Artillery: 'Drive your team straight whether they're horses or mules, and you and your guns will get over the ground without a spill.'" CHAPTER XII