'
I then told the story of the affair at Jubbulpore, when Mrs. Smith's
name had been used for a similar purpose, and the people around us
were all highly amused; and the old man's opinion of the transaction
with the Red Lady evidently underwent a change.[10]
We became good friends, and the old man begged me to have my tents,
which he supposed were coming up, pitched among them, that he might
have an opportunity of showing that he was not a bad subject, though
he grumbled against the Government.
The next day at Meerut I got a visit from the chief native judge,
whose son, a talented youth, is in my office. Among other things, I
asked him whether it might not be possible to improve the character
of the police by increasing the salaries of the officers, and
mentioned my conversation with the landholder.
'Never, sir,' said the old gentleman; 'the man that now gets twenty-
five rupees a month is contented with making perhaps fifty or
seventy-five more; and the people subject to his authority pay him
accordingly. Give him a hundred, sir, and he will put a shawl over
his shoulders, and the poor people will be obliged to pay him at a
rate that will make up his income to four hundred.
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