the management of his own affairs, so that he was always in pecuniary
straits, but he anticipated my curiosity by informing me that he had
raised the necessary funds by pawning his wife's bangles.
Unthinkingly I reproached him, and then I saw, coming over his
countenance, the bitter expression of one who has met with rebuff
when he looked for sympathy. Arranging himself in his proudest
attitude, he exclaimed, "Saheb, is it not for your glory? When
strangers see me will they not ask, 'Whose servant is that?"' Living
always under the influence of this spirit, the Boy never loses an
opportunity of enforcing your importance, and his own as your
representative. When you are staying with friends, he gives the
butler notice of your tastes. If tea is made for breakfast, he
demands coffee or cocoa; if jam is opened, he will try to insist upon
marmalade. At an hotel he orders special dishes. When you buy a
horse or a carriage, he discovers defects in it, and is gratified if
he can persuade you to return it and let people see that you are not
to be imposed upon or trifled with. He delights to keep creditors
and mean men waiting at the door until it shall be your pleasure to
see them. But it is only justice to say that it will be your own
fault if this disposition is not tempered with something of a purer
feeling, a kind of filial regard and even reverence--if reverence is
at all possible--under the influence of which he will take a kindly
interest in your health and comfort. When your wife is away, he
seems to feel a special responsibility, and my friend's Boy, when
warning his master against an unwholesome luxury, would enforce his
words with the gentle admonition, "Missis never allowing, sir."

It is this way of regarding himself and his master which makes the
Boy generally such a faithful servant; but he often has a sort of
spurious conscience, too, growing out of the fond pride with which he