d hankering after possession; and it fills the soul
with the imaginary enjoyment of wealth.

"Certainly not," said Mr. Chalker, confident that better terms than
those would be offered. "If that is all you have to say, you may go
away again."

"But the rest is usury. Think! To give fifty, and ask three hundred
and fifty, is the part of an usurer."

"Call it what you please. The bill of sale is for three hundred and
fifty pounds. Pay that three hundred and fifty, with costs and
sheriff's poundage, and I take away my man. If you don't pay it, then
the books on the shelves and the furniture of the house go to the
hammer."

"The books, I am informed," said Lala Roy, "will not bring as much as
a hundred pounds if they are sold at auction. As for the furniture,
some of it is mine, and some belongs to Mr. Emblem's granddaughter."

"His granddaughter! Oh, it's a swindle," said Mr. Chalker angrily. "It
is nothing more or less than a rank swindle. The old man ought to be
prosecuted, and, mind you, I'll prosecute him, and you too, for
conspiring with him."

"A prosecution," said the Hindoo, "will not hurt him, but it might
hurt you. For it would show how you lent him fifty pounds five years
ago; how you made him give you a bill for a hundred; how you did not
press him to pay that bill, but you continually offered to renew it
for him, increasing the amount on each time of renewal; and at last
you made him give you a bill of sale for three hundred and fifty. This
is, I suppose, one of the many ways in which Englishmen grow rich.
There are also usurers in India, but they do not, in my country, call
themselves lawyers. A prosecution. My friend, it is for us to
prosecute. Shall we show that you have done the same thing with many
others? You are, by this time, well known in the neighborhood, Mr.
Chalker, and you are so much beloved that there are many who would be
delighted to relate their experiences and dealings with so clever a
man. Have you ever studied, one asks with wonder, the Precepts of the
great Sage who founded your religion?"

"Oh, come, don't let us have any religious nonsense!"

"I assure you they are worth studying. I am, myself, an humble
follower of Gautama, but I have read those precepts with profit. In
the kingdom imagined by that preacher, there is no room for usurers,
Mr. Chalker. Where, then, will be your kingdom? Every man must be
somewhere. You must have a kingdom and a king."

"This is tomfoolery!" Mr