of a string of corals for the new butcha I'll
catch him in the very dishabille of his Hindooism. And I did.

* * * * *

I had often heard that Karlee lived well, and that his household enjoyed
substantial comfort in a degree notably superior to the general
circumstances of his class. With eminent intelligence and devotion he
had served for more than forty years various American gentlemen residing
in Calcutta, by whom, in his neat-handedness, he was esteemed a sort of
he-Phillis; and for his housewifely dusting of books and furniture, his
orderly keeping of drawers and trunks, his sharp eye to punkas and
mosquito-nets, and his exacting discipline of sweepers and messengers,
barbers, tailors, and washermen, he had been rewarded with generous
buksheesh over and above his stipulated, wages, which were liberal; so
that among bhearers he was distinguished for respectability, by income
as well as influence, and represented the best society. Between his own
savings and those of his wife,--who, as an _ayah_, or nurse, in an
English family high in the Civil Service, was extravagantly prized for
her fidelity, skill, and patience,--Karlee had laid up a little fortune
of ten thousand rupees; but that was partly by dint of a clever
speculation now and then in curiosities and choice presents, which he
disposed of among those of his American or English patrons who happened
to be homeward bound. As it is not permitted to a bhearer to engage
directly in trade, these neat little transactions were in all cases
shrewdly managed by a friend of Karlee's, a smart _sircar_,[10] in the
employ of a _banyan_,[11] the bhearer resting strictly in the
background, a silent partner, and limiting his co-operation to the
prompt furnishing of capital, which consisted not of rupees merely, but
of many a cunning hint as well, as to the tastes, ways, and weaknesses
of his customers. It was a mutual understanding: we knew of Karlee's
interest in these sentimental "operations," and we openly patronized
him; he knew which of us had wives, and which sweethearts, across the
black water, and he mysteriously patronized us. On that subject my
heathen was always at home; and so it happened, by a happy dispensation
of cause and effect, that at home he lived like a gentleman.

Through narrow, dingy miles of scrambling bazaar, redolent of all the
unfragrances of that dusty, sweaty, greasy, jabbering quarter, I rolled
in my light buggy, b