ing his
glass he filled it up again. Then he clapped his hands. A servant entered
noiselessly on bare feet, bringing two full bottles of liqueur and fresh
tumblers. There was little difficulty in anticipating His Highness's
requirements. The _khitmagar_ removed the empty bottles and the broken
glass and left the apartment.

The Rajah drank again. The strong liqueur seemed to have no effect on him.
Then he said:

"Well, find a plan yourself. But I must get the girl."

Chunerbutty pretended to think. Then he began to expose tentatively, as if
it were an idea just come to him, a plan that he had conceived weeks
before.

"_Maharaj Sahib_, if I could make the girl my wife--"

The Rajah half rose up and spluttered out furiously:

"You dog, wouldst thou dare to rival me, to interfere between me and my
desires?"

The engineer hastened to pacify the angry man.

"No, no, Your Highness. You misunderstand me. Surely you know that you can
trust me. What I mean is that, if I married her, she would have to obey me,
and--" he smiled insinuatingly and significantly--"I am a loyal subject of
Your Highness."

The fat debauchee stared at him uncomprehendingly for a few moments. Then
understanding dawned, and his bloated face creased into a lascivious smile.

"I see. I see. Then marry her," he said, sinking back on the cushions.

"Your Highness forgets that the salary they pay a tea-garden engineer is
not enough to tempt a girl to marry him nor support them if she did."

"That is true," replied the Rajah thoughtfully. He was silent for a little,
and then he said:

"I will give you an appointment here in the Palace with a salary of a
_lakh_ of rupees a year."

Chunerbutty's eyes glistened. A _lakh_ is a hundred thousand, and at par
fifteen rupees went to an English sovereign.

"Thank you, Your Highness," he said eagerly.

The Rajah held up a fat forefinger warningly.

"But not until you have married her," he said.

Chunerbutty smiled confidently. Much as he had seen of Noreen Daleham he
yet knew her so little as to believe that the prospect of such an income,
joined to the favour in which he believed she held him, would make it an
easy matter to win her consent.

He imagined himself to be in love with the girl, but it was in the
Oriental's way--that is, it was merely a matter of sensual desire. Although
as jealous as Eastern men are in sex questions, the prospect of the money
quite reconciled him to the idea of sharin