PATNA DURING THE MUTINY. i6i 



"Wrong, of course," even before they heard what I had to say. He 

 was almost too poHte, and would declare that everything must 

 necessarily be right, because I said it. He knew a little English, 

 chiefly slang, picked up goodness only knows from whom, but 

 certainly not from me, and he would bring it out so innocently and 

 politely as he bowed and rubbed his hands together, thinking all the 

 time he was " quite Parisian," that I should not have begrudged the 

 small salary he enjoyed, had it been merely in payment for his 

 English. 



" What salary did you get at your last place, Munshi ? " 



" Sir, that was too less ! " 



" But my friends think I shall not pass my examination so soon 

 as you say I shall!" 



" Dear Sir, that is all Betty and Martin in my eye." 



" I hope it is, but sit down. How is it your patent leather shoes 

 are not so bright as usual ? " 



" There are many dirts and muds about, my darling Sir ! " 



But these elegant extracts made me think how ridiculous in my 

 turn I must make m3'self, when I addressed my tutor in broken 

 Hindustani and Bengali. So I made a compact with him, to which 

 he heartily agreed ; that I might laugh as much as I liked at his 

 mistakes, but if he wished to make merry over mine, he would do so 

 at his peril. 



This arbitrary compact, unjust and cruel though it perhaps may 

 seem, so far as I could learn was no great hardship, for my tutor 

 never seemed inclined to move a muscle of his face at awful blunders 

 which assuredly would have made a vacant mind explode with 

 laughter. But when he thought I meant to perpetrate a joke, the 

 case was different ; for then he would crack his fingers, wriggle in his 

 chair, and laugh out loud, exclaiming, "Too good! too good! aha!" 



In a short time he got me through the examination, which, 

 considering the Mutiny going on around, was not perhaps quite so 

 stiff as otherwise it would have been. But my tutor received the 

 news of my success with qualified delight. We had passed many 



M 



