FIRST ACT—THIRD SCENE.
The Factory of Begunbari. The Veranda of the large Bungalow.
Enter J. J. Wood and Gopi Churn Das, the Dewan.
Gopi. What fault have I done, my Lord? You are observing me day by day. I begin to move about early in the morning, and return home at three o’Clock in the afternoon.
Again, immediately after taking dinner, I sit down to look over papers about Indigo advances; and that takes my time to twelve and sometimes to one o’Clock in the night.
Wood. You, rascal, are very inexperienced. There are no advances made in Svaropur, Shamanagar, and Santighata villages. You will never learn without Shamchand, (the leather strap).
Gopi. My Lord I am your servant. It is through favour only that you have raised me from the peshkári business to the Dewani. You are my only Lord, you can either kill me or can cut me in pieces. Certain powerful enemies have arisen against this Factory; and without their punishment, there is no cultivation of Indigo.
Wood. How can I punish without knowing them? As for money, horses, latyals (club-men), I have a sufficiency; can they not be punished by these? The former Dewan made known to me about those enemies. You do not. I have scourged those wicked people, taken away their kine, and kept their wives in confinement, which is a very severe punishment for them. You are a very great fool; you know nothing at all. The business of the Dewan is not that of the Kayt caste; I shall drive you off, and give the business to a Keaot.
Gopi. My Lord, although I am by caste a Káystha, I do my work like a Keaot (a shoe-maker). The service which I have rendered in stopping the rice cultivation and making the Indigo to grow in the field of the Mollahs, and also to take (lákhraj) his rent-free lands of seven generations from Goluk Chunder Bose, and to take away the iron crow[[6]] from the Government; the work I have done for these, I can dare say, can never be done by a Keaot (a shoemaker). It is my ill-fortune only (evil forehead) that I don’t get the least praise for doing so much.
Wood. That fool, Nobin Madhab, wants the whole account settled. I shall not give him a single cowrie. That fellow is very well versed in the affairs of the Court; but I shall see, how that braggart takes the advances from me.