"'About three years ago Ameer Sing was sentenced to imprisonment, and his friends spent a great deal of money in bribes to the native officers of the court, but all in vain. At last they were recommended to give a handsome present to the red lady. They did so, and Ameer Sing was released.'
"'But did they give the present into the lady's own hand?'
"'No, they gave it to one of her women.'
"'And how do you know that she ever gave it to her mistress, or that her mistress ever heard of the transaction?'
"'She might certainly have been acting without her mistress's knowledge; but the popular belief is, that Lal Beebee got the present.'
"I then told them the story of the affair at Jubbulpore, when Mrs. Smith's name had been used for a similar purpose, and the people around us were highly amused; and the old man's opinion of the transaction evidently underwent a change.[110]
"We became good friends, and the old man begged me to have my tents, which he supposed were coming up, pitched among them, that he might have an opportunity of showing that he was not a bad subject, though he grumbled against the government.
"The next day, at Meerut, I got a visit from the chief native judge, whose son, a talented youth, is in my office. Among other things, I asked him whether it might not be possible to improve the character of the police by increasing the salaries of the officers, and mentioned my conversation with the landholder.
"'Never, sir,' said the old gentleman; 'the man that now gets twenty-five rupees a month, is contented with making perhaps fifty or seventy-five more; and the people subject to his authority pay him accordingly. Give him a hundred, sir, and he will put a shawl over his shoulders, and the poor people will be obliged to pay him at a rate which will make up his income to four hundred. You will only alter his style of living, and make him a greater burden to the people; he will always take as long as he thinks he can with impunity.'