[Enter JUDKINS.]

J.-Hollo, Marsden, you appear to be having a tumasha* here on your own account. If it's all the same to you, I'll assume the liberty of sending this fellow about his business (if he has got any, that is to say, which doesn't seem probable), and taking a quiet snooze. Jao!t (Exit ABDOOL.) Wake me when dinner comes; there's a good boy. (Goes to sleep, with a handkerchief over his face.)

M.-Well, what with that Madras boy and his master, I don't know when I have spent a more amusing time in a dawk bungalow. But I wish Fanny would come out again. If she has half the sense I give her credit for, she will find out that the coast is clear, and take her opportunity. I'll run the risk and tap at her door. No; excellent idea! I'll let off the cork of a bottle of Belattee pawnee against the panel, and then, if the mother comes out instead of Fanny, I can pretend that it was done by mistake. (Takes a bottle of soda-water, and lets off the cork.)

[Enter FANNY.]

F. My dear Mr. Marsden, how very rash you are! How could you knock at our door?

M.-I protest, Fanny, that your suspicions are unworthy of you. I was making the preparations for a modest peg, when out you bolt, and charge me in the most gratuitous manner with knocking at your door. Knocking at the door! Do you take me for a species of Anglo-Indian old Joe ? You'll accuse me next of kicking up behind and before. I assure you I feel your conduct deeply. (Turns away.)

F.-Well, well, Frank, I beg your pardon for my suspicions, though I cannot help thinking that they are not without foundation. But have you nothing pretty to say to me, now I am here?

M.-Nothing except what I've told you a thousand times already, that you are the dearest, sweetest of women; that you are a pucka angel; that I would die for you; that I would give up my accumulated arrears. of privilege leave for you; that for you I would do unpaid duty with the East Indian Regiment at Dacca. In fact, everything that I have told you so often and so eagerly ever since that thrice auspicious night (you remember it, Fanny ?) when the Station Ball was held in the Judge's Cutcherry, much to the disgust of your respected Governor. Shall you ever forget how we pulled a cracker together, and how I read to you the motto-simple verses, perhaps, Fanny, but dearer to me thenceforward than all Shakspeare, and Tennyson, and Tupper to boot?

I soon shall die unless I see

That you love me as I love thee;

For 'tis for you alone I live,

And nought but that can pleasure give.

F.-Well, well! I won't deny that we have talked a great deal of pleasant nonsense together. But I have a piece of news for you. Are you sure he's asleep? (JUDKINS snores.)

M.-He's not very wide awake at any rate.

F.-Dear old gentleman! Would you believe it, Frank? He has

written a private letter to Mr. Drummond, telling him our whole story, and requesting that your appointment may be confirmed.

M.-Has he indeed? What a jolly old budzart it is!

F.-But listen, Frank. The answer has not come yet, and before it arrives we shall be at Agra, and you far away at some out-station making horrid bridges that will all tumble down next rainy season. Ah, me! what an unlucky girl I am!

M.-No, you are not, Fanny. An unlucky girl never has a devoted lover with hopes of a pucka appointment. I don't intend that you shall leave the district until Mr. Drummond's answer comes. Don't you remember that I expressed to you my apprehension lest your bearers should strike work opposite the mango-tope beyond the eighth mile-stone on the Agra road; in which case your mother and you would be forced to take shelter in our camp ? Well! That apprehension has since been converted into a horrible certainty.

F.-Good heavens, Frank, do you mean to say that you have bribed the bearers?

M.-There! there! Don't speak so loud! Think on the enormity of the misdemeanour you have imputed to me. What would the Englishman say if it heard that an English official had been instigating natives to violate a contract after receiving a consideration? Conceive the tone of the leading article that would infallibly be written. It is confidently asserted that a young gentleman in the Public Works Department, who, ' though not a civilian himself, has been so long under civilian influence as to be imbued with the traditional policy of the class, has, in virtue of 'his high authority, used underhand means to induce the palkee-bearers' Good heavens, here's your mother! [They start apart.

[Enter Mrs. SMART.]

Mrs. S.-What do I see? Fanny, have you no delicacy, no retenue? If I turn my back for ten minutes you disobey my positive orders, throw to the winds my maternal authority, and openly encourage the advances of an acting officer. And you, sir-do you consider it manly to presume on the unfortunate chance which has thrown you once more of necessity into our society? You allow me no choice. I must throw myself on the protection of the other visitors at the bungalow. Here is one asleep on a chair. Whoever he is, he has the heart of an Englishman, and will not see me insulted by a profligate and, what is more, a profligate who is not even pucka. Sir, I appeal to you. (Twitches the handkerchief off JUDKINS' face, who rises, and confronts her.) Mr. Judkins! So you are the person who has arranged a meeting for these two young people to come off under your auspices! So you are the go-between in this precious love-affair! So this match is to be of your making! So, Mr. Judkins, after robbing me and Mr. Smart of our peace, you intend to rob us of our daughter!

J.-Good gracious, Mrs. Smart, I have no idea what you are driving at. All I know about the matter is, that I was enjoying a very sweet dream, and that I have awoke to an exceeding unpleasant reality.

Mrs. S. (curtsies)-O, Mr. Judkins, you are pleased to be sarcastic. Would you, however, if you can for a few moments rein in your satire, tell me in plain words why you thought fit to sanction by your presence an interview between my daughter and a young man of whom you know well I disapprove?

J.-Well, Mrs. Smart, I can only repeat that I was aroused from a slumber such as only the innocent can enjoy to find myself in the presence of two people looking very shy, and one looking very angry. That is all the part I have had in the affair. Not that I should have objected to play Friar Lawrence to so dashing a Romeo and so sweet a Juliet. (Bows to FANNY.)

Mrs. S.-Well, upon my word, Mr. Judkins, upon my word

-Perhaps you won't call a daughter of mine names, though she has descended below herself on this occasion.

J.-After all, Mrs. Smart, I am surprised that you do not consider your daughter honoured by the attentions of so fine a young fellow.

Mrs. S.-Mr. Judkins, I have principles. It is not for nothing that I trace my origin on either side from old Indian families. I thank heaven that I have been brought up to know the difference between pucka and cutcha appointments.

J.-I have no doubt you do, Mrs. Smart-I have no doubt you do; and I have no doubt either that when you retire from the service Sir Charles Wood will at once offer you a seat in the Indian Council.

Mrs. S.-That, I suppose, would be considered wit at the Board of Revenue a Board of which you doubtless count upon becoming the most brilliant light. You are an ornament to your line of the service, Mr. Judkins; you are indeed.

J.-My line! Bless the woman! My line! Well, whatever it may be, I cannot say it has at present fallen to me in a pleasant place.

SUSAN. Never mind him, ma'am. I've made a nice basin of soup for you and Miss Fanny. After your long journey you won't be right again till you've had something to eat.

Mrs. S.-Well, Mr. Judkins, I am sorry that I so far forgot myself as to address you. Come, Fanny, and take your tiffin. Thank heaven, it is the last meal we shall eat in the same room with the present company. (Mrs. SMART and FANNY sit down at the table.)

[Enter KHAUSAUMAUN and KHITMUTGAR* with dinner.)

K.-Khana tyar hi, Sahib.+

Come, Marsden, we must

J.—Khansaumaun, palanpur khana rucko. rough it a little to accommodate the ladies. (Aside.) Horrid old woman! I should like to accommodate her into the middle of next week. (JUDKINS and MARSDEN sit down at the bed.) Marsden, I feel a little out of sorts. A cup of tea might do us both good. Ho, Khansaumaun! Chah banno!§

Mrs. S.-Well, I never! Tea for tiffin! What would an official of the good old school say if he heard a Mofussil Commissioner ordering tea for tiffin? Tea, indeed! Ho, Khansaumaun, beer shrub lao! ||

J.-This moorghee is plaguy tough. Ho, Khansaumaun, aur kooch hi?¶ K.-Sahib, curry bat hi.**

J.-Oh, bother curry bat! It's only the old moorghee under another shape. We'll have some eggs with our tea. Ho, Khansaumaun, unda lao, toast banno.*

Mrs. S.-Tea, toast, and boiled eggs! There's a tiffin for a Covenanted Servant of five-and-twenty years' standing! Fancy a Senior Merchant† going without his curry bat. Ho! curry bat do!

J.—Well, I should have thought that the temper of some people was hot enough already without requiring to be warmed by curry.

Mrs. S.-Fanny, I repent more and more having been betrayed into an altercation with that man. However, I am resolved never to address another word to him.

J.-For these and all his mercies make us truly thankful!

Mrs. S. (starts up)—What is that, sir? What is this last piece of insolence to which you have given vent?

J. (without turning)-I was only saying grace after meat, or rather after moorghee.

Mrs. S.-Your brutality, sir, is only equalled by your impiety.

J.-Pray, sit down, Mrs. Smart. I have no intention of betraying you into a second altercation.

Mrs. S. (sits down)-Monster! this dreadful place!

Fanny, would that we were out of

J.-The agreeableness of places generally depends on the state of our tempers. For my part, this bungalow seems quite a paradise. Thank Providence for having endowed me with an imperturbable tranquillity!

Mrs. S.-Hem! Fanny, did you hear what your papa said to the Lieutenant-Governor about the inefficiency of Revenue officers when concerned with a question of law? He told Mr. Drummond that during the past year, in a certain division, there was not one in ten of the Commissioner's decisions which would not have been reversed before the most ordinary tribunal.

J. (starts up)-To what division did he refer, Mrs. Smart ? If he alluded to Budgemahal, he was knowingly guilty of a vile calumny.

Mrs. S. (without turning)-Pray sit down, Mr. Judkins. I have no desire of being betrayed into a second altercation.

J.-Mrs. Smart, whoever uttered that falsehood was capable of any thing: even of marrying a low, uneducated, up-country-bred wife.

Mrs. S. (starts up)—Mr. Judkins, my father enjoyed the highest judicial appointments in the Covenanted Service; and my dear mother was grand-daughter of the first judge of the first settled district in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. No member of our family ever dabbled in Revenue. J.-Ha! ha! ha! My dear Mrs. Smart, your mother's brother ended his career as Sub-collector of Shahabad; and devilish glad he was to get the appointment.

Mrs. S. Go on, Mr. Judkins; pray go on. Thank heaven, I was brought up among people who knew the difference between pucka and cutcha appointments.

J.-Mrs. Smart, the last place which your father held was that of Acting Magistrate at Jessore-Acting Magistrate, do you hear, Mrs. Smart?

Mrs. S.-Base man, you never uttered a more contemptible slander:—a

*Bring some eggs and toast.'

In days gone by, the Company's servants were classed as Senior Merchants, Junior Merchants, and Writers.

slander worthy of one who gained his present position by acting as stalking-horse to his Lieutenant-Governor.

J.-Mrs. Smart! Who schemed to get the Governor-General's Aidede-Camp for her daughter?

Mrs. S.-Mr. Judkins! Who refused to subscribe to the new church on the pretext that the padre was a humbug?

J.-Who asked the Station to dinner, and allowed only one glass of simkin to each guest-eh, Mrs. Smart?

Mrs. S.-Who tried to lead off the District Ball, and didn't know his steps-eh, Mr. Judkins?

[They both speak at once. Curtain falls.]

(To be continued.)

Champagne.