But when he taxed
the Maharajah with his promise, His Highness simply repeated, in
somewhat more amiable terms, his answer of the year before. And
the work was now prospering more than ever. When once he had got
the hospital, Dr. Roberts made up his mind that he would take
definite measures; but he would get the hospital first.
CHAPTER VII
I suppose it was about that time that Surji Rao began to consider
whether it was after all for the best interests of the State that
ee-Wobbis should remain in it. Surji Rao was first Minister to the
Maharajah, and a very important person. He had charge of the
Treasury, and it was his business to produce every day one hundred
fresh rupees to put into it. This was his duty, and whether the
harvests had been good and the cattle many, or whether the locusts
and the drought had made the people poor, Surji Rao did his duty.
If ever he should fail, there hung a large and heavy shoe upon the
wall of the Maharajah's apartment, which daily suggested personal
chastisement and a possible loss of dignity to Surji Rao.
Dr. Roberts was making serious demands upon the Treasury, and
proposed to make others more serious still. Worse than that, he
was supplanting Surji Rao in the confidence and affection of the
Maharajah.
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