16 A FRISKY MATRON
Diavaroo. You are my father; you are also my
mother. Now I can go back with my own proper
wife to Mauritius. I plenty happy man, sahib.
Master ever wanting me, I coming running to master.
Master, when he returning back, I going Calcutta,
Bombay, Madras—I coming soon as master calls.
I think I go back with gentleman and lady; my
own wife go back ayah business on ship. Coming
Mauritius, I begin little sawcar business—sawcar
business best for pice-making.'
A few minutes afterwards the express steamed
from the gare, Mhadhurah's grateful eyes fixed to
the last on his benefactor.
Yussuff for a time was lost in a reverie.
* I am for the moment happy,' he thought. ' Is
this good-nature, or is it pure selfishness ? With
fifty pounds I have made that man perfectly blest,
and I am in consequence gratified myself. Yet I
know that he will become a sawcar—a usurer. He
will cause misery to hundreds. His present delight
makes me happy. Am I, therefore, a good fellow ?
Honestly, I do not know. Action is the only true
means of self-knowledge. Let us act.'
A few minutes saw Yussuff at the Credit Lyonnais.
He soon found himself handed over to an official,
whom he took to be an Englishman, so perfect was
his accent. After a short explanation, this gentle¬
man, called De Tenaille by his colleagues, ushered
Yussuff into an inner and most sumptuous apart¬
ment, where a very great man indeed sat in state.
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