arranged for an early date for a renewed attempt, feeling
sure that it was a case of "now" or "never." The Registrar arrived
only two hours behind time. The Brahmin officials were all smiles and
affability to me, saying what an excellent act of charity the Patel
was performing. The lawyer sat like a hawk over the clerk who was
copying out the deed, in order to see that he did not alter it in the
process, a trick which, he said, was not uncommon. Watching the
business of the court in progress, I felt how completely the more
ignorant people were in the hands of the permanent officials, and how
easy it would be to get a negotiation doctored to suit one's own ends.

It was with almost surprised relief that at the end of nearly three
hours we left the court possessors of the completed document, and the
acre of land was now the property of the Church of S. Crispin in
perpetuity. Villagers and others had been asking the Patel what he
meant by making gifts of land to Christians, and that if he wished to
endow temples, why did he not endow the Hindu temple? The Patel was
getting shaky, and was beginning to repent his promise. But, the act
once accomplished, he was glad that he had done it, and received our
thanks with a pleasing combination of pride and shamefacedness.

The legal completion of his charitable act intensified the wrath of
his Hindu neighbours. He was not popular in his village. He was weak
and vacillating in his attempts at government, and foolish and
dissipated in his private life. Not only did they taunt him with
giving land to Christians, and jeer at him as he passed by, but they
went to even greater lengths. Stones were flung at his door at night,
people gathered opposite his house and made unearthly noises,
invitations to ceremonial feasts were withheld, and at last he got so
alarmed at the spirit of opposition which he had raised that he made
one of the low-caste men of the village, who are under orders to the
Patel, accompany him whenever he was out after dark.

The want of perseverance in the Indian nature has, under some
circumstances, advantageous results. A spirit of opposition, unless
industriously fanned, soon dies down. After a month or two, the
cemetery incident had passed out of the minds of the villagers. A
stone cross, 15 feet high, had been erected on the site, and in the
early morning when the sun shines upon it, this cross is a conspicuous
object from the high-road. The holy sign in a promin