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180 receiving a salary of fifteen rupees a month, ruled over this post-office, a dark, thatched house. On a dilapidated mango-wood table lay letters, a letter-file, some sealing wax, a potful of gum, a pair of scales, the post-office seal, et cetera. Amid all these things the postmaster, or post bâbu, was gravely displaying his importance to the peon. The Deputy Postmaster received Rs. 15 a month, the peon only Rs. 7. So the peon considered that there was not more difference between himself and the bâbu than there is between seven annas and fifteen annas. But the bâbu thought, "I am Deputy Postmaster; he is a mere piyâda. I am his lord and master, between him and me there is the distance of the sky from the earth. To display this difference the postmaster constantly scolded the poor man, to which the piyâda also gave seven annas' worth of sauce in reply. The bâbu was just now weighing the letters and bestowing on the peon eighty annas' worth of abuse, when the peaceful, smiling face of Mâdhabi Nâth Bâbu appeared before them. At sight of a gentleman the postmaster ceased awhile his squabbling with the piyâda, and gazed at him with some degree of