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Rh "No, thank you," Krishna Gopal replied, "I will tell you here what I have got to say."

A curious crowd had gathered by this time. Bipin's attendants pushed them back.

Then Krishna Gopal said: "You must do what you can to get Asim acquitted, and restore him the lands that you have taken away from him."

"Is it for this, father," said Bipin, very much surprised, "that you have come all the way from Benares? Would you tell me why you have made these people the objects of your special favour?"

"What would you gain by knowing it, my boy?"

But Bipin persisted. "It is only this, father," he went on; "I have revoked many a grant because I thought the tenants were not deserving. There were many Brahmins among them, but of them you never said a word. Why are you so keen about these Mohammedans now? After all that has happened, if I drop this case against Asim, and give him back his lands, what shall I say to people?"

Krishna Gopal kept silence for some moments. Then, passing the beads through his shaky fingers with rapidity, he spoke with a tremendous voice: "Should it be necessary to explain your conduct to