Surji Rao's wife was a clever woman, and she arranged such a feeling in the Maharajah's zenana, that one day as Dr.Roberts passed along a corridor to His Highness's apartment, a curtain opened swiftly, and some one in the dark behind spat at him.

Amongst them they managed to make His Highness extremely uncomfortable.

But the old man continued to decline obstinately to send the missionary back.
Then it became obvious to Surji Rao that Dr.Roberts must be disposed of otherwise.

He went about that in the same elaborate and ingenious way.

His arrangements required time, but there is always plenty of time in Rajputana.