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friend. It was not long before we felt drawn
towards each other, and his affection for me was
genuine —strengthened, possibly, by the fact that
my uncle, Nawab Emad Jung, was an old friend
whom he respected.
My estimate of his character, tested by time,
is this : a cheerful nature with a ceaseless desire
to please as a means to being pleased. He remind-
ed me of Goldsmith's lines:
"They please, are pleased; they give to give esteem,
Till seeming blest, they grow to what they seem. "
A haunting fear of disobliging anyone by word
or by manner, and an almost feminine softness
and inability to say ' no ' made him what he
seemed. But with all this, he had a practical
shrewdness which enabled him to keep out of
intrigue, though he must have been perilously near
it at times. His happy disposition and irrepressible
sociability were of great help to him in keeping
on the best of terms with Europeans and Indians
alike. His effusive gush and beaming smile were
very useful personal assistants,
His popularity with the British was bound to
increase his influence with the Prime Ministers
under whom he served, and this made his position
as a " Liaison Officer " unassailable. Not only the
Ministers but the Nizam himself looked upon
him for a long time as almost indispensable.
He served under four Ministers down to the time
of the third Salar Jung and uniformly maintained