Surabaya to attend the performances at the Concordia. The pieces played were of a quality such as had never been seen at the Concordia before. And the result of this again was that people either loved her or did not like her at all. But she went her way and provided a little European civilization, so that they might not grow too "stuffy" at Labuwangi. And people descended to all sorts of trickery to get invited to her little dinners, which were famous and notorious. For she stipulated that her men should come in dress-clothes and not in their Singapore jackets, without shirts. She introduced swallow-tails and white ties; and she was inexorable. The women were low-necked, as usual, for the sake of coolness, and thought it delightful. But her poor men struggled against it, puffed and blew at first and felt congested in their tall collars; the doctor declared that it was unhealthy; and the veterans protested that it was madness and opposed to all the good old Indian customs. But when they had puffed and blown a few times in their dress-coats and tall collars, they all found Mrs. Eldersma's dinners charming, precisely because they were so European in style. CHAPTER EIGHT Eva was at home to her friends once a fortnight: "You see, resident, it's not a reception," she always said, in self-defence, to Van Oudijck. "I know that no one's allowed to 'receive' in the interior, except the resident and his wife. It's really not a reception, resident. I shouldn't dare to call it that. I'm just at home to everybody once a fortnight; and I'm glad if our friends care to come.... It's all right, isn't it, resident, as long as it's not a 'reception'?" Van Oudijck would laugh merrily, with his jovial laugh shaking his military moustache, and ask if little Mrs. Eldersma was pulling his leg. She could do anything, if she would only continue to provide a little gaiety, a little acting, a little music, a little pleasant intercourse. That was her duty, once and for all: to look after the social element at Labuwangi. There was nothing Indian about her at-home days. For instance, at the resident's, the receptions were regulated according to the old inland practice: all the ladies sat side by side, on chairs along the walls; Mrs. van Oudijck walked past them and talked to each for a moment in turn, standing, while they remained sitting; the resident chatted to the men in another gallery. The male and female elements kept apart; gin-and-bitters, port and iced water were handed round.