"I think our regent--not the Ngadjiwa one: he's a coolie--delightful!" said Eva. "He's a living figure out of a puppet-show. Except his eyes: they frighten me. What terrible eyes! Sometimes they're asleep and sometimes they're like a maniac's. But he is so refined, so distinguished! And the raden-aju too is an exquisite little doll: 'Saja ... saja!' She says nothing, but she looks very decorative. I'm always glad when they adorn my at-home day and I miss them when they're not there. And the old raden-aju pangéran, grey-haired, dignified, a queen...." "A gambler of the first water," said Eldersma. "They gamble away all they possess," said Van Helderen, "she and the regent of Ngadjiwa. They're no longer rich. The old pangéran used to have splendid insignia of rank for state occasions, magnificent lances, a jewelled betel-box, spittoons--useful objects, those!--of priceless value. The old raden-aju has gambled them all away. I doubt if she has anything left but her pension: two hundred and forty guilders a month, I believe. And how our regent manages to keep all his cousins, male and female, in the Kabupaten, [8] according to the Javanese custom, is beyond me." "What custom is that?" asked the doctor. "Every regent collects his whole family around him like parasites, clothes them, feeds them, provides them with pocket-money ... and the natives think it dignified and smart." "Sad ... that ruined greatness!" said Ida, gloomily. A boy came to announce dinner and they went to the back verandah and sat down to table. "And what have you in prospect for us, mevrouwtje?" asked the senior engineer. "What are the plans? Labuwangi has been very quiet lately." "It's really terrible," said Eva. "If I hadn't all of you, it would be terrible. If I weren't always planning something and having ideas, it would be terrible, this living at Labuwangi. My husband doesn't feel it; he works, as all you men do: what else is there to do in India but work, regardless of the heat? But for us women! What a life, if we didn't find our happiness purely in ourselves, in our home, in our friends ... when we have the good fortune to possess those friends! Nothing from the outside. Not a picture, not a statue to look at; no music to listen to. Don't be cross, Van Helderen. You play the 'cello charmingly, but nobody in India can keep up to date. The Italian Opera plays Il Trovatore. The amateur companies--and they're really first-rate at Batavia--play ... Il Trovatore. And you, Van Helderen ... don't object. I saw you in an ecstasy when the Italian company from Surabaya were here lately, at the club, playing ... Il Trovatore. You were enchanted." "There were some beautiful voices among them."