"As to amusements, what else have we to fall back upon but each other's society? We are all cut off from home and our relations and intellectual advantages; and wholesome exercise, whether tennis, riding, dancing, or sport, cannot be classed as self-indulgence when it is well within our reach financially. The men work hard for the greater part of the day--perhaps you have not yet realised how much your husband gets through before he is free to follow the recreations that suit him best? You mustn't judge Indian life too quickly from the surface, or from your own standpoint." "I wish to do good," said Rafella priggishly, "and it seems to me that I have no one to be kind to but the ayah." "Don't worry about that!" advised Mrs. Greaves, suppressing a smile. "There's plenty of time. You'll find you'll have as much as you can do for the next few months getting used to India, and, if I may make a suggestion, don't be _too_ kind to the ayah, or she'll think you're afraid of her and take every advantage. What native servants appreciate is justice and patience, not indulgence, which they always mistake for weakness." "She certainly has asked for a great many things," Rafella confessed, "but she seems so poor, and says she has such a large family, that I gave her more wages and some clothes, and a very nice lantern and a couple of warm blankets, and I have promised her an allowance of sugar and tea and the money to buy a goat." "Well, I hope you won't regret it," remarked Mrs. Greaves. "Have you ever regretted doing what you could for other people?" There was lofty reproach in Mrs. Coventry's voice. "Often!" replied Mrs. Greaves, unashamed. Despite this admission, she did all she could for Mrs. Coventry during the next few weeks, having regard to the bride's youth and inexperience, for the colonel of Captain Coventry's regiment was a bachelor, and just then, as it happened, there were no other ladies with the battalion. She was rather missing Ellen Munro, and was glad to transfer her support and counsel to Rafella Coventry, imparting to her all she knew herself concerning household management in India and Anglo-Indian rules and customs. All about calling and precedence, and dusters and charcoal, and stores and prices, including the error of supposing that a memsahib need never go near her kitchen, or bother about the milk and the water, and pots and pans, "for," she cautioned her pupil, "that way typhoid lies!"