o sit; and the patient
creatures sat cross-legged on the verandah floor, nodding over the rope
till galvanised into activity by a shout from within.

For baths, kettles of boiling water were fetched from the kitchen, fifty
yards or so distant, and cans of cold water from a tank beyond the
vegetable garden, by a semi-nude servant whose duty it was to do this
and nothing else. It took Joyce many months to realise which of the
numerous servants in her pay could be required to perform a particular
task, so complicated were the differentiations created by caste.

Muktiarbad was very much behind the times as to modern comforts and
conveniences, but was entirely up-to-date in the fashions which the
weekly journals depicted for the advantage of the gentler sex, and which
the latest arrivals from "home" expressed. Moreover, Calcutta was only a
few hundred miles away--a trifle in India--and contained first-rate
shops and dressmakers. A week-end visit to the Metropolis for a round of
shopping was a common habit of the ladies of Muktiarbad, with its handy
train service; and if it added considerably to the cost of living, what
would you, when the bazaar sold only Manchester goods in bales, and
_saris_ for feminine apparel?

Old Khodar Bux, who was available for eight annas per day, was a
treasure to bachelor servants, as the only tailor to be had in the
District.

In all other matters, the Station was content, for officials were birds
of passage, and what had sufficed the residents for years, was good
enough for today. Private enterprise was sluggish, and the cost of
transporting plant and material for the installation of electricity,
prohibitive; so the sahibs continued to use kerosene oil; were fanned by
coolies, and were dependent on wells and tanks for their water supply,
leaving it to the larger towns and great centres to revel in all the
luxuries of modern times.

The possession of a large Daimler by the Collector, and of a two-seater
Rolls-Royce by the doctor, filled the other English residents with envy;
but they were anathema to the natives of the bazaars and villages. Rich
Indians followed suit with cars of various sorts, but, generally, the
machines were looked upon by the ignorant as ruthless inventions of the
devil, and to be feared accordingly.

Joyce lived an idle life at Muktiarbad, served hand and foot by a host
of servants, and treated as a little queen by her neighbours. She did
not even try to "keep house"