"
"I will have a regular parade tomorrow morning after breakfast, if
it would be convenient for you to look in then, and at the same
time I will get you to have a talk with Rumzan and the cook. I
am almost as new to giving dinner parties as Isobel is. When one
has half a dozen men to dine with one at the club, one gives the
butler notice and chooses the wine, and one knows that it will be
all right; but it is a very different thing when you have to go
into the details yourself. Ordinarily I leave it entirely to Rumzan
and the cook, and I am bound to say they do very well, but this is
a different matter."
"We will talk it over with them together, Major. You can seem to
consult me, but it must come from you to them, or else you will be
getting their backs up. Thank goodness, Indian servants don't give
themselves the airs English ones do; but human nature is a good
deal the same everywhere, and the first great rule, if you want
any domestic arrangements to go off well, is to keep the servants
in good temper."
"We none of us like to be interfered with, Doctor."
"A wise man is always ready to be taught," the Doctor said
sententiously.
"Well, there are exceptions, Doctor. I remember, soon after I
joined, a man blew off two of his fingers. A young surgeon who was
here wanted to amputate the hand; he was just going to set about
it when a staff surgeon came in and said that it had better not
be done, for that natives could not stand amputations.
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