In India, of all places in the world,
the maxim festina lente--go slow--is applicable. You have the
prejudices of a couple of thousand years against change. The people
of all things are jealous of the slightest appearance of interference
with their customs. The change will no doubt come in time, but it
must come gradually, and must be the work of the natives themselves
and not of us. To try to hasten that time would be but to defer it.
Now, child, there is the bell; now just attend to the business in
hand."
"Very well, Doctor, I will obey your orders, but it is only fair
to say that Mr. Bathurst's remarks are only in answer to something
I said," and Isobel turned to watch the race, but with an interest
less ardent than she had before felt.
Isobel's character was an essentially earnest one, and her life up
to the day of her departure to India had been one of few pleasures.
She had enjoyed the change and had entered heartily into it, and
she was as yet by no means tired of it, but she had upon her arrival
at Cawnpore been a little disappointed that there was no definite
work for her to perform, and had already begun to feel that a
time would come when she would want something more than gossip and
amusements and the light talk of the officers of her acquaintance
to fill her life.
She had as yet no distinct interest of her own, and Bathurst's
earnestness had struck a cord in her own nature and seemed to open
a wide area for thought.
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