my bonnet, and get my death of cold setting all the young people agoing. No, no, I told him that. I said to him, you may put out the chairs, but if you think Barbara Erskine and me, and other sensible women, are going to sit there in a May day and get back all our winter rheumatism, you are mistaken, Sir James. But now, where is the general? Nora, you must just go and look for him, and say I'm surprised that he should neglect his duty. When I yielded to this kind of party, which is not my notion of pleasure, I told him plainly be must take the lawn part of it upon his own hands."

"And where's my nephew John?" said Miss Barbara Erskine, who sat in one of the seats of honor, within pleasant reach of a bright fire. "Nora, when you look for Sir James, you'll look for him too. I'm affronted, tell him, that he was not the first to find me out."

"I hear Mr. Erskine is a great friend of the Lindores," said Mrs. Sempill. "Having no son at home, I have not had it in my power, Miss Barbara, to show him any attention, but I hoped to make his acquaintance to-day. They tell me he knew the Lindores well in their former circumstances. That is, no doubt, a fine introduction for him to the county."

From Temple Bar.

INDIAN SOCIETY.

WHEN looking at any view in India, one is particularly struck by the vast extent of the country spread out before the eye, whether the contemplated scene lie amongst the hills or plains. There is such ample space, such entire absence of all crowding in either case, and moreover an atmosphere so clear and fine, that comparatively small objects may be seen distinctly at great distances, and things stand forward with a well-defined outline which attracts the beholder's eye, and obliges him, whether he care about it or no, to be conscious of their existence.

These remarks apply also to Indian society - a very curious and unique compound, capable of being easily resolved into its component parts and put together again in slightly altered form, with all the precision and simplicity of a Chinese puzzle when one knows the relation of one piece to another.

Thus, given the population and character of a native town in the Punjab, to which an English station is attached, where the civil element alone is repre sented, and that by a deputy commissioner, there is but little imagination "If an Erskine of Dalrulzian wanted needed to portray the daily life of the staany introduction," said Miss Barbara, "it tion. There will be one or more assiswould be a very ill one, in my opinion. tant commissioners of the " covenanted For there are as many that think ill of branch of the civil service, military offithem as there are that think well of them, cers of the civil department of the Staff and they're not our kind of people. But Corps; a police officer and a doctor; and John Erskine wants nobody to introduce if the station be an important one, you him, I hope. His father's son, and my will add an engineer, and an English father's great-grandson, should have well-assistant commissioner belonging to the wishers enough.' "uncovenanted" or inferior branch of the civil service, and known by the euphonic designation of extra assistant commissioner. That gives you from four to six men, and out of these it is pretty sure that three will be married, and equally certain that the wife of one of them will be in England; total European population of Janjlabad, from six to nine. You also know that these good people will devote many evenings of the week to the delights of Badminton; that the ladies will be dear friends or bitter foes, for slight acquaintance and polite indifference are impossible between Englishwomen in India, when they are shut up together in a tiny station. The men, of course, will each want to talk in his own particular "shop" when they are together, but, belonging all to the same branch of the service, with clearly defined positions and duties, and a well-marked official grade,

"And a well-looking, well-spoken young man. He minds me of your uncle Walter, the one that went abroad," said old Mrs. Methven of the Broomlees. She was older than Miss Barbara, older than the imagination could conceive. Her memory slipped all the recent generation, and went back to heights of antiquity unknown. Miss Barbara Erskine was still a young person to this old lady, and Sir James a frisky young soldier. "Walter Erskine was the first person I ever saw that wore his own hair without so much as a ribbon. It had a terrible naked look, but you soon got used to it. This one is like him. But you'll scarcely mind him. He was young when he left the county. I cannot remember if you were born."

"He's like his father, which is not so far back," Miss Barbara said.

bers of his own service. If a military man, he has the Army List by heart; can tell you where any regiment has been stationed at any given date for the last twenty years at least; when Jones of the -th got his last step; when Smith of the

will probably work well together and betion of facts concerning all the other memexcellent friends. Men get on better than women do in these out-of-the-way places, on account of having so much business to which their days must be devoted. A lady has not very much to do in her house if she have learnt the happy art of managing her servants, and her children are still too young to need teaching. Books are expensive, working materials must be had out from home; and it is not every one who has sufficient energy and perseverance to master enough of the language to make her a useful visitor to native

women.

Hence gossip finds itself at home and in a kindly soil, and blooms and flourishes in Indian society, ripening not unfrequently its bitter fruits, until the casual observer runs the chance of never finding out the undergrowth of better things which is hidden by its flaunting leaves. But gossip wants a large amount of nourishment to keep it going, and from this arises another peculiarity of Indian society, and that is, its extreme inquisitiveness. You are passing perhaps through a large station, and some friend there kindly asks you to break your long journey by a few days' visit at his house. Some of his neighbors come to dine; but, as the place is large, he has not mentioned who you are to any but the few friends who will be interested in meeting you, so you find yourself a little stared at during dinner, and liable, whenever you take a look at the guests, to catch some inquiring gaze riveted upon your unknown features. Byand-by when, following the frequent custom in India, ladies and gentlemen return together to the drawing-room in the same order in which they left it, an inquisitive guest who has not been introduced to you, seizes his opportunity, and dropping into the chair beside you, asks, without preface,

-th may look for promotion; and expresses himself so strongly as to the propriety of old Brown's retiring, that you are surprised to find these men are not his most intimate associates, but are, many of them, personally unknown to him. The old civilian is just the same, and knows exactly where every other civilian in his own province has ever been stationed, and when he came out; when the inexorable "fifty-five years' rule" will drive home his superiors; and who is likely to get the next" good thing that falls vacant. The ladies, needless to tell, are as well informed on these matters as their husbands, and quite as ready to discuss them, so that to all these good people the arrival of a new face, not to be in any way accounted for in their scheme of society, is as perplexing and interesting as a new specimen to the botanist, and must be pulled to pieces and anxiously dissected, in order that it may be classified and fitted into its proper place in the collection.

I said that the character of Indian scenery is rather like that of Indian society, and it is so in this way: that English people being comparatively few, are seen there with more prominent distinctness than they are at home. Instead of squares, and terraces, and rows of houses, you have in India detached buildings, each standing in its own ground or compound. You can, if you are so inclined, walk round each house and take note of every side of it; and it is much the same with people. Each has his definite post, you know exactly what that post is, the amount of importance to which it entitles him, the character of his work, and the income he receives for doing it; and you know also, and not unfrequently You gasp, naturally, with something of mention to your friends, the exact amount the same sensation as though you had in- of that income which you consider him advertently pulled the string of a shower- justified in spending on stable or table, bath, and felt the dash of cold water on or on his wife's costume. He stands, as your face, and you are half inclined to re- it were, a little removed from all his neighsent the impertinence; but none was in- bors, on a small raised platform of his tended. The inquirer is probably an old own, where his friends can note his good Indian who thinks it due to himself to or ill qualities, his every little weakness, know all about everybody. Like an ardent and where also he has room to develop botanist who carefully preserves and clas- his own idiosyncrasies to any extent he sifies the plants he meets with, the old pleases. Like an isolated tree, he is free Indian has in his mind a complete collec- | to shoot his branches in whatsoever direc

"Have you been here long?" "Since yesterday." "Ah!-oh! come from?"

-ah! - where did you

You get thus in India a much clearer knowledge of your neighbors than is at all possible or desirable at home: and knowing so much about them has sometimes the sad effect of making people wish to know still more, and of leading them to talk of what they think may, or ought to be the case, and so, many amusing stories begun in no unkindly spirit get circulated about a station, unconsciously exaggerated as they pass from lip to lip, until at last they have developed into something positively cruel. It is wonderful what mischief may be done by "idle" tongues and minds, that look for novelty and amusement, with no thought of the harm their reckless chattering may do. Of course it is very nice to have some thing fresh to talk about to the set of people whom you meet day after day at Badminton, and night after night at ball or dinner-party, for months together, and piquant little anecdotes of your acquaintances in the early stage before the sting of the story has grown, are so extremely funny that you feel as though you must repeat them to the next person you meet, and so the propensity to gossip once in dulged grows hard to check, and fastens itself upon one almost insensibly.

tion he will, but should those branches | useful visitors to many a poor brown womtwist, crook, or grow unhealthy, or should an shut up all her life in a dull zenana they spring from one side only of the tree, with hardly anything to occupy her mind no friendly screen is interposed to hide or time; or, if unable to make personal the deformity from gazing eyes. visits to these native homes, an Englishwoman of sufficient ability may bestow an inestimable boon upon the inmates by translating into their language such books as they would be likely to read with interest, or by writing original tales and verses for their perusal. A large field of work lies too among the families of soldiers, of poor English clerks, and those of the unhappy Eurasians who seem to belong to neither of the races from which they spring, while inheriting the weaknesses of both. Children to be taught and clothed, women to be cheered and strengthened by a word of sympathy, and struggling poverty to be relieved, may all be found by those who seek them, besides the thousand and one good offices towards her own associates in which the AngloIndian is never wanting. The drawback to these employments is the short time which most people spend in one place. In India nobody is really "at home; "" even if the husband have a settled post which keeps him in the plains, the wife and children must enjoy, if possible, the coolness of the hills in summer, and so the family oscillates perpetually between the two. Military men and civilians are alike liable to be moved on short notice, and neither of them when he goes on leave to England, knows where he will be stationed on his return, and thus the years of service spent in this distant country are indeed a pilgrimage. This certainty of a speedy removal is a great hindrance to beginning work which one cannot hope to carry on for more than a short time; it seems hardly worth while to take things up and have to leave them presently; but if the work became more general, such an objection would be very much weakened, because there would then be the reasonable hope that your successor would be able and willing to carry on that which you had begun.

It is most unfair to fancy, as so many people do, that because a woman's lot is cast in India, she must necessarily lead a gossiping, frivolous existence: many women certainly do so, but would they have done any better in England? Of course in India there is not the same variety of interests and occupations as there is at home: the climate undoubtedly lessens one's energy, decreases those powers of physical exercise which help to keep both mind and body sound, and compels one to pass many hours of the day indoors; but those who will lead useful lives, do lead them in India as elsewhere, and healthful occupation during the time In these days when the central Asian of enforced quiet is the best preparation question is brought so prominently forfor that spent in society, the true preserv- ward, the study of Indian history, and the ative against gossip, and the means by relations of our empire to other Eastern which the amusements of afternoon and countries, become doubly attractive, and evening may be made innocent relaxation absolutely necessary to those who desire and refreshment instead of dissipation. to take an intelligent interest in affairs It is a pity that ladies who are conversant with some of the languages of Continental Europe, do not more frequently apply themselves to the real study of Hindostani. They might then be acceptable and

there: while the many races over whom we rule, their past, present and future well-beings; with their differing characters, religions, industries, costumes, and customs; the wondrous architectural re

mains scattered throughout India, its products, scenery and natural history, offer wide fields of research to those who care to tread them.

culmination, and that with a tact and propriety so perfect that no breath of scandal has murmured any hint of a husband's disapproval, and even the most censorious are obliged to allow that after all it is only "Mrs. Biffins's way.'

So much for the antidotes to gossip; let us look now at some of its results. Perhaps a young bride comes out know- People tell you that the real "old Ining nothing of Indian life, and very little dian" is dying out, that his death-blow beyond that of an English schoolroom. was struck with the cessation of the Com. She may be the wife of an assistant company's rule, and certainly the race of thin, missioner in a large station where there parchmenty, curry-eating, hookah-smokare cantonments, who is busy all day long in his Katcherry, and feels more disposed for rest and quiet when office hours are over, than for gaieties. The bride has not very much to occupy her time; from twelve to two, the orthodox hours for calling, she has plenty of visitors to entertain. She is bright and attractive, accustomed to brothers at home, and wel. comes gladly some young officer who has also a superabundance of leisure, and proves to have been at school with some of her brothers. It seems a pity Mrs. Smith should go for a quiet walk or drive with her husband evening after evening, when everybody else is at Badminton and she would enjoy a game. Will she let her visitor escort her to a Badminton party to-morrow? or, the days are cooler now, may he come and take her for a ride at an earlier hour than her husband can leave work? Mr. Smith is glad she should be amused, and is glad to be let off from parties himself, and so, day after day, some other man escorts his wife, until the unfortunate couple suddenly find that station gossip is aroused about them. Mrs. Smith is stigmatized as an inveterate flirt, and kind-hearted apologists, while they admit the fact, declare it to be all the fault of Mr. Smith, "who evidently cares nothing for his wife, never goes out with her, and lets her always be about with that young Jones."

ing men, with half-caste wives, and "Chee chee" families reared in India, and speaking English with an impure pronunciation, and three lakhs of rupees of debt, is almost extinct; but the real cause of his disappearance is simply the improved facilities of communication with England, and the establishment of hill sanitaria. The lady who will spend a whole morning in her verandah, turning over the contents of every bundle in a box-wallah's pack, and then dismiss the unfortunate trader without buying anything of him, or making the least return for the many hours she has wasted for him, is indeed still to be met with, but not so frequently as of yore. Ladies on a march can get supplies of food, and even tinned English provisions at dak bungalows, and need not now to emulate their valiant countrywoman, who, on being told by the headman that there were positively no eggs, no chicken, and no milk in his village, drew from her pocket a newly invented lucifer-match-box, and suddenly striking a light, and holding it to the nose of the astonished native, commanded him to produce instantly all that she required.

The head-man, concluding that such an effect could have been produced only by a very powerful evil spirit, hurried off in much alarm, and eggs, chicken, milk, grain, fruit, and vegetables, poured in upon the imperious lady. These things belong To sensitive people, who, unwarned by more or less to the past, but there are a few any friendly hint, find they have uninten- traits of the "old Indian " character that tionally given rise to such remarks, the linger still. Witness the almost daily arpain is great; but to others- tougher- rival of a folded paper, with a long list of natured it will sometimes prove a stim- names on its outer cover, headed with, ulus to fresh flirtations. There are hus-"Please write soon." This paper almost bands who take a pride in all the atten- invariably contains a list of things to be tions which their wives receive, and mar- sold: furniture, crockery, carriages, harried woman who prefer to be seen inces-ness, clothes, etc.; but I must do the pressantly with an aide-de-camp to going out with their husbands; whose "door is shut" to lady visitors, while they are gaily chattering with more congenial admirers; but it is not the very young brides who offend in this way. It requires some years of experience to have brought the art of flirting to this happy

ent race of Anglo-Indians the justice to say that it is their superfluous new, and not their old garments, with which they wish to part, and this again is one of the many windows through which you overlook your neighbor's dwelling. By seeing the prices affixed to the various ar ticles for sale, you gain an excellent idea

they are such good paymasters," as though prompt payment of debts were the exception, not the rule, in India. And money does not go so far there as it does at home. You may give less wages to your servants, but you have to keep ten times the number; and though a horse, or a leg of mutton, may cost very much less than in England, a quire of paper or a pair of gloves, any of the modern luxuries which are in fact necessities, are twice as dear as in Europe, and are a perpetual heavy drain upon small incomes.

of the rate at which the seller is in the|ings with the So-and-Sos habit of spending upon those articles, and if you have only been long enough in India to appreciate this advantage, you have the greatest pleasure in shaking your head over the extravagance of " poor Soand-So, who had bought a much more expensive carriage than he could afford, had it out out from England in fact:" or over his wife's reckless expenditure in dress. "She sent round a French mantle for sale at twenty guineas, and you know she has no business, with their income, to buy an expensive thing like that." Ah! we are all very human, and never Of all the subjects which annoy and more so than when we talk about the fol- worry housekeepers in India, none gives lies or the weaknesses of friends, and rise to more domestic disturbances than India does not necessarily tend to raise what we used to call the Great Jáhran our tone of mind, or to give us higher Question. It seems impossible at first and more charitable thoughts; rather the sight that so humble an article, for the reverse. Society is in many ways more Jáhran is merely a duster, should cause lax and easy-going than at home: and the so much heartburning, yet such is its unifact that beyond an infinitesimally small versal result. The ayahs want jáhrans, sprinkling of outsiders, everybody be- the sweepers want jáhrans, the bearers longs to one branch or other of the ser- want jáhrans, the tailor wants jáhrans, vice, makes it unlike anything one can the kitchen department is omnivorous in ever expect to meet in England. The its consumption of the article, and so is purely official standard by which every- the stable department; and when on body's position is assigned, brings often Monday morning a great pile of unsavory into prominent places those who are quite dusters is collected and counted over to unfitted to be leaders of society, either the Mem Sahib before they are taken from their antecedents, or, in the case of away by the dobhi to be washed, some ladies, sometimes from their extreme of those given out on the preceding Monyouth. Then there are no really old peo-day are invariably missing; and as each ple to give weight and sobriety-those who member of your establishment is absoare elderly for India, would be scarcely lutely certain that he or she has brought more than middle-aged at home: and third- back exactly the right number, disputes ly, the want of a good coinage has a singu- and chattering are rife in the compound, larly bad effect upon financial morality. the poor ayah who has to seek the missRupees are too heavy to be carried about, ing articles is almost at her wits' end, so instead of paying ready money for and the lady herself must stand her small articles at the English shops, most ground manfully, and insist firmly that people have a bill; then they forget how they must be found without delay, before this is mounting up, and rush into some the lost dusters can be produced. Then extravagance, new costumes, it may be, in the buying them, she may offend a for a fancy ball, which are always expen- dozen friends at least. The hemming of sive, and which result in other and still jáhrans is a branch of industry much enlonger bills. A dead weight of debt is couraged by charitable ladies, amongst not cheerful or ennobling when hanging poor English or Eurasian widows, chilround the neck of man or woman, but dren in schools, and any other dependent they get used to it after a while. Hus- persons they may wish to assist; but the band and wife are both popular in society, jáhrans, when hemmed, must be sold, they must go to this or that ball, they and many of these kind-hearted people, must take part in these or those theatri- quite unable to believe that any other cals, all involving further outlay, until as lady's protégées may be as worthy and years go on the tone of their minds has necessitous as their own, are prepared to insensibly lowered and they have become force their dusters on their friends at the capable of an amount of shabbiness in all point of the bayonet. When Mrs. Smith money matters to which in earlier days it looks reproachfully in your face and says, seemed impossible for them to sink. It sweetly smiling, "Dear Mrs. Jones, you is not uncommon to hear people say as have not bought any of my old women's high praise, "I like to have money deal- | dusters for such a long time; I am sure