to light. Then she goes to the south verandah where, after drinking a glass of milk, she spends the early morning hours in literary work, revising, editing, correcting and writing. At eleven o'clock she has her daily bath, an important ceremonial in the life of an Indian lady, even her heavy luxuriant hair is washed every day. After a very simple meal she rests and reads the daily papers or a book. At four she has another cup of milk, and until seven she strolls in her beautiful garden, or receives visitors (or before her husband's death she would drive out in her car and pay visits), and soon after dinner she retires to rest. Although Mrs. Ghosal still wears the native dress and retains all the beauty and comfort that India has to offer her, she does not hesitate to introduce European conveniences into her house, and her wide drawing room contains English chairs and tables. There she receives her friends with generous hospitality; when they first arrive tea is handed to them in pretty Japanese cups, then a number of trays are brought in covered with small dishes containing innumerable delicacies: quaint little cakes, delicious sandwiches, fried rice, biscuits spread with hot cheese, salads, fruit creams and sherbets; the hostess herself piles her visitors' plates till the pray her to desist, and finally finger bowls are handed round.
Mrs. Ghosal is a forerunner, a type of the future woman of India, now that education is becoming general. She has not wholly emerged from the seclusion of the purdah, there are still many relatives even in Calcutta whose feelings would be grievously hurt by total emancipation, with them she still keeps purdah, the change even in her enlightened family is
