CHAPTER VIII
THE GOVERNOR
Great rivers, shady trees, medicinal plants, and virtuous people are not born for themselves, but for the good of mankind in general.-SLOKA.
An important social duty which has to be done on arrival in Madras, besides paying calls on the residents, is the writing of the name of the newcomer in the visitors' book at Government House. It is equivalent to making a call.
As my husband and I drove up to the house, the scarlet and gold of the uniforms, sacred to the use of the representatives of the Empress of India, was an impressive and picturesque sight. The peons stood grouped at the wide entrance with a background of marble-white pillars and green palms and ferns. The long scarlet coat, the red sash with burnished badge worn across the chest, the neatly folded turban, the bare feet and silent tread, the brown complexion, the quiet dignity and deferential manner, were touches that accorded well with the noble building.
We were conducted inside the large hall, of which the staircase occupies a considerable portion, to a table whereon lay the visitors' book for the year 1877. The volumes, which by this time fill more than one shelf, must be of immense interest, containing as they do the autographs of almost every Englishman who has been in the civil and military services of Madras. When the name was duly
