ess I got from her daughters is rare
even from one's own relations.

One thing struck me when living in this family--that human nature is
everywhere the same. We are fond of saying, and I also believed, that
the devotion of an Indian wife to her husband is something unique, and
not to be found in Europe. But I at least was unable to discern any
difference between Mrs. Scott and an ideal Indian wife. She was entirely
wrapped up in her husband. With their modest means there was no fussing
about of too many servants, and Mrs. Scott attended to every detail of
her husband's wants herself. Before he came back home from his work of
an evening, she would arrange his arm-chair and woollen slippers before
the fire with her own hands. She would never allow herself to forget for
a moment the things he liked, or the behaviour which pleased him. She
would go over the house every morning, with their only maid, from attic
to kitchen, and the brass rods on the stairs and the door knobs and
fittings would be scrubbed and polished till they shone again. Over and
above this domestic routine there were the many calls of social duty.
After getting through all her daily duties she would join with zest in
our evening readings and music, for it is not the least of the duties of
a good housewife to make real the gaiety of the leisure hour.

Some evenings I would join the girls in a table-turning seance. We would
place our fingers on a small tea table and it would go capering about
the room. It got to be so that whatever we touched began to quake and
quiver. Mrs. Scott did not quite like all this. She would sometimes
gravely shake her head and say she had her doubts about its being right.
She bore it bravely, however, not liking to put a damper on our youthful
spirits. But one day when we put our hands on Dr. Scott's chimneypot to
make it turn, that was too much for her. She rushed up in a great state
of mind and forbade us to touch it. She could not bear the idea of Satan
having anything to do, even for a moment, with her husband's head-gear.

In all her actions her reverence for her husband was the one thing that
stood out. The memory of her sweet self-abnegation makes it clear to me
that the ultimate perfection of all womanly love is to be found in
reverence; that where no extraneous cause has hampered its true
development woman's love naturally grows into worship. Where the
appointments of luxury are in profusion, and frivolity tarnishes bo