The Phantom 'Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories

One of the few advantages that India has over England is a great Knowability. After five years' service a man is directly or indirectly acquainted with the two or three hundred Civilians in his Province all the Messes of ten or twelve Regiments and Batteries and some fifteen hundred other people of the non-official caste. In ten years his knowledge should be doubled and at the end of twenty he knows or knows something about every Englishman in the Empire and may travel anywhere and everywhere without paying hotel-bills. Globe-trotters who expect entertainment as a right have even within my memory blunted this open-heartedness but none the less to-day if you belong to the Inner Circle and are neither a Bear nor a Black Sheep all houses are open to you and our small world is very very kind and helpful.