WE START HOUSEKEEPING 



explaining our absence, and then ate our dinner in 

 the hotel. 



Our bedroom was one of several, all exactly 

 alike, and opening on to a covered way — people 

 could easily look in as they passed along. When 

 dressing for the dinner party to which we did not 

 go, I was amused at the way Baruku stayed in the 

 room, getting out my husband's clothes and help- 

 ing him dress. Presently I looked up and saw a 

 native watching us through the open doorway, as 

 unconcerned as possible. To me his big black face 

 seemed to fill the doorway, lighted up as it was by 

 our candles. I asked Baruku why he was there 

 and what he wanted ; he calmly remarked that the 

 native was only his brother. As I was not used to 

 one boy in the room while I was dressing, I sug- 

 gested that my husband should shut the other out, 

 which he did. This boy proved later to be Ali, a 

 boy we had in our service the whole of our stay in 

 East Africa and Zanzibar with the exception of the 

 last seven weeks. His face, by-the-bye, was quite 

 nice looking and small when seen under ordinary 

 circumstances. Baruku, as a matter of course, 

 called us in the morning and brought in our tea and 

 hot water, and a nice quiet chamber-maid he made. 

 He wore during the morning a very much ventilated 

 singlet and a loin cloth, but later when he brought 

 me the key of our room, and asked to go out and 

 get his food, he wore an excellent kharki suit, some- 



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