CHAPTER IV. 



VISITORS 



I HOLD here a high official position ; I receive in 

 consequence many native visitors. Some call to 

 ask favours, some merely to pay their respects. In 

 the matter of these visits there is a good deal of 

 etiquette. The day previous a message is sent desiring 

 permission to call, and that given, an hour is appointed. 

 Some further preliminaries have, however, still to be 

 arranged. I have to ascertain if the visitor is of 

 sufficient social standing to entitle him to a chair, and 

 if so, whether his position also permits him to bring 

 with him an attendant, that is into the room. Then, 

 further, I must make myself aware as to what distance . 

 I should advance to receive my visitor when he arrives, 

 whether to the door of the house, the door of the room, 

 or merely a few steps over the carpet. 



It is, however, only in the case of natives of the very 

 highest rank that these last questions arise, and of such 

 about here there are few or none. As regards the 

 visitors I at present receive, the only points I ever have 

 to determine are as to the granting the chair and the 

 admission of the attendant. 



Neither of these points arose this morning, for the 



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