We must look
to them for the chief pleasures of our lives, and know that they must
look to us for theirs; and if anything has crossed us we try to
conceal it from them. There is in India a strong feeling of mutual
dependence which prevents little domestic misunderstandings between
man and wife from growing into quarrels so often as in other
countries, where this is less prevalent. Men have not here their
clubs, nor their wives their little coteries to fly to when disposed
to make serious matters out of trifles, and both are in consequence
much inclined to bear and forbear. There are, of course, on the other
hand, evils in India that people have not to contend with at home;
but, on the whole, those who are disposed to look on the fair, as
well as on the dark side of all around them, can enjoy life in India
very much, as long as they and those dear to them are free from
physical pain.[14] We everywhere find too many disposed to look upon
the dark side of all that is present, and the bright side of all that
is distant in time and place--always miserable themselves, be they
where they will, and making all around them miserable; this commonly
arises from indigestion, and the habit of eating and drinking in a
hot, as in a cold, climate; and giving their stomachs too much to do,
as if they were the only parts of the human frame whose energies were
unrelaxed by the temperature of tropical climates.
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