" What he learnt at Sandhurst beyond the regular
routine is of no great consequence. He looked about him, and he found soap and
blacking, so to speak, very good. He ate a little, and came out of Sandhurst
not so high as he went in.
Them there was an interval and a scene with his people, who expected much from
him. Next a year of living "unspotted from the world" in a third-rate depot
battalion where all the juniors were children, and all the seniors old women;
and lastly he came out to India, where he was cut off from the support of his
parents, and had no one to fall back on in time of trouble except himself.
Now India is a place beyond all others where one must not take things too
seriously--the midday sun always excepted. Too much work and too much energy
kill a man just as effectively as too much assorted vice or too much drink.
Flirtation does not matter because every one is being transferred and either
you or she leave the Station, and never return. Good work does not matter,
because a man is judged by his worst output and another man takes all the
credit of his best as a rule. Bad work does not matter, because other men do
worse, and incompetents hang on longer in India than anywhere else. Amusements
do not matter, because you must repeat them as soon as you have accomplished
them once, and most amusements only mean trying to win another person's money.
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