When travelling abroad she is THE Judge's Wife; when staying at Hill
Stations she is The JUDGE'S Wife, and when adorning her proper sphere,
her native heath of Chota Pagalabad, she is The Judge's WIFE. As she
is the Senior Lady of all Chota Pagalabad she, of course, always (like
Mary) Goes In First at the solemn and superior dinner parties of that
important place, and is feared, flattered, and fawned upon by the
other ladies of the station, since she can socially put down the
mighty from their seat and exalt the humble and meek and them of low
degree (though she would not be likely to touch the last-named with a
pair of tongs, socially speaking, of course). And yet, such is this
queer world, the said lesser ladies of the famous mofussil station of
Chota Pagalabad are, among themselves, agreed _nemine contradicente_
that the Great Mrs. "Justice" Spywell is a vulgar old frump
("country-bred to say the least of it"), and call her The First Seven
Sister. This curious and unsyntactically expressed epithet alludes to
the fact that she and six other "ladies" of like instincts meet daily
for tea and scandal at the Gymkhana and, for three solid hours, pull
to pieces the reputations of all and sundry their acquaintances,
reminding the amused on-looker, by their voices, manner, and
appearance, of those strange birds the _Sat Bai_ or Seven Sisters, who
in gangs of seven make day hideous in their neighbourhood ...

"Are you going to India to be married, my dear child?" she asked
Lucille, before she knew her name.

"I really don't know," replied Lucille.

"You are not actually engaged, then?"