The adjutant had chosen a Mahratta servant, and the man's surprise, when the newly-joined officer addressed him in his own language, was great.
As Mr.Malet had told him that, except when on duty, the officers generally wore civilian clothes, he had purchased several white suits, consisting of jacket and trousers, as these were kept in stock by a Parsee tailor; and he put on one of these, with a white shirt, after he had finished his bath.

He had scarcely done so when a bugle sounded.
"That is the call for tiffin, sahib," Abdool said.
"Do the officers go in uniform ?" "No, sahib, not to this meal." Just at this moment, the adjutant came in.
"Come along, Lindsay," he said.

"I thought I would come round for you.

It is rather trying going into a room full of strangers." There were some twelve officers gathered in the mess tent, and the adjutant introduced Harry to them, singly.

They were all curious to see him, having heard from the colonel--who had summoned them to the tent, a quarter of an hour before the bugle sounded--some particulars of his life; and how he had been at once appointed to be lieutenant, without going through the usual term as a cadet, as a reward for important services.
Their first impression of him was a favourable one.