"As to the language, I grant that it will take some hard work before you learn to speak like a native, still as you will hear no other tongue you will pick it up naturally and without much regular work except to acquire the niceties of the language. Nand Chund speaks it very correctly, and I will give you into his special charge, and if you talk to him and he corrects you for a couple of hours a day it will be quite enough in the way of work. You may also, if you like, go on with your Hindustani. I have a factotum, a sort of secretary and steward rolled into one, who speaks it fluently; and it would be as well that you should understand it, for although it would be no use to you here, it may be valuable if in the future your lot is cast in other parts of India. You will every day do a little sword exercise. Nand Chund is a good swordsman. When you have learnt all he can teach you I will put you on with some others so that you may learn a trick from one and a trick from another. Your pistol shooting you will of course keep up."
"And when you have nothing better to do," Mahtab said, "I shall always be glad to have you here. Two or three of my maids are wonderful story-tellers, and know among them, I think, all the stories of the history of the Punjaub. I don’t say that these are all strictly true, but certainly they are all founded on fact, and as they are all about war, and love, and stratagems, and wonderful exploits, imprisonments, and escapes, they will amuse you, and at the same time be good practice."
"I shall like that very much, aunt. Do you speak any English yourself?"
"A little," Mahtab said. "I can hardly talk it at all, but my lord taught me so that if he wished to write to me, or I to him, we could send letters to each other, and should these fall into others’ hands they would not be understood."
"We have found it useful several times," the colonel said. "She has sent me warnings that have enabled me to avoid falling into traps; and once, that was before I was governor here, I was able, when engaged on an expedition three hundred miles away, to warn her of a plot to seize her in her house. The messenger I sent was captured, but as there was nothing upon him save a scrap of paper with a few words they did not understand, they tossed it with contempt on the ground. My man was a sharp fellow, and happened to be bare-footed, and presently he managed to shift his position so as to stand on the piece of paper and grasp it with his toes. He was led off a prisoner, but made his escape in the night and brought my _chit_ to my wife, who, being warned, assembled some friends of mine, and when the fellows came to carry out their design beat them off handsomely."