In India to purchase some horses , British aristocrat , Lord Esketh and his wife , Edwina , come to the town of Ranchipur at the invitation of the elderly Maharani . Their marriage is an unhappy one and Lord Esketh announces his intention to return to England and begin divorce proceedings . The spoiled , insensitive Edwina scoffs at this . She renews in Ranchipur an acquaintance with a former lover , Tom Ransome , now a dissolute alcoholic . She also meets and attempts to seduce a distinguished Hindu physician , Dr. Rama Safti , a decent man who is the elderly Maharani's personal choice to succeed her someday . Safti at first resists , but ultimately succumbs to Edwina's charms and falls hopelessly in love with her . Lord Esketh becomes aware of this , but Safti saves him from a man-eating tiger during a safari . Safti admits his love for Edwina to Lord Esketh , who is now sympathetic toward this good man's plight . Ransome feels the same way , warning Edwina to stay away from Safti , a friend he admires . Edwina similarly falls into disfavor with the Maharani , who explains that Safti has been raised to lead a pure life and that Edwina is unworthy of him . Ranchipur suddenly is ravaged by a natural disaster , an earthquake and flood . Dr. Safti is so busy saving lives that he can not personally care for Edwina , who has fallen ill . Ransome looks after her as well as for young Fern Simon , who has declared her love for him . When a dam is exploded by dynamite and as a result the flood waters recede , it is Dr. Safti who reveals that Ransome is the one who risked his personal safety to save the people of Ranchipur .

Who renews an acquaintance with a former lover, Tom Ransome?

Elettra stuck the little slip of paper, on which the recipe was written, into her shabby pocket-book without looking at it. She could read and write fairly well, and had been used to helping her husband the under-steward with his accounts at Muro, but even if she had looked at the recipe she would have understood nothing of the doctor's hieroglyphics and abbreviated Latin words. The prescription was for a preparation of arsenic, which Matilde had formerly taken for some time. The chemist would not make any difficulty about preparing twenty doses of it for the Countess Macomer, though the whole quantity of arsenic contained in so many would probably be sufficient to kill one not accustomed to the medicine, if taken all at once. But though Matilde was so anxious to have the stuff before luncheon, she had a number of doses of it put away in a drawer, which she took out and counted, after Elettra had gone. She opened one of the little folded papers and looked at the fine white powder it contained, took a little on the end of her finger and tasted it. Then, from the same drawer, she took a package done up in coarser paper, and opened it likewise, looked at it, smelt it, and touched it with the tip of her tongue very cautiously indeed. It was white, too, but coarser than the medicine. She was very careful in tasting it, and she immediately rinsed her mouth with water, before she tied up the package again, shut the drawer, and put the key into her pocket.

What word does the author use as a synonym for a recipe?

Madame White Snake: East Asian Femme Fatale of Old The Chinese legend of Madame White Snake, the snake demon that takes human form and becomes the wife of a man, has exerted a lasting influence over East Asian folktales and fiction for centuries. Two quintessential novellas, "The Lust of the White Serpant" from Ugetsu Monogatari by the Japanese author Ueda Akinari and "Eternal Prisoner under Thunder Peak Pagoda" a traditional Chinese story, are both relatively complex and demonstrate not only the evolution of the White Snake figure to become a more believable human, but also what aspects may have given her enduring appeal. While both these stories are ostensibly morality tales about the dangerous beauty of this femme fatale, the true source of pleasure from these narratives is the femme fatale's transgressive behavior, not her eventual punishment for it. Early tales of Madame White Snake appeared in China as early as the Song Dynasty, and initially her portrayal was fairly direct, as a villainous demon who drains the life force out of her human husband. But over time, characterizations of her became more complex, and the persona of Madame White Snake became more sympathetic, and perhaps even a model of the ideal Confucian wife, particularly in "Pagoda". Whalen Lai notes, "She was a loving wife, a caring mother, rescuer of her family from the first flood, and, at that point, a general benefactor of man. She took on the virtues of a traditional Chinese female, particularly forbearance". But if she were really an ideal wife, why could she not live happily with her human mate? Her dangerous sexuality is the key. Femme fatale might seem an unusual term to apply to a character from pre-modern Chinese and Japanese literature who may exemplify the virtues of an ideal Confucian wife, since it is primarily associated with film characters, particularly those of the film noir genre. But this term, which is relatively speaking, a neologism (The earliest uses were around the beginning of the 20th century
Has Madame White Snake been perceived as both a villainous demon and someone who exemplify the virtues of an ideal Confucian wife?