Paulette lives on the top floor of the Burnham mansion; her new life under the Burnhams is extremely restrictive, as everyone—servants included—hold strong views on what’s appropriate for Europeans. She is unable to dress in a sari, for example, and she is ignored if she speaks Bengali. Her apartment contains its own water closet, an amenity Paulette would appreciate greatly if not for the fact that it includes no arrangements for bathing, as Mrs. Burnham believes daily baths to be inappropriate for women.

Paulette’s schooling has previously consisted of helping her father go about his own work as a botanist; following his death, the Burnhams agreed to take her in, and her only expectation was that she study scripture and accede to what they believed to be appropriate for a woman. She tried to tutor the Burnhams’ daughter, but this was declined due to the fact that Paulette’s English was rather weak, having grown up with a French father and a Bengali caretaker. She tried to oversee the garden due to her skills as a botanist, but was pushed away by the Burnhams’ current gardener, and could only tend to a single tree in the corner. As a result, her practice is to rise early to work on her father’s manuscript and tend to her tree.