Letters from India Volume I/To the Hon Mrs Eden 4
My dearest Mary,—An officer who is going home in the ‘Robarts’ has just called to take leave, and he says a letter will overtake the ship which dropped down the river yesterday, and I am sure if he does, a letter may. I envied the old fellow. He is going home after thirty-two uninterrupted years of India, and is quite curious about Regent Street and the Zoological and all the old stories; and then he is not going home friendless, for, after having talked of rejoining his children there, he said, to my utter surprise, ‘I shall like to take my children abroad, and make acquaintance with them travelling, but I must first pass some time with my mother. I have not seen her for thirty-two years.’ ‘What a fine fat boy she will think you,’ I could hardly help saying.
My particular object in running off a line is to tell Robert that his protégé of a barber, whom he recommended to Mars, has been this very day engaged to be hairdresser and barber to the King of Oude, at a salary of four hundred rupees (40l.) per month, with presents to about the same amount and, if he becomes a favourite, the certainty of making his fortune. His predecessor, at the end of seven years, is now going home with thirteen or fourteen lacs of rupees. The chief objection to the place is, that the King takes particular delight in making all his courtiers drunk, remaining tolerably sober himself to enjoy the fun. Perry (is not that his name?) had been with Gattie, the great hairdresser here, for three months, at one hundred and fifty rupees per month, when Mars heard from some Frenchman that the King of Oude’s agent was looking for a coiffeur, and he went off with his protégé and presented him. The agent approved of his appearance and only wished to be sure of his skill, particularly in the shaving department, upon which Mars suggested a trial, and he and Perry went this morning and shaved the agent, who was quite satisfied, and the letter is gone to Lucknow to-day for the King’s ratification of the treaty. Perry’s journey to Lucknow is to be paid, and if either party is dissatisfied he is to be sent back here, free of expense, but the probability is that he will stay there and make a great fortune. Such an odd piece of luck! George said ten days ago, that the King of Oude wanted a coiffeur, and I said for a joke what an opportunity for Robert’s friend if we did but know where he was, not knowing that Mars was taking care of him all the time. I dare say the valet of the Governor-General is just the very man the King of Oude would approve of to choose his hairdresser.