Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/224

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216
LETTERS FROM INDIA.

ticular state, in order to please the poor, fussy people, with carriages-and-four and guards. —— and Fanny in his phaeton, and Major —— in his cab, and Captain —— in his, and even the Doctor in his, and George and I in the Government coach, and quantities of servants; in short, nothing could look less affable—or be more easy—when we got there. Dwarkanauth talks excellent English, and had got Mr. Parker, one of the cleverest people here, to do the honours; and there were elephants on the lawn, and boats on the tank, and ices in the summer-house, and quantities of beautiful pictures and books, and rather a less burning evening than usual; so it answered very well, and we came home, with all the noise we could make, to dinner. But we hear he gives remarkably good dinners to everybody else.

George says he is sure that the staring, round look which everybody’s eyes have here, is not, as is always supposed, occasioned by the heat and by the shrinking of the eyelids, but by the knack they have of wondering at everything. The least deviation from every day’s routine puts them out.