to dinner; and altogether I have done what here as well as elsewhere, they call ‘the influenza.’ That is meant as a compliment to the cold weather, which, after a few days, has trotted itself up again to a hothouse temperature, and everybody ‘hopes we won’t think this a fair specimen of their cold weather,’ ‘quite an unusual season,’ &c. Nonsense! just as if we did not know better; we heard of India before we came out.
By not being well on Thursday I missed two interesting events—one a great durbar held by his lordship, in which he returned the presents made by that Vakeel I told you of some time ago; and the other was a deputation of eight gentlemen to ask Fanny and me to a great ball the whole society of Calcutta are to give us, and we were to fix the day. There seems to be some dispute as to the style of entertainment, because one ball is necessarily so exactly like another in a small society, and all out-of-door amusements, breakfasts, &c., are out of the question; and we objected to another fancy ball, because of the expense to which all the very young gentlemen put themselves on those occasions: so I believe it is to be a full-dress ball,
