Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/110

 Our new coach has come into play and looks very handsome. (Some of the servants are sneezing so while I write. I hate that pretension of catching cold in this climate.) A quiet day—we gave up our evening airing in consideration of the day; but I think that is a good habit we must give up, as it is difficult to live here without that hour of air, and there is no other means of getting out. George tried to walk with us to the stables; but we were all tired before we reached the entrance-gate, at least two hundred hot yards off, and when we got there the sentry would not let us out. Whereupon all our tails began screaming at him for the indignity of not knowing the Burra Sahib, and of not letting him through his own gate; to which the sentry replied that he knew him very well, and that he expected the Burra Sahib would make him a corporal for being so strict upon guard. However we got out, and then found such a crowd of natives with petitions to present, that we were very glad to get in again, and would have given the sentry a lieutenant-colonelcy, if he had asked it, to let us in. We had no strangers at dinner. Visited George in his room, and he rehearsed the speech to Sir C.