Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/116

 detestable than I expected, and the evening, which ought to be better than the day, is rather worse. It is not cool, and it is thick with mosquitoes.

Thursday, March 17. George went to see the Botanical Garden, which is on the other side of the river. It fell to ’s turn among the aides-de-camp to attend him, which amused me, as he happens not to know a flower from a leaf; but he does these sort of things very well.

Fanny and I took an airing quite late. It shows how this climate subdues one to all its ridiculous habits, for I should have been ashamed to be carried upstairs in England, and never hesitated about it here. There are always two men with a sort of sedan at the bottom of my stairs in case they are wanted, and my attentive jemadar (how you all live without a jemadar I cannot guess, I think I always must have had one) had them ready at the carriage-door, in consideration of my weak state of health. For the first time since we came, there were only four at dinner—George and Fanny, and Captains Byrne and Macgregor. I went down for an hour in the evening.