Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/141

 manages the household. He shook his head, and said there was no use in interfering about that; so he means to let me be ‘dagged.’ Yours, dearest, most affectionately. 1em

Monday, April 4. On board the ‘Soonamookie’ at half past six, and it was deliciously cool all the way to Calcutta. There is no doubt that these early hours are the real good hours of the day, if it did not make one feel so hang-dogish in the afternoon; but a stifling sleep then—even if to be bad—does no earthly good.

The whole morning, Government House was like a fair. We were buying shawls and muslins and fans, partly to send to England ourselves, and I was employed by Captain Grey and Mr. Pelham and others, to buy for them presents to take home. There is nothing tempting in Calcutta, except shawls of forty or fifty guineas each—out of everybody’s reach—and a few Chinese things, which are only to be had occasionally.

Captain Grey and Mr. Pelham dined with us, and we all went to the play. The house was