Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/146

 suppose it has its merits. The society here is quite unlike anything I have ever seen before. The climate accounts for its dulness [sic], as people are too languid to speak; but the way in which whole families plod round and round the great hall, when they are not dining, is very remarkable. The whole of this evening it looked like a regiment marching round, and helping their wives along. In general, people at home like to meet strangers when they go out; but here, all near connections take it as an affront if they are not asked to dinner the same day. It is all very pleasant, and very superior to anything I have been used to; but it is rather odd.

Wednesday, April 13. George and I took a nice long drive, farther out of the town than we have been yet; but the heat has been awful the last three days, the thermometer at 95° in many of the houses at Calcutta. Government House, from its size and situation, has cooler corners in it: but it is an abominable climate. Another dinner of forty-four people.