Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/164

 Lady was the only consolatory fact among our visitors; she has been twenty-two years in India, looks remarkably fresh and well, rides every day full canter, and declares she has been as happy as the day is long, all the time, and the days are immensely long I assure you. Sir has never had a day’s health in the meantime.

We came up to Barrackpore late, by land.

Friday, May 6. I really wonder if dancing makes people cooler, or whether the people here indulge in a natural taste for exercise, knowing they cannot be hotter. If I could ascertain its cooling properties, I should set off forthwith in some wild odd figures of a highly saltatory description; but the fact is, we are not yet old enough to dance here. George I suppose in another year or two may begin.

You have no idea the odd applications that are made to be asked to the dinners and parties at Government House, not from any compliment to us, but alleging that it is a sort of public property, and that they choose to come. And the thermometer is at 90° all night, and we