Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/265

 Mrs. C. Elliot ordered for us at Macao, and I had imported a pair of earrings, but George has bought them of me—I suppose for his fancy dress!

Friday, November 25. Our grand fancy ball went off last night with the greatest éclat. Our little pages were the prettiest sight of the evening, particularly, who is a beautiful child, and being full of odd fancies, took a fancy that night to be a regular page and to carry my train and fan, like a page on the stage; and when I bade him good-night in the ball-room, he said, ‘I am going downstairs with you, it is my duty to see you to the carriage.’ Captain Cunningham was dressed as a Mameluke, Captain as a Sikh Prince,  as the Corsair—so utterly disguised by black curls and eyebrows that I should not have known him at all, and the Doctor in his naval uniform. There was a sort of platform arranged for us, to which the steward took us and all our silver-sticks and chowries and peacock’s-feather men, who are glad to shirk their duties on ordinary occasions, but turn out with great pleasure for what they consider a VOL. I.