Page:Letters from India Vol 1.djvu/345

 in her dirty veil, and hideous as all the native women I have met with, but her feet and hands were the most curious things. Very few English children of seven years old would have such small feet, and so narrow and beautifully shaped. There is no such thing as a large foot in this country, but such small ones as these I never beheld. I had a great mind to ask her for them, and she looked such an old dry thing that I think she might have unscrewed them and taken them off. They would have been invaluable to Chantry. ‘If the Lady Sahib will just write down that Sahib is to exqueese this poor fellah, he say he will do just the same thing for ever again,’ the jemadar interpreted. It ended, as it always does, in their having their own way. At first Captain said he could not exqueese him, and then the old mother touched his heart as she did mine, and so he told them (to excuse his weakness) that, to oblige me, he would let him off with the loss of a month’s wages. One reason why they are attached to Government House is, that it is one of the few houses in Calcutta where they are not beaten. It is quite horrible and disgusting to see how VOL. I.