Page:Letters from India Vol 2.pdf/148

 expense, very smart at last. The ball was very pretty—everything covered with F’s and E’s and the staircases turned into bowers with real singing birds, who never ceased singing. They were a sort of nightingale who surpass any bird I ever heard. There were very few masks; nobody could keep them on; some handsome fancy dresses. Some of the ladies and gentlemen acted the ‘Bear and the Bashaw’ on a small temporary theatre, and acted very well. That helped on the evening wonderfully to non-dancers, and we stayed till one very contentedly.

Monday, 29th. I have given up morning church during the hot season; even five minutes of the sun is enough to knock people up for a week, and then at Calcutta they always read the whole. service with three hymns, instead of the short service with no singing, which everywhere else in India is the custom. It keeps half the ladies away from church, as very few can sit through it. We went to the Fort Church at night, and had an excellent sermon from the Archdeacon.