y mother; but, as it now cannot be
helped, we have all been trying to persuade her for the last
year to make it up. She has withstood it till now, but at
last has consented to ask them for a month, and they arrived
three days ago.

The rush on the road was remarkable. But nothing could be
more satisfactory than the result, for Mrs. J looked
lovely, and Mrs. C has set up for her a very grand jonpaun,
with bearers in fine orange and brown liveries; and J is a
sort of smart-looking man with bright waistcoats and bright
teeth, with a showy horse, and he rode along in an attitude
of respectful attention to _ma belle mere_. Altogether, it
was an imposing sight, and I cannot see any way out of it
but magnanimous admiration.

During this visit to Simla the couple were duly bidden to dine at
Auckland House, on Elysium Hill, where they met His Excellency.

"We had a dinner yesterday," wrote their hostess. "Mrs. J is
undoubtedly very pretty, and such a merry unaffected girl. She is only
seventeen now, and does not look so old; and when one thinks that she
is married to a junior lieutenant in the Indian Army, fifteen years
older than herself, and that they have 160 rupees a month, and are to
pass their whole lives in India, I do not wonder at Mrs. C's
resentment at her having run away from school."

Writing to Lady Teresa Lister in England, Miss Eden gives an
entertaining account of Simla at this date:

Everybody has been pleased and amused, except the two
clergymen who are here, and who have begun a course of
sermons against what they call a destructive torrent of
worldly gaiety. They had much better preach against the
destructive torrent of rain which has now set in for the
next three months, and not only washes away all gaiety, but
all the paths, in the literal sense, which lead to it.... I
do not count Simla as any grievance--nice climate, beautiful
place, constant fresh air, plenty of fleas, not much
society, everything that is desirable.

In another letter, this indefatigable correspondent remarks:

Here, society is not much trouble, nor much anything else.
We give sundry dinners and occasional balls, and have hit
upon one popular device. Our band plays twice a week on one
of the hills here, and we send ices and refreshments to the
listeners, and it makes a nice little reunion w