You will readily understand that we soon came to see little of our new
acquaintances. A small private income and the trivial wage commanded
by society verses in this country (so different in many respects from
Abyssinia) confined us to a much narrower orbit. But we were invited
pretty often to their dinners, and the notes I have given you were
taken on these occasions. Last night there were potentates at Mrs.
Seely-Hardwicke's--several imported, and one of British growth.
To-day--but you shall hear it in the fewest words.
Three days back, Billy failed to turn up in the Row. We met his mother
riding alone and asked the reason. She told us the child had a cough
and something of a sore throat and she thought it wiser to keep him at
home.
On the next day, and yesterday, he was still absent. In the evening we
went to the Seely-Hardwicke's dance. The thing was wonderfully done.
An exuberant vegetation that suggested a virgin forest was qualified
by the presence of several hundred people. It was impossible to dance
or to feel lonely; and our hostess looked radiant as the moon in
the reflected rays of her success.
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