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neither beginning, middle, nor end to his discourses, properly speaking."

"When one has preached a congregation asleep, the only way to awake them is by stopping," I replied.

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"Yes," said he, "that accounts for it in the hot weather, but leaves the mystery unsolved as far as the cold season is concerned."

In the verandah without the church, where the carriages were awaited and called for with much noise, reminding one forcibly of the large staircase at the Italian Opera in London, some of the ladies praised the simplicity and beauty of Mr. Lollipops' sermon, whilst the gentlemen speculated on the arrival of the next mail, and conjectured the condition of European politics, which it would disclose. At length we found ourselves boxed up as before in Ducklet's luxurious carriage, every one in excellent spirits-Ducklet himself evidently refreshed by

his

nap, and anticipating joyously the delicacies of the luncheon, which in Calcutta has grown into a normal meal of the most formidable dimensions and length. Towards evening we rode out upon the Strand by the river's bank

-a drive and promenade where the European population of Calcutta endeavour to get a little fresh air in the short interval which elapses between the intense heat of the day and the approach of darkness.

CHAPTER XI.

THE EVENING DRIVE.

THE display of carriages and saddle-horses which nightly traverse the Strand and the Course in Calcutta in fine weather, would surprise even the cockney fresh from the glories of Hyde Park and Rotten Row. The expense of keeping a vehicle in Calcutta being comparatively insignificant, every family, in even middling circumstances, has its carriage, with either one or two horses, the proportion of really elegant vehicles being greater than elsewhere. In too many cases, I believe, the anxiety to make a proper display upon the Strand is carried to a ridiculous extent. Parsimony is equally practised at home, for instance, by Mr. and Mrs. Smudge, who came

out lately from England, and by Mr. and Mrs. De Souza, whose swarthy little ones proclaim their country, to enable them to drive their elegant barouches with a coachman and two livery servants behind.

To this foolish display the small cost of keeping servants tends to lead many who would otherwise avoid it. For each horse a syce or groom is employed, at the rate of eight or ten shillings a month, wages on which he feeds himself and his family, smokes constantly, and is all day lounging about his master's stables, if not actually employed in working. A few more shillings provides for him a neat white or red cotton dress, with a sash and turban displaying the colours of his master's livery; and it is really astonishing to see how much show can thus be made at a very trifling outlay. Hence it is, that behind Mr. and Mrs. Smudge's, and Mr. and Mrs. De Souza's barouches, we see two idle loons with blackish brown faces, arrayed in clean apparel, and displaying the red and yellow of their liveries to the best advantage; hence the uniformity apparent between the coachman on the box and the servants behind, which gives

a stranger the idea of a really well appointed and elegant establishment.

But the horses ?-ah, we must not be too critical upon the horses in these cases. The barouche glitters, it is true, in all the glory of newly-applied varnish, laid on, indeed, by Messrs. Smudge and De Souza themselves, or by their servants under their special supervision and direction; but, on the horses, we really must not be too critical. The chestnut one on the off-side, which conveys Mr. Smudge or Mr. De Souza to office every morning, is rather thin, it is true, and does not look particularly likely to run away either now or at any future time; his companion, a black-amoor, with a shaggy coat, is a vicious specimen of horse-flesh, that obstinately refuses to go in single harness, and can only be coaxed along by having the chestnut Rozinante to play with and attempt to bite as he proceeds, the said unfortunate Rozinante pulling him and the barouche, and the five Smudges or six De Souzas with three servants along-no wonder he is not fat.

Did you but see the knowing cuts that ferocious-looking coachman, with his wiry mous

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