August 4th. On Monday morning it was pouring harder than ever, quite an inch to the hour.  I walked across to the Telegraph Office and answered the Major’s wire, and got wet through.  After breakfast I chartered a dandy and waded through the deluge to the station hospital, where the M.O. passed me as sound, without a spark of interest in any of my minor ailments.  I then proceeded to the local chemist and had my medicine-case filled up, and secured an extra supply of perchloride.  There is no Poisons Act here and you can buy perchloride as freely as pepper.  My next visit was to the dentist.  He found two more decayed teeth and stopped them with incredible rapidity.  The climate is so mild that though I was pretty wet through I never felt like catching a cold from being operated on.  He was an American with a lady assistant to hold one’s mouth open!  I never feel sure that these dentists don’t just drill a hole and then stop it:  but no doubt teeth decay extremely quickly out here.

Then I went back to the Telegraph Office and cabled to Papa and got back in time for lunch after the moistest morning I ever remember being out in.

This hotel is about the worst in the world, I should say, though there are two in Naini reputed to be worse still.  It takes in no newspaper, has no writing-paper, only one apology for a sitting-room, and can’t supply one with fuel even for a fire.  However, Moni Lal is resourceful and we have survived three days of it.  Luckily there is an excellent custom here by which visitors belonging to another club, e.g., the Agra Club can join the Naini Club temporarily for 1s. per day.  So we spent the afternoon and evening at the Club and I spiflicated both Purefoy (giving him forty and two turns to my one) and Guy at Billiards.

On Tuesday (yesterday) we got up at 7.0 and went for a sail on the lake.  Guy is an expert at this difficult art and we circumnavigated the place twice before breakfast with complete success and I learned enough semi-nautical terms to justify the purchase of a yachting cap should occasion arise.

After breakfast we were even more strenuous and climbed up to Government House to play golf.  It came on to rain violently just as we arrived, so we waited in the guard-room till it cleared, and then played a particularly long but very agreeable 3-ball, in which I lost to Guy on the last green but beat Purefoy three and one.  We got back to lunch at about 3.15.

As if this wasn’t enough I sallied out again at 4.0 to play tennis at the Willmotts, quite successfully, with a borrowed racquet, my own having burst on introduction to the climate of this place.  Mrs. W. told me that there was a Chaplain, one Kirwan, here just back from the Persian Gulf, so I resolved to pursue him.

I finished up the day by dining P. and G. at the Club, and after dinner Purefoy, by a succession of the most hirsute flukes, succeeded in beating me by ten to his great delight.