Two or three races on a smaller scale followed; but all was flat after the _unique_ scamper I have attempted to describe; pleasure and excitement had expended themselves, and were not to be renewed immediately. Under these circumstances, Grundy and I bent our steps towards the band, accompanied by the young artillery officer, who, having proved the winner, was in high spirits. Our dinner this evening passed off far more soberly than that of the preceding one. The doctor was evidently suffering from a reaction of the vital spirits, and on more than one occasion seemed disposed, like a certain old gentleman when he was sick, to be religious and sentimental. After a bottle or two of Hodgson, however, and a due proportion of claret, he rallied, and proposed a round game at loo, as a mode of passing the evening, which was joyfully assented to by the whole party. The tables were consequently cleared, wine-glasses, &c., were placed on teapoys and side-tables, and to work we all proceeded, keeping it up till two in the morning, when I retired _minus_ a very considerable pinch of General Capsicums “snuff,” with a firm determination to cut cards from that time for evermore: a resolution which I religiously kept—till the next time temptation came in my way. At the time to which my Memoirs refer—and I am not aware that any material change has since taken place—gambling was unfortunately too prevalent in India. I have known nearly the whole of a small station, ladies inclusive, keep it up for weeks, alternately at each other’s houses, rarely missing a day. The party would assemble after breakfast, and having distributed fish, and set pen and ink to write I O U’s, would commence business in good earnest. Tiffin would constitute a break, and after being rather impatiently despatched, operations would be resumed, and continued till time for the evening’s drive. After this, and dinner over, another round of this absorbing amusement would close the day. What a world of bad feeling in men, of keenness and unfeminine cupidity in women, have I seen elicited on those occasions, and what studies for the curious in physiognomy; what expressions of various kinds have I observed in the faces of the party, when the hour drew near for inditing I O U’s and settling the accounts of Dr. and Cr.; what earnest pleadings for another round on the part of the losers, and conscientiously-expressed determinations to retire to rest on the part of the winners! Cards and dice are pests, the offspring of idleness, and the parents of vice and crime. They are the concomitants of semi-barbarism, and their gradual disappearance is one of the indices of advancing civilization and mental improvement. I began to think this one night after losing Rs. 1,100 at hazard and double-or-quits, and the impression has continued to gain strength ever since.