But the levee must come to an end. The officers of the Volunteer corps who have been engaged on duty are presented to the Viceroy, and, finally, the native officers of the native regiments which have been on duty are brought up and go through the very graceful ceremony of proffering the hilts of their swords to His Excellency. The hundreds who have attended the levee then disperse to their homes, no refreshment being provided after the levee, although, as has been mentioned, the ladies, after the drawing-room, are more kindly treated. Every man, therefore, seeks the earliest opportunity of quenching his thirst at his own house or club, and the pipe of peace probably consoles him for all the loss of temper and damage of apparel which he sustained in struggling into the presence of the Viceroy. It is only fair to admit that it is reported in the Indian papers that at Lord Ripon’s levees a successful attempt has been made to prevent all the crushing and struggling among the men for priority, which had been so disgracefully prevalent at previous levees. It has been mentioned above that most of the men who go to the levee, do so in the hope of getting an invitation to dinner at Government House, or, at least, to one of the balls, or “at homes,” or garden-parties, which are given by the Viceroy in the course of the season. With regard to the dinner invitations, there are always one or more experienced A.D.C.’s on the Staff who are careful to weed the dinner-list judiciously; but with huge weekly or bi-weekly dinners of sixty or eighty persons, the Viceroy generally manages to gratify the vanity, and satisfy the appetite of most of his ambitious visitors and their wives in the course of the season. Doubtless much heart-burning exists on the part of those who are not invited to these feasts, especially when they know that any friends of their own immediate circle are invited, and find themselves omitted. The A.D.C.-in-waiting sometimes has to receive an irascible visitor who wants to know the reason why he and his spouse have not been invited to dinner; and letters of remonstrance on this subject are believed to be by no means uncommon. But “a mild answer turneth away wrath,” and there is no instance on record of the A.D.C. having ever suffered from the much-threatened horsewhip.