India, June 12 -- Lady Falkland, or Viscountess Falkland, as Amelia Fitz Clarence Cary was known, wrote of an amusing incident in her memoirs "Chow-Chow; Being Selections from a journal kept in India, Egypt, and Syria". Her husband, Viscount Falkland, was the governor of Bombay between 1848 and 1853. During her stay in Poona in the rainy season of 1849 or 1850, she organised a dinner ball, one of many, at her residence in Dapoorie.

That day, the rain had been unusually heavy, the roads were flooded, and the river had risen so high as to invade, not only gardens, but even the interior of bungalows. She began to think that no one would come.

At last, a young cadet entered, who confirmed her fears that no one would arrive for the ball.

It...