An Account of a Journey in Kashmir by David Lockhart Robertson Lorimer and Letters from Emily Overend Lorimer to her Parents sent from Bahrain and Kerman [‎628v] (1278/1291)

3.
for week end. Yesterday the ^randlys. Mrs. B., who is not
at all strong had obviously a had headache and an extra had v -— ■
attack of superiority. 1 got her aspirin md tea for the foiroer
and mitigated it a little; 1 have not yet found the tabloid that is
effective for latter. 1 think she is a really good and nice
woman, hut ± find her curiously unlikable. '^his being so I
laboriously lavish on her all the courtesy and kindness at my commas
but 1 do not get any nearer liking her. Perhaps sie fiihlt die
Absicht und sle wlrd verstimmt. ’’Turn about is fair play", and I
am sometimes tempted to claim my turn at being superior; howewer
scoring off people though a most exhilarating pursuit at the moment
has unhappy results if indulged in as a habit. So I shovel on
the coals of fire. Sometimes i really think 1 deserve more
credit than anyone outside myself can ever give me for my sins of
omission (viz. the sins 1 have omitted to commit ) ! At one
moment she cannot imagine how any one could allow himself to waited
on toy a negro, black, horrible — my latest acquisition being
Bamazan; the next how any one can allow anything: to be fried in
mutton fat or eat the local butter. How Indeed ! I expect
these little things are rather lack of tact than intentional ill
manners, but as she is the only person who extensively orders up
tinned butter and patent "cocotime" for frying, she might Just as
well try some other subject of conversation. did long to tell
her some yarns about the probable manufacture kLjaesras of both —
but conquered the temptation.
br. Westlake and Misss Petley started off after all in rather
a hurry. Dr. Stuart is coming up this way on her return to
work at Ispahan and will spend the last 6 months of her furlough
staying here with Mrs. Doyiand ^ er sister). W. was to meet
her at B.A. and hand over tents and travelling equipment; suddenly
they learnt that Dr. S. had started from home a month or so earlier
than they expected, so off they had to fly. Meantime the poor
C.M.S. is r -7 ther understaffed until new people arrive from Is.
to replace them. We are to get from there another lady doctor
Dr. Constable who is newly out, and with her an elderly Miss
Stuart (daughter of the late Bishop S. and cousin of Dr. s. and
Mrs. B. ). This influx of new people will be quite amusing.
In Ispahan Miss S. has been living with Miss Salisbury who was
at College with me; she is doing school work and is said to be
doing remarkably well. With brilliant exceptions (such as ^r.
Dodson, Bp. stileman, and dear little Miss Bird) the C.M.S. notion
of what constitutes efficiency (at least in Persia) is not im
pressive and if Miss Salisbury has brought out any Oxford ideas
of hard work she ought to shine.
■^r. Dodson found time to drop in one evg. He is a really
fine man; he laments an absolute lack of leisure for books; but he
is so full of life and interest, of experiences and obsevations
that it never strikes you. Which only shows that what you ask
of congenial companionship is not rare book-learning nor Culture
with a capital, but only the "live brain” whatever it may be wont
to feed on. When we get together we talk hard, sometimes all
three at once, and are never within sight of the end of our
conversation when the clock strikes the hour for retiring.