about ten o'clock
So I dressed and rested myself and had some tea , and sat wondering what the camp would be like without Isaacs , who , to me and to one other person , was emphatically , as Ghyrkins had said the night before , the life of the party . The weather was not so warm as on the previous day , and I was debating whether I should not try and induce the younger men to go and stick a pig -- the shikarry said there were plenty in some place he knew of -- or whether I should settle myself in the dining-tent for a long day with my books , when the arrival of a mounted messenger with some letters from the distant post-office decided me in favour of the more peaceful disposition of my time . So I glanced at the papers , and assured myself that the English were going deeper and deeper into the mire of difficulties and reckless expenditure that characterised their campaign in Afghanistan in the autumn of 1879 ; and when I had assured myself , furthermore , by the perusal of a request for the remittance of twenty pounds , that my nephew , the only relation , male or female , that I have in the world , had not come to the untimely death he so richly deserved , I fell to considering what book I should read . And from one thing to another , I found myself established about ten o'clock at the table in the dining-tent , with Miss Westonhaugh at one side , worsted work , writing materials and all , just as she had been at the same table a week or so before . At her request I had continued my writing when she came in . I was finishing off a column of a bloodthirsty article for the _ Howler _ ; it probably would come near enough to the mark , for in India you may print a leader anywhere within a month of its being written , and if it was hot enough to begin with , it will still answer the purpose . Journalism is not so rapid in its requirements as in New York , but , on the other hand , it is more lucrative .