Dear Shizen Ozawa,

I have not seen any replies to your questions on The City of Dreadful Night
chapters in From Sea to Sea Vol ll, nor to your query about the background of
pupils attending the USC, so I hope the answers below may help.

Kipling's ambiguity about Mrs D's origins stems from the reply he puts into
the mouth of the policeman who answers 'Yes' to the reporter's question
'Isn't that a European woman at that door', only to follow it with a
statement that she was a Eurasian.    In his subsequent commentary on her
behaviour, Kipling's criticism of Mrs D's behaviour is as a white woman but
it is difficult to tell whether this was because of her blood or because she
was a widow of 'a soldier of the Queen'.  I suspect that even if she was
truly Eurasian, her appearance was so European that Kipling could not avoid
expressing his sense of outrage.

As to a 'powder ball', fancy dress balls with an historic theme were
extremely popular in English high society in the 1880s.  The eighteenth
century was a favourite period and lavish costumes were made or hired for
each occasion with both men and women wearing powdered wigs, hence a 'powder
ball'.  You may well find photographs of titled ladies and gentlemen
attending such a ball in magazines such as the Illustrated London News.  What
Kipling means by saying that he met Lucia's ghost at a powder ball is, that
he met a girl of Lucia's age at a fancy dress ball wearing eighteenth century
clothes such as Lucia might have worn.

Lastly, your question as to how many of the pupils at the United Services
College in Kipling's day were Anglo-Indian?   I take it that you use
Anglo-Indian in the sense that it was used at the time, that is English
(actually British) living in India.

The census of 3 April 1881 lists 129 'scholars' for the USC, including Joseph
R. Kipling, aged 15, and gives their place of birth.   65 were born in Great
Britain and Ireland, 52 in India, 11 in other countries and one at sea.  
Almost all the surnames are clearly British apart from one or two of French
or German origin.   While many of those born in India would have had fathers
in the Indian Army, maybe more would have been born to fathers in the  
British Army stationed in India.   These last would have objected to being
called Anglo-Indians, so the term should be used with caution.

The Census reference in the Family Record Centre, London, is RG11, Piece
2260, Folio 44, Page 11.  The school is not identified by name but by the
building it occupied, known then as Kingsley College Priory.  It is
fascinating to look through, as the masters' names are also there, as well as
some college servants mentioned in Stalky & Co., such as William Oak and
Helena (Lena) Gumbley.  

The Census is also available on CD Rom from the Church of the Latter Day
Saints, but the USC entries have been particularly badly transcribed and a
high proportion of names are mis-spelt, incuding Kipling's, which appears as
'KITSLING'.  The original writing is poor, but not as bad as that.

Yours Sincerely,
Roger Ayers
Membership Secretary,
The Kipling Society, 295 Castle Road, Salisbury, SP3 3SB, England