What does the phrase ‘ill at ease’ in the passage mean

Directions (NEXT ten questions) In these questions you have a passage with 10 questions. Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four.

The postmaster first took up his duties in the village of Ulapur. Though the village was a small one, there was an indigo factory nearby and the propritor, an Englishman, had managed to get a post office established.
Our postmaster belonged to Calcutta. He felt like a fish out of water in this remove village. His office and living-room were in a dark thatched shed, not far from a green, silmy pond, surrounded on all sides by a dense growth.
The men employed in the indigo factory had no leisure, moreover they were hardly desirable companions for decent folk. Nor is a Calcutta boy an adept in the art of associating with others. Among strangers he appears either proud or ill at ease. At any rate the postmaster had but little company, nor had he much to do.
At times he tried his hand at writing a verse or two. That the movement of the leaves and clouds of the sky were enough to fill life with joy - such were the sentiments to which he sought to give expression. But God knows that the poor fellow would have felt it as the gift of a new life, if some genie of the Arabian Nights had in one night swept away the trees, leaves and all, and replaced them with a macadamised road, hiding the clouds from view with rows of tall houses.

Directions:

Read the passage carefully and choose the best answer to each question out of the four alternatives.

Passage (Five Questions)

The question of race has caused bloodbaths throughout history. Take the case of the Negro, a negro is someone with black skin who comes from Africa. It is an old fashioned word and is offensive. Some people used to write that way deliberately. The word “nigger” is also very offensive. The word was later replaced by “coloured” which gave way to “black”. Black is a colour with negative suggestions. So we have expressions like “black deed”, “black day” and “blackmail”. So no wonder the word “black” too assumed unfavourable meanings. (Although in the 1960’s the famous slogan ‘Black is beautiful’ was coined, and it did not help.) The blacks of the United States therefore came to be called Afro-Americans. Now, the politically correct phrase is African American.