A Holiday in the Happy Valley with Pen and Pencil by T. R. Swinburne
page 48 of 311 (15%)
page 48 of 311 (15%)
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premises, we obtained dry garments--of sorts--from the baggage.
Madame's dinner costume consisted of a blue flannel garment--nocturnal by design--delicately covered by a quilted dressing-gown, and the rest of us were _en suite_, a great lack of detail as to collars and foot-wear being apparent! Nevertheless, the fire blazed royally, and we ate up all the old hen and called for more, and prepared to make a night of it until, about ten o'clock, our bearer Sabz Ali appeared, with a train of coolies carrying our bedding and the other contents of the derelict carriage. This morning the two young gunners departed on foot, leaving their tonga, as the road to Domel is reported to be quite impassable. They intend to walk by a short cut over the hills, and get on as best they may, the race for Astor being a keen one. We decided to remain here, the weather being still gloomy and unsettled, and the road being impossible for a lady. At noon the landau was brought in, minus a step and very dirty, but otherwise "unwounded from the dreadful close." Ghari Habibullah is not at all a cheerful spot, as it appears, the centre of a grey haze, with dense mist low down on the surrounding mountains. Sabz Ali, too, complains of fever, which is not surprising after the wetting and exposure of yesterday; and when a native gets "fever" he curls up and is fit for nothing, and won't try. The dâk bungalow stands on a little plateau overlooking the road and a swift river, whose tawny waves were loaded with mud washed from the hills by recent storms. On a slope opposite, the queer, flat-roofed native |
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