else a mere dream. That I, that is to say, Srijut So-and-so, the eldest
son of So-and-so of blessed memory, should be drawing a monthly salary
of Rs. 450 by the discharge of my duties as collector of cotton duties,
and driving in my dog-cart to my office every day in a short coat and
soia hat, appeared to me to be such an astonishingly ludicrous illusion
that I burst into a horse-laugh, as I stood in the gloom of that vast
silent hall.

At that moment my servant entered with a lighted kerosene lamp in his
hand. I do not know whether he thought me mad, but it came back to me
at once that I was in very deed Srijut So-and-so, son of So-and-so of
blessed memory, and that, while our poets, great and small, alone could
say whether inside of or outside the earth there was a region where
unseen fountains perpetually played and fairy guitars, struck by
invisible fingers, sent forth an eternal harmony, this at any rate was
certain, that I collected duties at the cotton market at Banch, and
earned thereby Rs. 450 per mensem as my salary. I laughed in great glee
at my curious illusion, as I sat over the newspaper at my camp-table,
lighted by the kerosene lamp.

After I had finished my paper and eaten my moghlai dinner, I put out the
lamp, and lay down on my bed in a small side-room. Through the open
window a radiant star, high above the Avalli hills skirted by the
darkness of their woods, was gazing intently from millions and millions
of miles away in the sky at Mr. Collector lying on a humble camp-
bedstead. I wondered and felt amused at the idea, and do not knew when
I fell asleep or how long I slept; but I suddenly awoke with a start,
though I heard no sound and saw no intruder--only the steady bright star
on the hilltop had set, and the dim light of the new moon was stealthily
entering the room through the open window, as if ashamed of its