. Vernon's aunt : being the oriental experiences of Miss Lavinia Moffat . eye on allpoints of the compass. So far as I couldobserve, Rajabad was a small station-houseand a name, with two water-carriers and fivecoolies, every individual one of whom wassitting upon my luggage with a \iew toestablishing the fact that he had brought itout of the carriage. Around the station-house stretched an expanse of sun-lit deso-lation with two or three roads strugglingthrough it in various directions, and here andthere a patch of jungle or a peepul , as I did, that I was in India, myfeeling was th
. Vernon's aunt : being the oriental experiences of Miss Lavinia Moffat . eye on allpoints of the compass. So far as I couldobserve, Rajabad was a small station-houseand a name, with two water-carriers and fivecoolies, every individual one of whom wassitting upon my luggage with a \iew toestablishing the fact that he had brought itout of the carriage. Around the station-house stretched an expanse of sun-lit deso-lation with two or three roads strugglingthrough it in various directions, and here andthere a patch of jungle or a peepul , as I did, that I was in India, myfeeling was that I would not venture off theplatform alone for anything the world couldgive me—and it would obviously be necessaryto get to a town of some sort before night,for Rajabad offered no accommodation to amaiden lady from England but a dusty benchand a telegraph office. The telegraph office F 2 68 VERNONS AUNT suggested somebody who could speak English,and I opened the door and went in. Theroom was dark and silent, and upon twochairs a young native clerk slept SITTING UPON MY LUGGAGE. The train having come and gone, his workfor the day was probably accomplished. Iwould have had no hesitation in wakinghim, but he was a particularly plump young VERNONS AUNT 69 native clerk, and he had preposterously littleon. Besides, there seemed to be no availablemeans of arousing him except by pinchinghim ; and I beg you to picture the insuper-able difficulty of pinching an unconsciousyoung Indian gentleman in such undeniableddskabilld felt by a maiden lady from Englandtravelling alone, and unable to depend uponhis knowing her language. I determined towait with what patience I had left until heshould wake up of his own accord, andwalked out on the platform again, feelingexcessively annoyed at my nephew. In thefirst place, he had allowed himself to be per-sonated by a would-be bigamist, and in thesecond he had abandoned his only livingfemale relative to the wild beasts of Indiawithout
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