India 2001 books

"Bogami, quarter of an hour."
At the end of twenty minutes more we asked again, our spirits were
falling.
"Bogami, quarter of an hour."
"* * *!"
We then asked a peasant and his wife. The woman considered for a moment.
"About an hour," she said.
Her husband turned and swore at her.
"Bogami, don't believe her, gentlemen," he cried, "it's only a quarter
of an hour."
We left them quarrelling.
It grew dark, and we grew miserable. Jabliak seemed like a dream, and we
like poor wandering Jews, cursed ever to roam on detestable saddles in
this queer pallid country.
At last a peasant said it was five minutes off, and then it really was a
quarter of an hour distant.
We came down from the hills to find the whole aristocracy--one
captain--not to say all their populace, out on the green to do us
honour. They had been informed by telegraph of our august decision to
sleep in their wooden village. When we got off our horses our knees were
so cramped that we could scarcely stand, and we hobbled after the
captain into a bitterly cold room without furniture.


Pages:
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95