Page:An American Girl in India.djvu/225

 ostrich with its head in the sand, and imagine that her past didn't rise up at once and stare me in the face, was too absurd. It was not to be expected of human nature not to give her away. So I told Berengaria all about her, and, of course, Berengaria told everybody else. I'm afraid she had rather a bad time in that camp. I always wondered how long she would think it worth while to remain dull and respectable. We were still miles away from Delhi, so we had breakfast on board the train. But as ours was not a corridor carriage we had to get out at a wayside station in order to get in at the dining car. Then we had to sit in the dining car for about an hour after we had finished breakfast, waiting for another station to get down at and back to our own compartment. It was not a good arrangement, but quite Indian. I guess we in the States think England a delightfully antiquated place, but India is a good bit more so, though, to do it justice, I imagine it has made a pretty good step forward during the last fifty years. I often thought how delightful it would be if one could get a glimpse of India as it was a hundred years ago. Everything is getting horribly modern out there now, and the new clothes on the old garments look patchy. Just imagine travelling thousands and thousands of miles across India before the days of railways came. It must have been charmingly picturesque and interesting, but just a bit slow. Though I guess if you had never gone any faster you wouldn't notice it, and probably think yourself quite rapid