Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/118

 'So is this!' he remarked, as he stepped down from the chair.

The brimming pot below told its own tale of how the waterman, to save himself the trouble of lifting his pot to the top, had poured the water straight into the lowest chatty !

Remenibering his experience, the Duke never passed a chatty-filter without close inspection. He did not wait for the officer in charge of the hospital to play the part of showman, but used to push his hand into the sand and charcoal pots without ceremony. People soon learned his ways and took care, when he was expected, to warn the waterman before he arrived to have the jars properly filled.

One day he stopped short as usual before a filter. The upper waterpot was full of water which was percolating in orthodox fashion through the perforated bottom into the chatty containing the charcoal. The ducal hand sought the sand to make sure that it was there. Instead of sand it grasped a mass of sodden muslin, which was drawn out before the astonished gaze of the assembled party. The hospital peon, it appeared, knowing the way of the waterman, had been in the habit of keeping his best turban in the dry waterpot, and unaware of the order given, had not removed it.

One day, shortly before our arrival, the Duke was being driven down the Mount Road in an open wagonette which was unusually high in the build. The carriage was drawn by four horses and was accompanied by the bodyguard. Coming up the centre of the Mount Road was a perambulator wheeled by an ayah. It contained the child of Mr. Leeming, one of the chaplains attached to the Cathedral. At the sight of the cavalcade bearing swiftly down upon her the ayah fled shrieking in terror to. the side of the road, leaving her charge to its fate. The horses and the