it they think themselves
little gods."

I think he was right, for when we pull up at the station, where we are
at last to get rid of our tormentors, I happen to remark to you that I
thought some restaurant we had been to in Bombay was rather expensive.

"Did you indeed!" says the lady, taking the remark as if addressed to
herself. "'Grace and I dined there and paid double that, and we did not
think anything of it."

She then immediately turns, and seeing Ramaswamy standing outside
mistakes him for a station-attendant, and orders him to tie up their
bedding. He looks to me for orders. I nod to him to do it, and, hat in
hand, make a sweeping bow--

"Only too glad if my boy can be of any service to you, Madam."

I think I also got my own back!

[Illustration: A BRASS WORKER, DELHI.]

CHAPTER XVIII

THE CAPITAL OF INDIA

Delhi!

If you draw a line across the map of India from the north to the south
at the greatest length, and another from east to west at the greatest
breadth, the two will form a cross of the usual shape, with the
cross-bar high up. Just at the point where they intersect stands Delhi,
the chief city in India since the King-Emperor's proclamation in 1911.
Before that Calcutta was the capital, but Calcutta, like Bombay, is a
city of trade, and has practically no historic memories. Delhi is full
of the romance of history. In the Mutiny the question as to who should
hold it was of the greatest importance, and if the British then had let
it slip from their grip, without an effort to retake it, their power in
India would have been gone for ever.

Now, on the first morning that we are here, let us drive round and see
what we can of this splendid city. First we will go down the Chandni
Chauk, the main street which cuts Delhi into two parts. It is immensely
wide and lined with trees of a good size. These stand on each side of a
broad walk for foot-passengers, which runs down the middle of the
street, foreign fashion, and makes a popular promenade. The gay colours
of the natives' clothes flash in and out of the shadows of the trees as
the people pass along, each on his own errand. On one side are the
tram-lines and on the other you can see a fast bullock-cart with pretty
little white trotting bullocks as dainty in their own way as antelopes,
and as different from the slow yellow ones as carriage-horses are from
cart-horses. There are on both sides shops for jewels, for sweetmeats,
for the riche