ew the disgust with which he inspired me.

I sat some hours with the cool air playing about my burning cheeks
before I mustered up courage to rise and go down below again.

IX

THE ADVENTURES OF THE MAGNIFICENT MAHARAJAH

Our arrival at Bombay was a triumphal entry. We were received like
royalty. Indeed, to tell you the truth, Elsie and I were beginning to
get just a leetle bit spoiled. It struck us now that our casual
connection with the Ashurst family in its various branches had succeeded
in saddling us, like the Lady of Burleigh, 'with the burden of an honour
unto which we were not born.' We were everywhere treated as persons of
importance; and, oh dear, by dint of such treatment we began to feel at
last almost as if we had been raised in the purple. I felt that when we
got back to England we should turn up our noses at plain bread and
butter.

Yes, life has been kind to me. Have your researches into English
literature ever chanced to lead you into reading Horace Walpole, I
wonder? That polite trifler is fond of a word which he coined
himself--'Serendipity.' It derives from the name of a certain happy
Indian Prince Serendip, whom he unearthed (or invented) in some obscure
Oriental story; a prince for whom the fairies or the genii always
managed to make everything pleasant. It implies the faculty, which a few
of us possess, of finding whatever we want turn up accidentally at the
exact right moment. Well, I believe I must have been born with
serendipity in my mouth, in place of the proverbial silver spoon, for
wherever I go, all things seem to come out exactly right for me.

The _Jumna_, for example, had hardly heaved to in Bombay Harbour when we
noticed on the quay a very distinguished-looking Oriental potentate, in
a large, white turban with a particularly big diamond stuck
ostentatiously in its front. He stalked on board with a martial air, as
soon as we stopped, and made inquiries from our captain after someone he
expected. The captain received him with that odd mixture of respect for
rank and wealth, combined with true British contempt for the inferior
black man, which is universal among his class in their dealings with
native Indian nobility. The Oriental potentate, however, who was
accompanied by a gorgeous suite like that of the Wise Men in Italian
pictures, seemed satisfied with his information, and moved over with his
stately glide in our direction. Elsie and I were standing near the
gangway am