h as an untravelled eye could not even dimly realise. No troubles of
travel, no greasy cookery or breadless meals could matter one jot if
this was the reward. The view repaid the enterprise even if the path by
which it were approached led only to a wayside inn of the most
unpretentious type, but its joys were enhanced by the anticipation of a
visit to a couple well known for their hospitality to strangers. The
host being a fellow-countryman who had had the good fortune to marry a
Dutch lady of most distinguished family. Almost at the summit of the
hill, about eight miles from the station, stood a little halting house
bearing the English-looking signboard with the legend of the "Pig and
Whistle." Here refreshments awaited the travellers, and then the journey
was continued along a jungle path which shortly emerged on to the
cultivated slopes of the estate. These slopes were covered with cinchona
trees, which X. afterwards learnt were in process of being rapidly
replaced by tea-plants. Presently at a dip in the road the first glimpse
was caught of the house below. A little English cottage, it appeared,
nestling cosily in a hollow, close beside a mountain stream. A nearer
approach revealed that the cottage was covered with blue convolvulus and
other creepers, and that the verandahs were enclosed with glass. It all
reminded him somehow of a well-known cottage by Boulter's Lock, and
there came a curious thrill of home memories at the sight of a typical
English home. On the further side of the stream stood a little detached
pavilion, kept exclusively for guests, after the fashion of all Dutch
houses in the East. This annexe is generally considered the house of the
elder son, but it is more usually built and used for the accommodation
of guests; an excellent arrangement in a country where both entertainers
and entertained wish occasionally to repose in attire, whose lightness
is best suited to the climate. A rustic bridge connected the two
buildings, and just above it was the bath room, into which a portion of
the stream had been diverted, so as to form a natural shower bath. The
stream and bridge and cottage, with their back-ground of hills and
fore-ground of roses, combined to make such a picture that X. longed to
be able to sketch it and take it away and keep it. The interior of this
cottage was as cosy and home-like as the outside promised it would be,
and, wonder of wonders! it had real wall paper on the walls. This almost
u