it affected her
far more than did the open objection of the other planters to the Hindu.
Besides, she was gradually realising the existence of the "colour bar,"
illiberal as she considered it to be. But it will always exist, dormant
perhaps but none the less alive in the bosoms of the white peoples. It is
Nature herself who has planted it there, in order to preserve the
separation of the races that she has ordained. So Noreen, though she hated
herself for it, felt that she would rather go all the way alone than travel
with the Hindu.

The thirty miles' drive to the station of the narrow-gauge branch railway
which would convey them to the main line did not seem long. For several
planters who resided near her road had laid a _dak_ for her, that is, had
arranged relays of ponies at various points of the way to enable the
journey to be performed quickly. Noreen's heavy luggage had gone on ahead
by bullock cart two days before, so the pair travelled light.

After her long absence from civilisation the diminutive engine and
carriages of the narrow-gauge railway looked quite imposing, and it
seemed to the girl strange to be out of the jungle when the toy train
slid from the forest into open country, through the rice-fields and by
the trim palm-thatched villages nestling among giant clumps of bamboo.

In the evening the train reached the junction where Noreen and Chunerbutty
had to transfer to the Calcutta express, which brought them early next
morning to Siliguri, the terminus of the main line at the foot of the
hills, whence the little mountain-railway starts out on its seven thousand
feet climb up the Himalayas.

Out of the big carriages of the express the passengers tumbled reluctantly
and hurried half asleep to secure their seats in the quaint open
compartments of the tiny train. White-clad servants strapped up their
employers' bedding--for in India the railway traveller must bring his own
with him--and collected the luggage, while the masters and mistresses
crowded into the refreshment room for _chota hazri_, or early breakfast.
Noreen was unpleasantly aware of the curious and semi-hostile looks cast at
her and her companion by the other Europeans, particularly the ladies, for
the sight of an English girl travelling with a native is not regarded with
friendly eyes by English folk in India.

But she forgot this when the toy train started. As they climbed higher the
vegetation grew smaller and sparser, until it ceased