the highway of each king
should be more excellent in beneficence and in beauty than the highway
of his neighbour kings.

But from High Himalaya to the beaches of Madras, from sea to sea, the
triple Highway-of-all-India was nowhere more august than here, where
Neela Deo lived. The exalted splendours of those so ancient and
imperial trees rendered distinction to the town, in passing through it,
like a procession of the radiant gods.

Beyond the hill and well outside the town--which would be called a city
if it were walled, which would be walled if a wall would not separate
it from the great Highway--was the station Oval, where railway people
lived in European bungalows of many colours, round about the
_gymkhana_--a building made to contain music and strange games; but
from the arches of all its verandahs the railway people saw.

On the other side from the Oval and toward Hurda, was the little old
bungalow where Margaret Annesley--of the tender heart--out of her
lonely garden, looked that day and saw.

Across the great Highway from the temple of Manu, the bungalow of
Dickson Sahib sheltered under the mighty sweep of full bearing mango
trees. His small son stood between two teachers in the deep verandah
and beat his hands together while he saw.

At the top of the hill, the bare bungalow of the old missionary Sahib
made protest against the perfume-drunken orient and the colour-mad
European world of India with its carbolic-acid whitewash and chaste
lines. Down the driveway his children ran away from their teachers and
saw.

But in sight of the town--as should be--and beside the courts--as
should be--stood the austere home of the Chief Commissioner, most high
civil judge of Hurda and all surrounding villages. One of his deputies
leaned from an upper balcony and saw.

Back of his park, more than three quarters of a mile away, were the
stockades of the Chief Commissioner's elephants. A round parade ground
spread its almost level disk straight away front of the stockade
buildings. Perfectly rimmed by a variety of low jungle growths,
nesting thick at the feet of a circle of tall tamarisk trees, its
effect was satisfying to the eye beyond anything seen about the homes
of men. Nay, the avenues which led up to the palaces of ancient kings
were not so good!

Now all is established concerning the time and the place and those who
saw; and it will not be questioned by any save the very ignorant--who
are not considered i