g among the taller
tree-tops in the nullah at our feet.

We were about 1500 feet above the Wular Lake, and snow lay in thick
patches within a few yards of our tents, and had obviously only melted
quite recently from the site of the camp, leaving more clammy mud about
the place than we really required.

As it is reasonable to suppose that the bilingual lady who composes the
fashion columns of the _Daily Horror_ is most anxious to know how the fair
sex was accoutred at our dinner party that night, I hasten to inform her
that Charlotte was gowned in an elegant confection of Puttoo of a simply
indescribable nuance of _creme de boue_--the train, extremely decolletee
at the lower end, cunningly revealing at every turn glimpses of an
enchanting pair of frou-frou putties.

The neat bottines, _a la_ Diane Chasseresse, took a charming touch of
lightness from the aluminium nails which decorated the "uppers" with a
quaint and original Dravidian cornice.

She carried a spring bouquet of wild onions _en branche_--ornaments (of
course), diamonds.

Every one remarked that Jane was simply too lovely for words, as, with the
sweet simplicity of an _ingenue, en combinaison_ with the craft of a
Machiavella (I beg to point out that I know my Italian genders), she
draped her lissom form in the clinging folds of an enormous habit _de peau
de brebis_--portions of ear and the tip of her nose tilted over the edge
of the deep turned-up collar, which, on one side, supported the coquettish
droop of the hairy "Tammy" that, dexterously pinned to the spikes of a
diamond fender, gave a _clou_ to the entire "_sac d'artifice_."

Walter, having already shot two bara singh and a serow, came under the
"statute of limitations" of the Kashmir Game Laws, and had to sound the
"cease firing" as regards these animals; but Charlotte and I, having
"khubbar" of game, started at 7 A.M. in pursuit. She, attended by Walter
and in tow of Asna (the best shikari in all Kashmir), followed up the
nullah which lay to our right, while I deflected to the north. Having
donned grass shoes, I started off up a very steep slope which rose
directly behind the camp. Reaching snow within a few minutes of leaving my
tent, I was glad to find it hard and the going good, the early sun not yet
having had time to soften and destroy the crisp surface.

Up and up we toiled, I puffing like any grampus--partly by reason of not
yet being in good condition, and partly on account of the heig