"Why Ivor should want to build a railway at all in this stupid, silly
place," she said, as we sat in the veranda in the cool of evening,
"I'm sure _I_ can't imagine. We MUST go somewhere. This is maddening,
maddening! Miss Wade--Dr. Cumberledge--I count upon you to discover
SOMETHING for me to do. If I vegetate like this, seeing nothing all day
long but those eternal hills"--she clenched her little fist--"I shall go
MAD with ennui."
Hilda had a happy thought. "I have a fancy to see some of these Buddhist
monasteries," she said, smiling as one smiles at a tiresome child whom
one likes in spite of everything. "You remember, I was reading that book
of Mr. Simpson's on the steamer--coming out--a curious book about the
Buddhist Praying Wheels; and it made me want to see one of their temples
immensely. What do you say to camping out? A few weeks in the hills? It
would be an adventure, at any rate."
"Camping out?" Lady Meadowcroft exclaimed, half roused from her languor
by the idea of a change. "Oh, do you think that would be fun? Should
we sleep on the ground? But, wouldn't it be dreadfully, horribly
uncomfortable?"
"Not half so uncomfortable as you'll find yourself here at Toloo in a
few days, Emmie," her husband put in, grimly.
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