14 A FRISKY MATRON
Gunnis Sing was not so well educated as Yussuff,
who wrote to him accordingly.
Having paid his bill and tipped the waiter in a
princely fashion, Yussuff returned to the Gare de
Lyon, where he found his three servants sitting on
their heels, with their backs against the wall, waiting,
calm, content and patient. The Kitmeghar Mhad-
hurah sprang to his feet, put on his turban, slid off
his slippers, and made a low salaam,
' Now,' said Yussuff, who spoke English to all who
knew it, ' get your baggage from the cloak-room.'
Mhadhurah soon obtained a bundle, some six feet
in circumference, which contained as much as could
be packed in two ordinary portmanteaus. It was
wrapped in a sheet of coloured Bombay linen of
great strength, and tied up with knots whose
number and intricacy would have puzzled anyone
but a native to the manner born,
A fiacre quickly conveyed master and man to the
Gare St. Lazare. The time wanted ten minutes to
the starting of the boat train.
' Well, Mhadhurah,' said his master, ' in seven
hours you will be in London, and see your wife.
How long is it since she left you ?'
' Two years, now gone fifteen days, my wife going
Colonel Jones Sahib, Bibee Sahib, doing ayah work
for Bibee Sahib,' said Mhadhurah. ' I plenty sorry
she going, I crying daily with loud voice. My
mother done get me 'nother wife. Never liking
that 'nother wife, sahib. She too much expense
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