Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-08-08
A NIGHT IN THE PALANQUN.
BY f. A. H. o.

The day was far advanced in one OF
the interior provinces of our vast Indian
empire. The air, faint with the oppres-
sive heat of noon, was beginning to re-
vive under the gracious influence of q
newly risen breeze, for winds in India
are like fine ladies in Londonderry lie
AIDED. or half asleep all day, and getting
up very late, dance the night back to
sunrise
The scene was wild as ever Defoe saw
In his visions of the Desolate Island.
One only building in the wide horizon
round Appropriated in the slightest de
gree to what we, comfort-nursed English,
would dignity with the name of a house.
1t was small matched cottage of one
story, rudely made of plaster and mud.
Its two base rooms were hoored with
the same, and their window-frames filled
with rusty green blinds, something like
Venetians, only much broader and
thicker in the flexible flaps. Along one
side of the bungalow, to give it the
proper name for an Indian cottage, ran
a rude veranda, through whose clumsy
arches the eye commanded a wide
stretch of plain and jungle, and tank
or pool of water, close under the build
ing, where one tail sad palm stood mo-
tionless, land only when stronger breath
of wind brushed it in raillery, did it
deign, slow and aiestically, to bow its
oueen-like head, with a grave and digni-
fed reproof This veranda was piled
with tin boxes of peculiar form, secur
ed IN wooden frames, through which, by
means of a bamboo pole, they might be
slung on the shoulders of the native
carriers Before the door which led
into the room a palanquin rested, and
on its mattress sat lady with an infant
of some months old lying sleeping in
her lap.
Mrs Radcliffe was very young to be
thus alone, scarce nineteen, but the ne
cessity Of the case had supplied her
with unusual courage.
Two years previously, she had been
left an orphan in England, with few re-
lations, and still fewer available friends
4 mean such friends as had both abil-
ity and inclination to give her home
Her only sister, elder by many years,
had during Mrs. Ratcliffe's childhood,
married and accompanied an Indian
civilian to the scene of his professional
labors; on hearing that her mother
death left Clara alone in Britain, she
gently summoned her to the East
Mrs. Selmore was warm-hearted, but
an incorrigible matchmaker; Clara
more than realised the elder lady's ex-
pectation in her effect on all disposable
male hearts in their Allahabad society,
and she began to raise her ambitious
eyes for her portionless sister, even to
the height of a Sudder judge, man
with five thousand year and five
twelfths of liver But, as it has ever
been, the older ones plotted, and the
younger ones acted. Clara accepted the
humblest of her votaries, and he was
only a poor captain of infantry.
Mrs. Selmore was at first offended that
her sister presumed to prefer the debts,
the cares, the anxiety of married
soldiers wife, to the elegant repose of
the rich civilians mansion, his heavy
dinner-parties, and prospective seat in
council. But girls are above all things
wilful in their loves, and Claras pretty,
halflaughing self-defence, and eloquent
apology for disinterested affection, con
quered her opposition, and the young
people were In the usual space of a
month united under her auspices.
About year after their marriage our
ardent lovers found some reason to re-
member the ominous shake of the head
with which Mrs. Selmore had favored
their nuptials. The regiment to which
Capt. Radcliffe belonged was ordered to
distant station. There happened to
be an unusual proportion of officers on
the sick list, or absent on the staff; sc
the husband could obtain no leave tC
remain with his wife, and she was in a
state to preclude all idea of attempting
a journey.
With a heavy heart poor Radcliffe
tore himself from the nervous and de-
pressed girl, sorrowing the most griev-
ously that to him it was not permitted
to press fathers kiss of welcome on
the infant face SO soon to unclOse its
shrinking eyes upon the world.
Clara remained with her sister, and
even after her boys birth her health
continued SO delicate that the medical
men were strenuous in deprecating q
long journey at an unhealthy season.
Months, therefore, elapsed, and her
child had smiled out his first baby ST.
lence, and was beginning to shout his
delight at life, and to clasp her with his
soft round hands, when she at length
found herself en- route to Saugor, where
her husbands regiment was now sta
toned for the present.
This bungalow was the third of hel
stages in four more, by travelling by
night and resting by day, she expected
to reach the intermediate station where
Capt Radcliffe had appointed to meet
her, and to escort her to their new
home.
She sat revolving these pleasant an
Misunderstanding over and over
again what he would think of the child
whom he would consider it to resem