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This is Mir Amman's plain expression. Ferdinand Smith's translation savours somewhat of the Hibernian, viz., "She still loves him who has murdered her." "The ghari is the 60th part of 24 hours, or 24 of our minutes.
Good-night to you and, I say, be kind enough to shut the door as you go in. I'll just wait until you do." The Rajput found no answer; conceivably, his chagrin was intense. With a curt nod he turned and reentered the house, Moto following. The door closed and Amber jumped briskly into the ghari. "Home, James," he told the ghariwallah, in great conceit with himself.
About two miles from Ghari Habibullah we came to the Kashmir custom-house, presided over by a polite gentleman, whose brilliant purple beard was a joy to look upon. Most of the elderly natives dye their beards with, I think, henna, producing a fine orange effect, but purple...! Bottom. What beard were I best to play it in? Quince. Why, what you will. Bottom.
The depolarized and bewildered Damocles found himself in a strange and truly foreign land, a queer, cold, dismal country inhabited by vast quantities of "second-class sahibs," as he termed the British lower middle-class and poor, a country of a strange greenness and orderedness, where there were white servants, strangely conjoined rows of houses in the villages, dangerous-looking fires inside the houses, a kind of tomb-stones on all house-tops, strange horse-drawn vehicles, butlerless and ghari -less sahibs, and an utter absence of "natives," sepoys, byle-gharies, camels, monkeys, kites, squirrels, bulbuls, minahs, mongooses, palm-trees, and temples.
At noon the landau was brought in, minus a step and very dirty, but otherwise "unwounded from the dreadful close." Ghari Habibullah is not at all a cheerful spot, as it appears, the centre of a grey haze, with dense mist low down on the surrounding mountains.
It may be observed that the ghari was a fixed quantity, not subject to variation, like the pahar, which last, in the north of India, was made to vary from seven to nine gharies, according to the season of the year, or as it referred to the day or night in the same season. Since the introduction of European watches and clocks, the term ghari is applied to the Christian hour of sixty minutes.
His offer to help the American don the garment was graciously declined. "I've a fancy to have my arms free for the present," Amber explained; "I can get it on by myself in the ghari." He took the cloak over his left arm. "I'm ready; lead on!" he said, and with a graceful wave of the pistol bowed Salig Singh out of the cellar.
Dripping, we walked by our wet horses up to the top of the pass, hoping for a swift and easy descent on the farther side to Ghari Habibullah, where we intended to sleep, as we had given up all idea of being able to get on to Domel. Presently the horses were pulled up sharply as a ton or two of rock and earth came crashing upon the road in front of us.
I fired two barrels in the direction and pursued for some distance, but finding that my shots had not taken effect, and fearful of losing my way for the night was pitch-dark I returned to the carriage. My bearer then told me that some robbers had climbed up the back of the ghari, taken the two petarahs between which he was lying, and made off into the country.
There was a Viceregal function of some sort towards in the Government House, and broughams and victorias, coaches, hansoms, and coupes, with lamps alight and liveried coachmen turn-outs groomed to the last degree of smartness crowded the thoroughfare to the peril and discomfort of the casual ghari. The scene was unbelievably brilliant. Amber felt like rubbing his eyes.
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