CHAPTER V 



KASHMIR 



The East is as warm as the light of first hopes, 



And Bay, with his banner of radiance unfurled, 



Shines in through the mountainous portal that opes, 



Sublime, from that Valley of Bliss to the world. 



MOORE. 



Surging sumptuous skies, 

 For ever a new surprise, 

 Clouds eternally new, 

 Is every flake that flies, 

 Widening wandering skies, 

 For a sign Farewell, Adieu? 



ROSSETTI. 



A FEW weeks later, leaving Dalhousie, S. and my- 

 \. self went on to Murree, a spot in which I trust 

 my lines may not fall again ; it is a typical hill station 

 calls, dances, dinner-parties, day after day, and there 

 is no getting away from one's fellow-man. 



In our mind's eye we had long had Kashmir as a 

 goal, having been steadily working things towards that 

 end ; and the very thought of leaving Murree in the 

 rains, where we spent most of the day indoors in a thick 

 fog watching the streaming downfall, was almost too 

 good to be true. However, it came at last ; we had 

 made all arrangements with Mr. Dhanjiboy's carrying 



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