due to start for another fifteen minutes, but I thought it just as well to go to bed, so that if Mrs. and Miss Cardew did force their way into the carriage I should be all right and could pretend to be asleep. I will say this for an Indian first-class railway carriage that it is a most comfortable affair if you've got it to yourself. But if there are four people in it for the night, and you have to climb up into an upper berth where the ventilation isn't good, you don't feel just overflowing with the milk of human kindness for those who have got the berths below.
'Ermyntrude,' I said, as I made myself comfortable for the night, 'I hope you are all right in the second-class.'
Ermyntrude was disposing of my garments in her usual precise and careful manner. She paused with a stocking in her hand.
'There are three women, miss, and three children in my compartment,' she said impressively, 'and one of them is the fattest woman I have ever seen.'
'Poor thing, how hot she must feel it,' I laughed, as I discarded everything in the way of outer covering except a sheet. 'But you have got your lower berth all right?'
'Yes, miss, but little use it will be,' Ermyntrude sniffed anxiously. I knew that something must be wrong.
'Oh, why not?' I asked cheerfully. 'If you've got the lower berth you can go to bed quite comfortably.'
