Page:An American Girl in India.djvu/255

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AN AMERICAN VICEREINE
245

ant-Governors, and a host of other officials, Lord Kitchener riding his famous charger Democrat in the midst of them. Then back with a jump to the East again—a crowd of wild Baluchi and North-west frontier chiefs, more Bengal lancers, and finally the motley crowd of retinue elephants which had been waiting on the Champs de Mars until all the rest of the procession had passed by. They were picturesque and quaint beyond description, loaded, one would think, with everything in the way of decoration that their owners possessed piled on pell-mell—a medley of magnificence.

It was over at last, and one went away bewildered, half-wondering if it were not all a dream, some mirage of the East that one had seen under a magician's wand. Even Berengaria still sat silent, seemingly plunged in thought.

'It was wonderful,' was all she said as we drove home. 'I just want to go away quietly and try to realise it.'

'It was wonderful to think how well the elephants behaved,' said the practical John. 'If they had taken it into their heads to stampede one's imagination reels at what might have happened.'

'Only to think,' said Berengaria, looking at me solemnly as we reached home, 'only to think that it was an American from Chicago who rode at the head of all that!'