How it begins
A terrific noise makes me jump from my chair, a confused uproar of grating wheels, horse-hoofs, the barking of dogs and the cracking of whips. A true Diligence like those in the engravings of the 18th century, painted in canary yellow and emerald green, picked out with black and red. This funny vehicle is bringing my boxes, containing all I possess in the world, my favourite books and the presents of my Parisian school-mates whom I left in tears at the idea of my departure for the antipodes—“a country of kangaroos and savages, where I would surely be eaten alive,” they sobbed. “What a contrast to the ‘Brasier’ motor in which you drove me here yesterday, uncle,” I exclaim.
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