India! There it lay, ready for her eager feet.
Always had she dreamed about it, and romanced over it, and sought it on the wings of her spirit.

Yonder it lay, ancient as China, enchanting as storied Persia.
If only she were on pleasure bent! If only she knew some one in this great teeming city! She knew no one; she carried no letters of introduction, no letters of credit, nothing but the gold and notes the paymaster at the farm had hastily turned over to her.

Only by constant application to maps and guide books had she managed to arrange the short cut to the far kingdom.

She had been warned that it was a wild and turbulent place, out of the beaten path, beyond the reach of iron rails.

Three long sea voyages: across the Pacific (which wasn't), down the bitter Yellow Sea, up the blue Bay of Bengal, with many a sea change and many a strange picture.