Hatton was a tea-town. People did not choose to live in Hatton, they were posted there, and left it as quickly as they decently could. Except, that is, for the coolies, who lived and perished among the tea-bushes and nourished them with their remains when they were dead. Even the one proper road that ran through Hatton entered it with a rush and… left it precipitately. On either side of the road were bunched the lodgings of the artisans… and on its tributary stood the houses of the professionals. Behind and beyond them rose row upon row of interminable tea-bushes reaching upto the skyline… And somewhere in between, in a break in the bushes… huddled the dark, dank line-rooms of the coolies.¹

哈顿是一个茶城。人们没有选择住在哈顿，他们被派往那里，并尽快离开它。也就是说，苦力除外，他们在茶树丛中生死存亡，并在他们死后用他们的遗体滋养他们。就连穿过哈顿的一条正路也匆匆进入，然后……匆匆离开。路的两边都是工匠的住所……在它的支流上则是专业人士的房子。在他们身后和后面，一排排无休止的茶树丛一直延伸到天际线……中间的某个地方，在灌木丛中的某个地方……挤在阴暗潮湿的苦力房间里。¹