The Tiger of Mysore | Page 3

see how it is to be done."
"I don't see either, Ben, and I don't expect to see until we get out there;
but, desperate or not, Mother and I are going to try."
Dick Holland, the speaker, was a lad of some fifteen years of age. His
father, who was captain of a fine East Indiaman, had sailed from
London when he was nine, and had never returned. No news had been
received of the ship after she touched at the Cape, and it was supposed
that she had gone down with all hands; until, nearly three years later,
her boatswain, Ben Birket, had entered the East India Company's office,
and reported that he himself, and the captain, had been cast ashore on
the territories of the Rajah of Coorg; the sole survivors, as far as he
knew, of the Hooghley.
After an interview with the Directors, he had gone straight to the house
at Shadwell inhabited by Mrs. Holland. She had left there, but had
removed to a smaller one a short distance away, where she lived upon
the interest of the sum that her husband had invested from his savings,
and from a small pension granted to her by the Company.
Mrs. Holland was a half caste, the daughter of an English woman who
had married a young rajah. Her mother's life had been a happy one; but
when her daughter had reached the age of sixteen, she died, obtaining
on her deathbed the rajah's consent that the girl should be sent to
England to be educated, while her son, who was three years younger,
should remain with his father.
Over him she had exercised but little influence. He had been brought up
like the sons of other native princes, and, save for his somewhat light
complexion, the English blood in his veins would never have been
suspected.
Margaret, on the other hand, had been under her mother's care, and as
the latter had always hoped that the girl would, at any rate for a time,
go to her family in England, she had always conversed with her in that
language, and had, until her decreasing strength rendered it no longer
possible, given her an English education.

In complexion and appearance, she took far more after her English
mother than the boy had done; and, save for her soft, dark eyes, and
glossy, jet-black hair, might have passed as of pure English blood.
When she sailed, it was with the intention of returning to India, in the
course of a few years; but this arrangement was overthrown by the fact
that on the voyage, John Holland, the handsome young first mate of the
Indiaman, completely won her heart, and they were married a fortnight
after the vessel came up the Thames.
The matter would not have been so hurried had not a letter she posted
on landing, to her mother's sister, who had promised her a home,
received an answer written in a strain which determined her to yield, at
once, to John Holland's pressing entreaties that they should be married
without delay. Her aunt had replied that she had consented to overlook
the conduct of her mother, in uniting herself to a native, and to receive
her for a year at the rectory; but that her behaviour, in so precipitately
engaging herself to a rough sailor, rendered it impossible to
countenance her. As she stated that she had come over with a sum
sufficient to pay her expenses, while in England, she advised her to ask
the captain--who, by the way, must have grossly neglected his duties by
allowing an intimacy between her and his mate--to place her in some
school, where she would be well looked after until her return to India.
The Indian blood in Margaret's veins boiled fiercely, and she wrote her
aunt a letter which caused that lady to congratulate herself on the good
fortune that had prevented her from having to receive, under her roof, a
girl of so objectionable and violent a character.
Although the language that John Holland used concerning this letter
was strong, indeed, he was well satisfied, as he had foreseen that it was
not probable Margaret's friends would have allowed her to marry him,
without communicating with her father; and that the rajah might have
projects of his own for her disposal. He laid the case before the captain,
who placed her in charge of his wife, until the marriage took place.
Except for the long absences of her husband, Margaret's life had been a
very happy one, and she was looking forward to the time when, after
another voyage, he would be able to give up his profession and settle

down upon his savings.
When months passed by, and no news came of the Hooghley having
reached