As for the poor girl herself, she asked me, in much humility, and with many sobs, if I did not fear that her Hindoo mystery was this:—­she was the vilest of the vile, a Pariah, an outcast, whose very presence is contamination!

Beautiful, loving, heavenly-hearted creature! so humble in the midst of her majestic loveliness! how touching was the thought, that she thus readily acquiesced in any the deepest humiliation holy Providence had seen fit to send her; and though the sentence would have crushed her happiness for ever, till the day of death, that she could still look up and say, “Be it to thine handmaid even as thou wilt.”

As I had no better method of explaining the matter, and as her infantine reminiscences and prejudices about caste were strong, I even let her think so, if she would:  it was a far better alternative than my own sad thoughts about the business:  and, however painful was the process, it was something consolatory to observe, that this voluntary humiliation mellowed and chastened her own character, subduing tropical fires, and tempering the virgin gold by meekness.

Oh!  Charles, Charles, my poor fellow, “who have cast your all upon a die, and must abide the issue of the throw,” I most fervently hope that gossiping Captain Forbes spoke falsely:  it is a comfort to reflect that the world is often very liberal in attributing the honours of paternity to some who really do not deserve them.  And if a rich old bachelor looks kindly on a foundling, is it not pure malice on that sole account of charity to hail him father?  Besides—­there’s Nurse Mackie.—­Speed to Madras, poor youth, and keep your courage up.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GENERAL’S RETURN.

IN a most unwonted flow of animal spirits, and an entire affability which restored him at once to the rank of a communicative creature, General Tracy came back on Friday night.  He had met with marvellous prosperity; for Hancock’s had been paying off the prize-money; and his own lion’s share, as general, in the easy process of dethroning half a dozen diamond-hilted rajahs and nabobs, amounted to something like four lacs of rupees, nearly half a crore!  Such a flush of wealth, and he was rich already without it, exhilarated the bilious old gentleman so strangely, that positive peonies were blooming in his cheeks; and, as if this was not miracle enough, he had brought his wife as a present Maurice’s ‘Antiquities of India,’ gloriously bound, and had even been so superfluous as to purchase a new pair of double-barrelled pistols for Julian:  the lad was a fine young fellow after all, and ought to be encouraged in snuffing out a candle; as for Emily’s petit cadeau, it was a fifty guinea set of cameos, the choicest in their way that Howell and James’s had to show him.  Moreover, he had sent a Bow-street officer to Oxford, to make inquiries after Charles:  actually, good fortune had made him at once humanized and happy.