mat
to sleep on, and a little rice to eat, will satisfy his wants; and he
will take the trouble of me a good deal off your hands. He was a Sepoy
in my regiment, and has always evinced the greatest devotion for me.
More than once in battle he has saved my life, and has, for the last
three years, been my servant, and has nursed me since I have been ill
as tenderly as a woman could have done. As I shall have time to tell you
everything when I arrive, I will say no more now."

The news had much affected John Thorndyke. His brother George was five
years his senior, and had gone out as a cadet in the company's service
when John was but thirteen, and this was his first home coming. Had it
not been for a portrait that had been taken of him in his uniform just
before he sailed, John would have had but little remembrance of him. In
that he was represented as a thin, spare youth, with an expression of
quiet determination in his face. From his father John had, of course,
heard much about him.

"Nothing would satisfy him but to go out to India, John. There was, of
course, no occasion for it, as he would have this place after me--a
fine estate and a good position: what could he want more? But he was a
curious fellow. Once he formed an opinion there was no persuading him to
change it. He was always getting ideas such as no one else would think
of; he did not care for anything that other people cared for; never
hunted nor shot. He used to puzzle me altogether with his ways, and,
'pon my word, I was not sorry when he said he would go to India, for
there was no saying how he might have turned out if he had stopped here.
He never could do anything like anybody else: nothing that he could have
done would have surprised me.

"If he had told me that he intended to be a play actor, or a Jockey, or
a private, or a book writer, I should not have been surprised. Upon my
word, it was rather a relief to me when he said, 'I have made up my mind
to go into the East India Service, father. I suppose you can get me
a cadetship?' At least that was an honorable profession; and I knew,
anyhow, that when he once said 'I have made up my mind, father,' no
arguments would move him, and that if I did not get him a cadetship he
was perfectly capable of running away, going up to London, and enlisting
in one of their white regiments."

John Thorndyke's own remembrances were that his brother had always
been good natured to him, that he had often told him long