be useless to him in his own
country.

"Do not say that my plan cannot be carried out, sahib. For twelve
years I have thought it over. I have taught him all that I could,
so far; and convinced myself that it would be the best. The boy
loves me, and is happy: he would be miserable among strangers, who
would laugh at his English, and would make him unhappy."

Jeemajee sat for some time in thought.

"I am not sure that your plan is not the best," he said, "and after
saving his life, and caring for him, at the risk of your own, for
all these years, you have assuredly a better right than any other
to say what shall be done now. I will think over what you have
asked of me. It is not very easy to find just such a home as you
want, but I should consider the sum you offer is sufficient to
induce many Englishmen living here to take him; but it is not
everyone from whom he would learn English, as you would wish him to
do, or who could teach him the manners of white officers.

"Come to me tomorrow evening, but you must not expect that I shall
be able to answer you then. I must think it over, and make
enquiries."

It was three days, indeed, before anything came of Soyera's visits
to the Parsee trader; then he said:

"I think that I have found out just the place of which you are in
search. I spoke to a friend yesterday, and he at once mentioned one
whom I wonder I had not thought of, at once. Some years ago a
cadet, who came out here with a young wife, died shortly after his
arrival. As he had only been four years in the service, the pension
of his wife was but a small one. She did not go back to England, as
widows generally do. I know not why, except that I once heard two
officers speaking of her. They said that they believed her family
had quarrelled with her, for her marriage, and that she was too
proud to go back again. She had two girls, who must be about the
age of this boy. Her pension was not sufficient for her to live
upon comfortably, and she opened a little school for the children
of officers here.

"There are not many, you know, for they are generally sent home to
England, when they are quite young. But she has always had four or
five, sometimes eight or ten. They come to her every morning, and
go home in the middle of the day, and she sees no more of them.

"After I had heard this, I went to her. I supply her with many
things, for she gets her books and other things from me. I said to
her:

"'I have a white