g 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 fr