ccount Annie had given of her capture,
and asked if the circumstances could be identified, and if the
officer, of the name of Mansfield, concerned in it was still alive;
and if so, was he still in India?

Annie was secretly dreading the arrival of the answer. After her life
as a slave, her present existence seemed to her so perfectly happy
that she shrank from the idea of any fresh change. She had no memory,
whatever, of her parents, and had already a very strong affection for
Mrs. Holland. She liked the ranee very much also, and the absence of
all state and ceremony, in the household of the Rajah, was to her
delightful. She was already on good terms with the boys; and as to
Dick, she was always ready to go out with him, if he would take her,
to run messages for him, or to do anything in her power; and, indeed,
watched him anxiously, as if she would discover and forestall his
slightest wish.

"One would think, Annie," he said one day, "that you were still a
slave, and that I was your master. I don't want you to wait on me,
child, as you waited on the ladies of the harem. However, as I shall
be going away in a few days now, it does not matter; but I should grow
as lazy as a young rajah, if this were to go on long."

"What shall I do when you go away, Dick?"

"Well, I hope that you will set to work, hard, to learn to read and
write, and other things my mother will teach you. You would not like,
when you find your own people, to be regarded by girls of your own age
as an ignorant little savage; and I want you to set to, and make up
for lost time; so that, if you are still here when I come back, I
shall find you have made wonderful progress."

"Oh, I do hope I sha'n't be gone before that, Dick!"

"I am afraid you must make up your mind to it, Annie, for there is no
saying how long I may be away next time. You see, there is not much
chance of my lighting upon another white slave girl, and having to
bring her down here; and I shall go in for a long, steady search for
my father."

"I don't want you to find another slave girl, Dick," she said
earnestly, "not even if it brought you down here again. I should not
like that at all."

"Why not, Annie?"

"Oh, you might like her ever so much better than me. I should like you
to do all sorts of brave things, Dick, and to save people as you have
saved me, but I would rather there was not another girl."

Dick laughed.

"Well, I don't suppose that there is much chance of it