him elsewhere, and in gentleman's clothes, I do
not think that I should have suspected that he was not what he
appeared. His features, too, somehow or other, strike one as being
those of a gentleman; which is all the more singular when, as a
fact, he told me he had been brought up in a workhouse.

"In a workhouse!" Major Harrison repeated. "Then I suppose his
parents were farm laborers."

"No," the captain answered; "he was left at the door, on a stormy
night, by a tramp who was found drowned, next morning, in a ditch
near. He had, when found, a gold trinket of some kind round his
neck; and he tells me that, from that and other circumstances, it
was generally supposed by the workhouse authorities that he did not
belong to the tramp, but that he had been stolen by her; and that
he belonged, at least, to a respectable family."

"All this is very interesting," Captain Edwards said. "I should
like much to see the boy. Will you come and dine with us this
evening on board the Euphrates--Mr. Reynolds, here, is coming--and
have the boy sent on board--say, at nine o'clock--when we can have
him in, and have a chat with him?"

Captain Mayhew readily agreed. William was even then waiting
outside for him, having landed with him; and the captain, when he
entered the office, had told him to walk about for an hour and
amuse himself with the sights of Calcutta, and then return and wait
for him. He said nothing about his being close at hand, as he did
not wish the officers to see him in the rough outfit which had been
furnished him on board ship; intending to surprise them by his
appearance in decent clothes. Accordingly, on leaving Mr. Reynolds'
office he took him to one of the numerous shops, in the town, where
clothes of any kind can be procured.

"Now, Will," he said, "I want you to get a suit of shore-going
clothes. You can get your sea outfit tomorrow, at your leisure; but
I want you to show up well at the mess, this evening, and a suit of
good clothes will always be useful to you."

Captain Mayhew had intended to pay for the outfit, himself, but
this Will would not hear of; and Captain Mayhew was the less
reluctant to let the lad have his own way as he had, in the course
of the interview with the agent, agreed that the lad's services
deserved a handsome recognition from the firm; and that the sum of
one hundred guineas should be given to him, at once. The agent
felt, no doubt, that the firm would thoroughly approve of the