o fateful a one to
me, as the correspondence there given shows, that my mother received
another visit, which was destined to play an equally influential
part in the directing and fashioning of my life. Equally influential
perhaps I ought not to say, inasmuch as one-and-twenty years (with the
prospect I hope of more) are more important than seventeen. But both
the visits I am speaking of, as having occurred within a few days of
each other, were big with fate, to me, in the same department of human
affairs.

The visit of Dickens was destined eventually to bring me my second
wife, as the reader has seen. The visit of Mr. and Mrs. Garrow to the
Via dei Malcontenti, much about the same time, brought me my first.

The Arno and the Tiber both take their rise in the flanks of
Falterona. It was on the banks of the first that my first married
life was passed; on those of the more southern river that the largest
portion of my second wedded happiness was enjoyed.

Why Mr. and Mrs. Garrow called on my mother I do not remember.
Somebody had given them letters of introduction to us, but I forget
who it was. Mr. Garrow was the son of an Indian officer by a high
caste Brahmin woman, to whom he was married. I believe that unions
between Englishmen and native women are common enough. But a marriage,
such as that of my wife's grandfather I am assured was, is rare,
and rarer still a marriage with a woman of high caste. Her name was
Sultana. I have never heard of any other name. Joseph Garrow, my
father-in-law, was sent to England at an early age, and never again
saw either of his parents, who both died young. His grandfather was an
old Scotch schoolmaster at Hadley, near Barnet, and his great-uncle
was the well known Judge Garrow. My father-in-law carried about with
him very unmistakable evidence of his eastern origin in his yellow
skin, and the tinge of the white of his eyes, which was almost that of
an Indian. He had been educated for the bar, but had never practised,
or attempted to do so, having while still a young man married a wife
with considerable means. He was a decidedly clever man, especially in
an artistic direction, having been a very good musician and performer
on the violin, and a draughtsman and caricaturist of considerable
talent. The lady he married had been a Miss Abrams, but was at the
time he married her the widow of (I believe) a naval officer named
Fisher. She had by her first husband one son and one daughter. Ther