ld come and live with us,
at any rate until she became of age; and as that house of ours, though
a comfortable place, was hardly the sort of house for an heiress, she
herself proposed that we should take a larger house between us.

"And so, here we are. We shall stay here through the winter, and then
we are going down to her place at Plymouth for the summer. What we
shall do, afterwards, is not settled. That must depend upon a variety
of things."

"She has grown much prettier than I ever thought she would do," Dick
said. "Of course, I knew she would have grown into a woman, but
somehow I never realised it, until I saw her, and I believe I have
always thought of her as being still the girl I carried off from
Seringapatam."

In a few minutes Annie joined them, and the talk then turned upon
India, and many questions were asked as to their friends at Tripataly.

"I suppose by this time, Annie--at least, I hope I may still call you
Annie?"

"If you call me anything else, I shall not answer," she said
indignantly.

"Well, I was going to say, I suppose you have got a good deal beyond
words of two letters, now?"

"I regard the question as an impertinent one. I have even mastered
geography; the meaning of which word you may remember, you explained
to me; and I have a partial knowledge of history."

The next day Dick met an old friend, Ben Birket. Dick had kept his
promise, and had written to him as soon as he returned to Tripataly
with his father, and a few weeks after Captain Holland's return, his
old shipmate came to see him and his wife. Ben had for some time
thought of retiring, and he now left the sea, and settled down in a
little cottage near. Captain Holland insisted upon settling a small
pension upon him, and he was always a welcome guest at the house. His
delight at Dick's return was extreme.

"I never thought you would do it, Master Dick, never for a moment, and
when on coming home I got your letter, and found that the Captain and
your mother were in England, it just knocked me foolish for a bit."

Three weeks later, Dick told Annie that he loved her. He spoke without
any circumlocution, merely taking her hand one evening, when they
happened to be alone together, and telling her so in plain words.

"I know nothing of women, Annie," he said, "or their ways. I have been
bothering myself how to set about it, but though I don't know how to
put it, I do know that I love you dearly. All these years I have been