Rajbullub was evidently greatly pleased at the recognition.

"I think I should have known you, lady," he said; "but eighteen years
makes more changes in the young than in the old. Truly I am glad to
see you again. There was great joy among us, who knew you as a child,
when the Rajah told us that you were here. He has sent me on to say
that he will arrive, tomorrow. I am to see to his apartments, and to
have all in readiness. He intends to stay here, some days, before
returning to Tripataly."

"Will he come to this hotel?"

"No, lady, he will take the house he always has, when he is here. It
is kept for the use of our princes, when they come down to Madras. He
bade me say that he hopes you will remain here, for that none of the
rooms could be got ready, at such a short notice.

"He has not written, for he hates writing, which is a thing that he
has small occasion for. I was to tell you that his heart rejoiced, at
the thought of seeing you again, and that his love for you is as warm
as it was when you were a boy and girl together."

"This is my son, Rajbullub. He has often heard me speak of you."

"Yes, indeed," Dick said, warmly. "I heard how you saved her from
being bitten by a cobra, when she was a little girl."

"Ah! The young lord speaks our tongue," Rajbullub said, with great
pleasure. "We wondered whether you would have taught it to him. If it
had not been that you always wrote to my lord in our language, we
should have thought that you, yourself, would surely have forgotten
it, after dwelling so long among the white sahibs."

"No, we always speak it when together, Rajbullub. I thought that he
might, some day, come out here, and that he would find it very useful;
and I, too, have been looking forward to returning, for a time, to the
home where I was born."

There were many questions to ask about her brother, his wife and two
sons. They were younger than Dick, for Mrs. Holland was three years
senior to the Rajah.

At last, she said, "I will not detain you longer, Rajbullub. I know
that you will have a great deal to do, to get ready for my brother's
coming. At what time will he arrive?"

"He hopes to be here by ten in the morning, before the heat of the day
sets in."

"I shall, of course, be there to meet him."

"So he hoped, lady. He said that he would have come straight here,
first, but he thought it would be more pleasant for you to meet him in
privacy."

"Assuredly it would," she agreed.

"I w