p them forward in their public career, while
his condescending friendship adds a charm to their private life. To
collect_, continues my author, _all the strange events in which this
Prince has played the part of Providence were to fill the habitable
globe with books. But the stories which relate to the fortunes of_ THE
RAJAH'S DIAMOND _are of too entertaining a description, says he, to be
omitted. Following prudently in the footsteps of this Oriental, we shall
now begin the series to which he refers with the_ STORY OF THE BANDBOX.

THE RAJAH'S DIAMOND

STORY OF THE BANDBOX

Up to the age of sixteen, at a private school and afterwards at one of
those great institutions for which England is justly famous, Mr. Harry
Hartley had received the ordinary education of a gentleman. At that
period he manifested a remarkable distaste for study; and his only
surviving parent being both weak and ignorant, he was permitted
thenceforward to spend his time in the attainment of petty and purely
elegant accomplishments. Two years later, he was left an orphan and
almost a beggar. For all active and industrious pursuits, Harry was
unfitted alike by nature and training. He could sing romantic ditties,
and accompany himself with discretion on the piano; he was a graceful
although a timid cavalier; he had a pronounced taste for chess; and
nature had sent him into the world with one of the most engaging
exteriors that can well be fancied. Blond and pink, with dove's eyes and
a gentle smile, he had an air of agreeable tenderness and melancholy and
the most submissive and caressing manners. But when all is said, he was
not the man to lead armaments of war or direct the councils of a State.

A fortunate chance and some influence obtained for Harry, at the time of
his bereavement, the position of private secretary to Major-General Sir
Thomas Vandeleur, C.B. Sir Thomas was a man of sixty, loud-spoken,
boisterous, and domineering. For some reason, some service the nature of
which had been often whispered and repeatedly denied, the Rajah of
Kashgar had presented this officer with the sixth known diamond of the
world. The gift transformed General Vandeleur from a poor into a
wealthy man, from an obscure and unpopular soldier into one of the lions
of London society; the possessor of the Rajah's Diamond was welcome in
the most exclusive circles; and he had found a lady, young, beautiful,
and well-born, who was willing to call the diamond hers