Hester told a servant to take the sherry and the water to the drawing room, and, much amused, ran to find her mother.

“There’s the most interesting gentleman downstairs, Mama, calling himself old Harry. He’s having some sherry and water in the drawing room. I never saw such an odd man!”

Her mother laughed—a pleased little laugh.

“Go and tell him I shall be down directly.”

“Is he really a cousin, mama?”

“To be sure—my second cousin. He was very fond of me once.”

“Oh, he has told me all about that already. He says you sent him about his business.”

“If that means that I wouldn’t marry him, it is true enough. But he doesn’t know what I went through for taking his part. I always stood up for him, though I could never bear him near me. He was such an odd, good-natured bear! Such a rough sort of creature, always saying the thing he ought not to and making everybody, ladies especially, uncomfortable. He never meant any harm, but never saw where fun should stop. I daresay he’s much improved by this time.”

“He told me to tell you he was. But I like him, mama, so don’t be too hard on him.”

“I won’t, dear. Did he tell you that since he left he has been married to a black, or at least a very brown, Hindu woman?”

“No. Has he brought her home with him, I wonder?”

“She has been dead now for some ten years. I believe he had a large fortune which by judicious management he has increased considerably. He is really a good-hearted fellow.”

The major’s wife was the daughter of an English merchant by a Hindoo wife, a very young girl when he first made her acquaintance. She had been kept almost in slavery by the relatives of her deceased father, who had left her all his property. Major Marvel had become interested in her when her relatives attempted to lay the death of her father at her door. The major had taken her part and helped win her complete acquittal. But, though nobody believed her in the smallest degree guilty, society looked askance upon her. True, she was rich, but was she not black? And had she not been accused of a crime? So the major said to himself, “Here I am a useless old fellow, living for nobody but myself. It would make one life at least happier if I took the poor thing home with me. She’s too old for adoption, but perhaps she would marry me.”