fast and dinner, and kept up the authority of Anna. My aunt took little notice of us, but we were both flattered by the visiters, Anna by one set and I by another. I did not observe that Anna was the least changed by these flatterers, but I certainly from day to day became more full of myself-less occupied by religious feeling, -more indolent, haughty, and conceited, more dissatisfied under the gentle control of my lovely Anna,more unwilling either to look back on my past life in England, or on those things which were to follow at the end of time, the serious impressions which I had formerly received being only strong enough to give me some pain. Pleasure I had none, in any subject connected with my God, and I was so entirely taken up with my fine possessions, fine acquaintance, and magnificent modes of life, that the times when things had been otherwise with me seemed but as a dream or vision of the night. 66 If ever I was at all softened, it was when Anna reverted to our days at school, which she did in so artless and tender a way, that I could scarcely, on some occasions, refrain from tears. Once in particular, in the month of February, she said to me, "I wonder, Ermina, whether our dear governess's mezereon tree is already in blossom!-Does it blossom yet, Minny," she added, though the hand that used to take care of and shelter it is no more!-Ah! Minny, had we but still that fostering hand, we might hope to flourish: but, alas! alas!" and she sighed deeply, "we are indeed deprived of a mother's care; your uncle is truly kind, but he cannot protect us from the lesser dangers which attend us in this life. O Minny, I already fear for you, and the more so because you have no fear for yourself. You are no longer the same child you once were,-the same modest, reserved, and humble little girl,-the same gentle and affectionate Minny!" and so saying, she burst into tears, and rested her fair cheek against the side of the couch near which she sat, and though I could not weep, I felt a degree of anguish such as I had never before experienced, though my painful feeling passed away too soon to be truly beneficial to me. P2 CHAPTER X. The indisposition of Anna-Ermina's visit to the Aratoon familyTheir house and its neighbourhood-Her indifference to Mrs. Finchley, and Anna's gratitude-She remonstrates with Ermina on her intended visit. THE weather was now beginning to be excessively hot, at least it appeared so to us; I, however, retained a good state of health and spirits, but Anna was much affected by the heat. Her constitution, it now appeared, had been considerably injured by close confinement at Falmouth, and, perhaps, by anxiety of mind; but although I saw her becoming more pale and languid every day, I had no apprehensions for her, and attributed what I saw merely to the effect of change of climate; and as everybody about me was pale also, I had no uneasiness on my friend's account: indeed, my affection for Anna had lost much of its freshness. She who had been my only consolation in adversity was a restraint upon me in prosperity, and her blameless conduct a perpetual reproach. It was in the middle of the month of March, that my aunt one day proposed to us to accompany her to visit her Armenian friends; but Anna was really too unwell to be able to join our party, and my aunt, I believe, was not sorry to admit her excuses. It was a burning day, and the glare of the sun so great that we were obliged to lower all the blinds of the coach. We passed quite through that portion of Calcutta which was occupied by the English, and at length entered the native town, where pursuing our way through many narrow streets and clay huts, we at length arrived at a more open space, of an irregular figure, on one side of which was a pagoda of a large size, standing in a court, and having its walls painted with flaming figures of dancing demons. The house of the gentleman whom we were going to visit occupied another. This house was encircled on the three sides by a court enclosed with walls of great height, which wholly concealed the lower parts of the building. Over these walls appeared the long and lofty branches of the bamboo-tree, and under the wall was a black and fetid tank or puddle, which must have been a serious nuisance to every house in the neighbourhood. One side of the house of Mr. Aratoon was open to a lane or little street, of which it formed part, and there I perceived several irregular windows and balconies, where a person might sit and amuse himself with the humours of those who were in the street below, and even hear all that passed; altogether, nothing can be conceived more melancholy than the whole appearance of this great mansion, for it was evidently a very large pile of building. We drove into the court, through a wide gate-way, and then the whole extent of the chief front of the house appeared to us. It was an irregular building, of different heights in various parts, jetting forward in some places, and retiring in others; having here a balcony, there a turret, and there a gallery, destroying every appearance of order or plan in the building, and forming, upon the whole, a figure not unlike that which we may sometimes see on the surface of a china dish, or the bottom of a saucer. When our carriage stopped at the door, as no one came out to salute us, my aunt alighted, and being followed by me, entered an immense hall, where a variety of strange figures met my eye. The hall itself was as irregular as every other visible part of the house: at one end was a kind of dais or throne, that is, one part of the flooring was considerably raised from the rest, being covered with striped cotton carpeting; and on this place of honour sat a circar or shroff, weighing money which lay in heaps before him. Two or three Chinese were jabbering and winking, with their small eyes, in another corner; two half-caste youths, most daintily accoutred in white nankeen, were writing at a table at another end; and native men of every description were busy, or pretending to be busy, on every other side, coming and passing away through various door-ways, and evidencing by their free and careless manners that they were not quite under the same awe as they appeared to be in the houses of the English, where I had, hitherto, only seen persons of this kind. My aunt spoke to several persons before she could learn whether her relation was at home: we were, however, at length conducted up a wide staircase into a room above, which was the very counterpart of the hall, with this difference, that the one was devoted to the master, and the other to the lady of the family; the one being scattered with money, desks, account-books, and papers; and the other with women's works and garnitures; the one being the resort of shroffs, clerks, and circars, and the other of tailors, dhayes, ayahs, and children; but the same apparent confusion prevailed in both apartments, and women of various descriptions, some in petticoats of silk, and others in pagammahs of the same, were seen passing and repassing to and fro, as below. It happened that none of the family were at home but the old lady and some of the grandchildren, which last went in and out with their dhayes and ayahs, being dressed in thin muslin trousers and coats, without shoes or stockings, and having nothing whatever to recommend them but their eyes, which were fine; but their sickly complexions, and their total want of manners, destroyed every pretension to the charms of infancy. The old lady looked ill, though she was become excessively corpulent. Hot as the day was, she was wrapped in shawls and silks. She sat on a low sofa, and had a hookah near it, but she did not appear to have any occupation. She immediately entered into conversation with my aunt, but I paid little attention to what passed, till I heard my own name mentioned, and an invitation given to me to come and spend some time with her daughters; to which invitation my aunt gave no decisive answer, saying that the application must be made to her husband, whose niece I was. Before we left the house we were served with chocolate and rich cake, on a massive golden waiter, after which we returned home. After this adventure, I remained at home for some weeks, and things went on as usual, excepting that Anna became decidedly more weak, and my uncle procured medical advice for her.. I often recollect this time, when my sweet young friend lay like a broken lily, gradually losing her strength and freshness. I often recollect, with the deepest anguish, my careless conduct towards her at that time, and the efforts she made,—those efforts which were evidently beyond her strength,-to instruct, to guide, and to preserve me, the object of her tenderest affeetion. Gradually, however, as her strength became weaker, her attempts to teach me began to relax. We were accustomed to translate French together, and I have still her book in which she broke off in the midst of a dialogue in Madame Bonne; but when she could no longer sit at the table and write with me, she used to lie on the couch and make me read to her, sometimes the Bible and sometimes books of another kind. In my little volume of Mrs. Teach'em I can still trace the mark of her pencil where I left off last. She had a sweet voice in singing hymns, and she had also taught me to sing them. I well remember the last time I sang to her; it was by her own express desire; and it was that sweet hymn of Addison's "O God, our help in ages past, Our shelter from the stormy blast, There was no need that all my occupations with my lovely Anna should have ceased when they did: I was not so soon to be parted from my lovely companion; a little time yet remained, a precious little interval, which, had I used it well, might have saved me many an after pang. But my aunt had invited Miss Almeria Aratoon to spend some days with us, and she arrived precisely at this time, on which occasion I devoted myself wholly to her, and struck up one of those violent intimacies of which young ladies in their teens are generally so fond. As to make any comparisons between Almeria and Anna, the thing was out of the question; but Anna's blessed conduct was always a reproach to me and made me miserable, whereas in the example of Almeria I found a kind of foil which set off my own superior good behaviour in a very agreeable point of view, as I chose to think, not considering that what might be passed over in one so very ill educated as she, was wholly inexcusable in myself. However, I made no such reflections, but assimilated myself to all I saw and heard in this young person, however degrading. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe this girl to any one who has never been |