“We are come to see Mr. Rising,” I told him, using his own language which Mr. Scrafton had taught me. “Is this his house?”
“It is, my lord,” says the fellow, much surprised, and giving a low bow, which they call a salawm.
With that I dismissed our conductor, and Mr. Rising’s gardener—for such he was—brought us to the house. We now saw that though originally a fine mansion it was sadly decayed. The walls should have been white, but excessive heat had cracked and blistered them, and turned everything to a yellowish hue. The Indian brought us inside, and into a long, low-ceilinged room with a great window opening on to the river. This room had no furniture except two small tables; but all round the walls was a covered settee, very broad, such as the Moors are used to sit on with their legs tucked up beneath them. To a European it is uncomfortable at first, but by degrees I grew accustomed to it. In this room presently Marian’s father came to us.
The first sight of Mr. Rising gave me a shock, and must, I think, have given a worse one to my companion. He was, as I knew, a man of middle age, yet he looked very, very old, being bent down and much wrinkled, with his hair nearly white. Moreover, his eyes wandered as if he were uncertain which way to look, and while he spoke his fingers worked strangely up and down his bosom, as if groping over the strings of some musical instrument.
“Well, sir,” he said in a thin, halting voice, seeming to find each word an effort, “what is your pleasure with me?”
“I have come here, sir,” I said, “with one whom you will rejoice to see. This is Mistress Marian Rising, your daughter, who has come out from England in my company.”
For at Marian’s prayer I had strictly promised to say nothing about the manner of her voyage, which might have done her some discredit with the Calcutta folk.
As I pronounced the above words the girl herself sprang forward and cast her arms about her father’s neck.
“Father!” she said. “Don’t you know me—your little Marian, who has come home!” And she wept on his bosom.