"Yes, with my cousin Fanny Tallboys, but surely they were not school-fellows—it is impossible, why, Fanny is forty-two!"
"Oh, Lena is getting on; Lena is no chicken!" declared her grandfather, "though I dare say she looks years younger than her age. She writes begging letters, and implores me to assist her, as she is likely to make a brilliant marriage. Heaven help the unfortunate beggar!—for a beggar he will be."
"She does not mention his name, I suppose?"
"No, but I presume he is rich; his money will run through her hands like water. Mrs. Beamish is dead set against my pretty grand-daughter—she cannot bear her, and wanted to burn the photograph. I believe she is afraid Lena may turn up here, and get round me. Ha! ha! ha! If Lena only knew what I do, about a certain treasure!"
"You mean a hidden one?"
"Yes, India is full of such hoards, especially before the days of banks. The inherited habit of accumulating and hiding gold and jewels, is in the blood. A native whose life I saved, a cultivator and poor, told me the secret of a great cache, he said he could not meddle with it himself—an old man with no sons, he would be robbed, and murdered. Buried within twenty miles of where you and I are sitting, is a mass of gold and jewels, silver horse trappings, and arms. Well! well! the world is rich enough. Money is the root of all evil!"
"But some of the world is poor enough—desperately poor," protested Mallender. "Think of what all this wealth, lying useless and unclaimed, would do."
"Some would do good; more would stick to greedy palms. I do give a help at home, and out here—dispensaries, and wells, and things. No, no, I'll not touch the great spoil, I've enough to leave my family in comfort. If Lena got her claws into this treasure, she'd squander even it, in ten years. I may tell you that this horde was hidden away in the troubled times of the eighteenth century. I suppose you know that Tippoo's pearls were never discovered?"
"No! Well, I wish I could find them!"
"Oh, you are no good at finding!" scoffed the old man. "You can't even find your own Uncle."