In Old Madras

by B. M. Croker

"'I want to leave this little baby with Mrs. Haines for a day or two,' she said, 'as we have sickness in the house,' and with that she handed out the child, and its bottle, and a parcel of clothes. As soon as the ayah had it in her arms, the lady called out to the 'garriwan,' who drove away at a terrible pace. The night was pitch dark, but the ayah thought that they went towards Trinity Road.

"Well, from that day to this, no one ever called for the baby. We did all we could to trace her belongings, but it was just as if the whole thing had been a dream. Susan, my sister, did not like to send the poor child down to the Home in Madras, she was so sweetly pretty, and evidently came of gentle folk; though her clothes were not very grand, a fine diamond ring was tied up among them, and three hundred rupees in notes."

Mrs. Beamish paused for a moment; she noticed that her companion's attention was captured at last.

"I wrote to the General, and asked him what I was to do? Susan's health was poor, and James Haines did not take to a young infant; I must confess she cried a lot, and he had terribly broken nights; so Richard said, 'Bring her along, and pass her off as ours. Up here, no one will know, and another in the family makes no difference.' She was christened Tara, after a girl in a book that the General thought a lot of. He was for calling her Dora, after his first wife, but when he came to look into it, he said his wife Dora might not like to have him thinking of another Dora, and the poor baby a nobody—but we look on her, and love her, as our own—indeed, if the old man has a favourite, it's Tar!"

"So Tom and Jessie are not in the secret?"

"No one is in it out here but the General and myself, for Susan and James are dead; but some day I must tell Archie Murray."

"I never heard of anything so strange! I wonder if her people will ever trace and claim her?"

"Not likely; but if they did, we would not give her up—unless she wished it. I believe Tara comes of high folk, however low their morals were," added Mrs. Beamish. "Just you look at her hand and foot, and the turn of her neck; and she has a sort of mocking imperious way at times, is a great stickler for manners, and always a wish to be first. The girl wants a strong hand, and Archie Murray has that. Tara has a warm loving heart, a great courage, and is extraordinarily generous. She'd give you her last morsel, but she expects a high place and a lot of ceremony."

"Well, now," folding up her work, "I've left you something new to think of, haven't I? and I must go and see if my old man has taken his soup."

Mrs. Beamish had indeed given her patient something to reflect on; and so the beautiful, imperious, indulged Tara was a nameless foundling; rescued and brought up by this good, charitable woman, as her very own!