He then repeated the account Annie had given of her capture,
and asked if the circumstances could be identified, and if the
officer, of the name of Mansfield, concerned in it was still alive;
and if so, was he still in India?
Annie was secretly dreading the arrival of the answer. After her life
as a slave, her present existence seemed to her so perfectly happy
that she shrank from the idea of any fresh change. She had no memory,
whatever, of her parents, and had already a very strong affection for
Mrs. Holland. She liked the ranee very much also, and the absence of
all state and ceremony, in the household of the Rajah, was to her
delightful. She was already on good terms with the boys; and as to
Dick, she was always ready to go out with him, if he would take her,
to run messages for him, or to do anything in her power; and, indeed,
watched him anxiously, as if she would discover and forestall his
slightest wish.
"One would think, Annie," he said one day, "that you were still a
slave, and that I was your master. I don't want you to wait on me,
child, as you waited on the ladies of the harem. However, as I shall
be going away in a few days now, it does not matter; but I should grow
as lazy as a young rajah, if this were to go on long.
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