The shares in
the Indiamen were giving a good and steady return. The privateers had
been very fortunate, and had captured some rich prizes. Annie had been
up, or they had been down at Plymouth. The letters during the last
three years had reported her as having grown into a young woman, and,
as his mother declared, a very pretty one. After that the allusions to
her were less frequent, but it was mentioned that she was as fond of
them as ever, and that she was still unmarried.
"She always asks when you are coming home, Dick," Mrs. Holland said,
in the last letter he had received before accompanying General Harris
to Vellore. "I told her, of course, that your last letter said that
war was certain with Tippoo; that you hoped, this time, to see
Seringapatam taken and the tyrant's power broken; and that after it
was over you would come home on leave and, perhaps, would not go out
again."
During the six years that he had been in the army, Dick had very
frequently been at Tripataly, as there was little difficulty in
getting leave for a fortnight. His cousins had now grown up into young
men, Surajah commanded the troop, and his stays there were always
extremely pleasant. The troop now numbered two hundred, for with quiet
times the population of the territory had largely increased, and the
Rajah's income grown in proportion.
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