Ir is now a great many years ago since I made my first voyage to India. The P. and O. s.s. Hindustan, in which I went out, was regarded at the time as a model of naval architecture, combining speed, size, comfort, and all the latest improvements in a remarkable degree; and we passengers were all very proud of her. She had double decks, and, under favourable circumstances, could steam eight knots an hour, with an expenditure of I don't know how many tons of coal a day. But the P. and O. Company had a monopoly of the Eastern seas at that time, and notwithstanding an outlay on this head which would be ruinous in these days of competition, the P. and O. managed to burn their coal. and keep up a table almost as wasteful as their engines, and yet make a handsome profit. Many years afterwards I saw the Hindustan, laid up, relegated to the ignominious office of a coal-hulk, or something of the sort. She lay there, a notable example of the revolution effected in naval architecture. Could it be possible that this short, fat, ugly old hulk was the same vessel that used to be extolled as a model of the ocean steamer? Compared with the yacht-looking vessels which now compose the Company's fleet, with their long, low hulls and raking masts, and nearly twice her tonnage, some of which were anchored ahead of her in the stream, she looked like a cart-horse beside a racer. The reflection naturally occurred, will the time come when these beautiful craft, whose great size is concealed in their graceful

lines, shall in turn be condemned as clumsy and antiquated, and withal too small? Nor could I help being impressed with the analogy suggested by the old hulk in regard to myself. We had both of us in our ways become out of date. Younger men, looking at my battered old face and figure, will wonder, no doubt, how I could ever have been thought slim and graceful. And indeed, in my particular case, the doubt would have been justified; I never set up for being a model of elegance: but the comparison would have been appropriate in the case of several of my fellow-passengerscadets like myself, and very fine young fellows. We cadets were full of life and hope and spirits: we were all mere boys; for commissions were given early in those days, and most of us had come fresh from school-all without passing any examination. I for one should certainly not have succeeded in passing one, for I had not got even into the fifth form at Rugby, and had never come under the notice of the head-master-successor to the great Arnold, who died just before I went thereexcept for a certain "function" more common then than in modern times, as I had good reason to know. We youngsters, I say, were full of life and hope and spirits. There were some halfdozen of us on board, profoundly ignorant of India as of everything else, our study of military science being limited to a reading of Charles O'Malley' and Tom Burke,' but not the less well satisfied with ourselves on that account. Had we got our

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appointments by the most severe competitive examination, we could not have been more thoroughly impressed with the excellence of the arrangements under which we had been selected. The system which had produced a Clive,-of whom, however, we did not know more than that he was connected in some way with the black hole and the battle of Plassy, and that he had wanted to blow out somebody's brains with a pistol, but whether his own or another man's, the tradition, as it reached us, did not explain-my own introduction to Indian history, through the medium of Lord Macaulay's famous essay, not having taken place till a later date, a system which produced such results was evidently the best possible system; it had produced us. As for myself, I had been called away from school in the middle of the term, an event which created a certain amount of stir in my house-the suddenness of the thing was in itself a merit of the system and having made my appearance before the Court of Directors, and taken an oath of allegiance to the East India Company, had been thereon at liberty to get my outfit, including a full-dress uniform, the facings only of which were left doubtful till it was known which regiment of Bengal Native Infantry would have the honour of enrolling me among its numbers. This uniform I had the delight of exhibiting at home to a select party of friends before it was packed up in tin,-likewise an enormous shako, as to which my uncle George remarked that the climate of India could not be so

very hot, or a shako like that would not be worn. I discovered afterwards it was not the climate which was traduced by report;-the shako never was worn: indeed, I had not half-a-dozen opportunities

of putting on my dress-coatee before I had quite grown out of it, and was forced to buy another, this time out of my own pocket. But the old man grows garrulous as the reminiscences of his youth crowd on his memory: 'tis a foible of old age. We cadets, I say, were full of spirits, but I think the young ladies on board were still more elated by the change to their new life. They, too, had most of them come fresh from school, and their prospects of advancement were still more extended than ours. We knew that we were merely cadets, and shortly to become ensigns, and although that no doubt was a splendid position, still there was a visible horizon to it. We knew indeed that even infantry officers kept horses, or at least ponies, in India; and each of us was taking out a brand-new saddle. Indeed, Tom Price, one of our number-poor Tom! he turned out a right-down good soldier, and was killed at the first relief of Lucknow-confided to us, after we had become friendly and communicative, that, in view to a speedy appearance on the Indian turf, he was taking out a racing-saddle, smuggled into his outfit, and the charge distributed over the other items, so that his governor knew nothing about it when he paid the bill. This was before trade had become honest: there was great competition among the outfitters in those days. But with all our aspirations, we knew that we were but cadets, and should be only ensigns at first; and judging from the appearance of some of our fellow-passengers returning from furlough, it was easy to infer that promotion in the Indian army was not very rapid. But the future of the young ladies was not subject to the conditions of promotion by seniority. There was a married lady on board, going

back to join her husband reputed to hold some appointment in Calcutta with a tremendous salary attached to it, who was still quite young, and whose jewellery was the admiration of all the other ladies. There was evidently no need that like should mate with like; what one young maiden had done another might do; youth was not incompatible with the enjoyment of a large income. Not, I am bound to say, that there was reason for imputing any such sordid ideas to these damsels: with them the sensation of liberty and entering on a new world was sufficient happiness for the time. It was plain that some of them at least had, like ourselves, just been emancipated from school, and they enjoyed the change just as much as we did. Indeed, I think they were almost too inexperienced and artless to think about love and marriage. We are all creatures of habit and association. To a young girl, whose relations with the other sex have so far been limited to being snubbed by her brothers, or scolded by her music-master, the germs of the tender sentiment are still only latent. True, they are marvellously soon developed. The little unfledged birds which, sitting helpless in their nests of a morning, still fed from their parents' beaks, by evening are perched independent on the topmost bough, hardly attain to a more rapid development than a school-girl may exhibit on a passage to India. Not, however, that we cadets contributed much to bring about the change in this case. We were boys at starting, and remained boys till the end. We were not the grindstones on which the young ladies sharpened their wits.

The first day down Channel was fine, with only a moderate amount of motion, and most of the passengers were on deck, although keep

ing aloof from each other, partly from shyness and partly also because not feeling quite at their ease. But there was a very small muster in the saloon for dinner, and when next morning we got into the Bay, the decks were almost clear of passengers. The eldest Miss Dashwood was the only lady to be seen, and she sat on a bench very still, as if not particularly anxious for society. Still, I think, I might have struck up an acquaintance then and there; but her imposing appearance and fine figure made me feel shy of accosting her. I thought so handsome a young woman would need to quaff of more sparkling conversation than a lad like me could offer. I did not know till afterwards what a simple girl she was really, and that she would have been very pleased to talk to me in the absence of better company. But when we rounded Cape Finisterre, we ran at once into smooth water: an awning was got up to shade us from the hot autumn a proceeding we were disposed to resent at first, the genial warmth was so pleasant; and as the steamer paddled quietly down the coast of Spain and Portugal, the passengers found their way on deck, and by the afternoon we discovered that the saloon, of which an engraving had appeared not. many years before in an illustrated paper, making it look about the size of Exeter Hall, was hardly large enough for all the passengers on board. The ladies soon found their English autumn clothing too warm, and when we anchored at Gibraltar there was a great demand for trunks to be got up from the hold.

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On the next stretch of our course, over towards Malta, the steamer's deck presented quite a gay appearance, from the freshness of the light dresses in which most of the ladies

Life

now appeared. The Miss Dashwoods had so far been rather badly dressed probably their friends, judging rightly that there would be no further need for warm clothes, had let them go in their old dresses. But now they had begun to tap, the sources of their Indian outfit; and pretty girls though they were before, they certainly gained by the change. They were tall, buxom, healthy-looking girls, with bright eyes and clear complexions and rather full figures, -figures which promised indeed, as they grew older, to become too stout, but this was an afterthought -it did not occur to me at the time, -good hair, bright eyes, and open, intelligent, if not clever, features. And if happiness tends to set off beauty, certainly their charms received this addition. Never were two girls happier. on the Hindustan was evidently like a new revelation. All the young ladies on board enjoyed their ship-life, but the Miss Dashwoods more than any, because they were evidently unaccustomed to the society of gentlemen, they told us afterwards they had come almost straight from school,-still less to the extreme politeness and attention bestowed on them from all quarters. The gallant old Admiralty agent pointed out all the places of interest on the coast, and lent them his glass to look through; the doctor gave them an order on the purser for champagne-the rules of the Company requiring that a medical certificate should accompany each issue of that wine, as a voucher in the accounts,-which the purser, with equal gallantry, was always ready to honour; and whenever they wanted to sit down on deck, every male owner of a chair would rise to present it for their usethe young ladies having come on board unprovided with these necessary articles. All the young ladies,

and there were several, must have had a very pleasant time of it; but I think the Miss Dashwoods must have enjoyed themselves most, for the reason already given, and because being the prettiest girls, they got perhaps more attention than any others. At first I think they were a little shy, perhaps it would be more correct to say a little bashful: but this feeling soon wore off, and without ever becoming exactly forward, for they were too goodtempered and good-natured to be rude or pert, they took the homage paid them as a matter of course, and were perfectly free and unaffected, and, I am bound to say, were also perfectly disinterested and impartial in their treatment of the gentlemen. They made no more account of Colonel Tassle, of the Lancers, who was a very great man in India, where dragoon regiments were scarce, or of Mr. Fludyers, of the Civil Service, returning a bachelor from his furlough, and who seemed now disposed to make up for lost time, than they did of Markham, one of us cadets,-a strapping young fellow, and quite at his ease among all the ladies, with whom he was a general favourite. I think they liked, on the whole, the Admiralty agent best: the old gentleman was quite fatherly in his attentions, and he spoke with an air of authority, as became a naval officer on board a merchant vessel. As for me, I hardly spoke to any of the Miss Dashwoods or any of the young ladies on board, at first; not, I believe, that they would have been unkind, but that it would have required an effort to do so, and they were always so well employed. But it is possible on board ship to be out of a thing and yet in it; people throw off restraint a good deal,-and these young people would laugh and talk as freely as if those about them, who were not of