But for all that, I cannot live without my sweet
Menie. I would wed her to-morrow, with all my soul, without thinking a
minute on the clog which so early a marriage would fasten on our heels.
But to spend two additional years in this infernal wilderness, cruising
after crowns and half-crowns, when worse men are making lacs and crores
of rupees--It is a sad falling off, Adam. Counsel me, my friend,--can
you not suggest some mode of getting off from these two years of
destined dulness?"
"Not I," replied Hartley, scarce repressing his displeasure; "and if I
could induce Dr. Gray to dispense with so reasonable a condition, I
should be very sorry to do so. You are but twenty-one, and if such a
period of probation was, in the Doctor's prudence, judged necessary for
me, who am full two years older, I have no idea that he will dispense
with it in yours."
"Perhaps not," replied Middlemas; "but do you not think that these two,
or call them three, years of probation, had better be spent in India,
where much may be done in a little while, than here, where nothing can
be done save just enough to get salt to our broth, or broth to our salt?
Methinks I have a natural turn for India, and so I ought. My father was a
soldier, by the conjecture of all who saw him, and gave me a love of the
sword, and an arm to use one. My mother's father was a rich trafficker,
who loved wealth, I warrant me, and knew how to get it.
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