She had in her youth been engaged to a lad in her native village.

In a moment of drunken folly, a short time before the day fixed for their wedding, he had been persuaded to enlist.

Abijah had waited patiently for him twelve years.

Then he had returned a sergeant, and she had married him and followed him with his regiment, which was that in which Captain Sankey--at that time a young ensign--served.

When the latter's first child was born at Madras there was a difficulty in obtaining a white nurse, and Mrs.Sankey declared that she would not trust the child to a native.