Young as you are, you have secured powerful protectors, both in the Peishwa and myself; and you may hope to reach a high office in the state, as you grow older.
"I do not know, though," he went on, speaking to himself rather than to the lad, "that high office is a thing to be desired.

It means being mixed up in intrigues of all kinds, being the object of jealousy and hatred, and running a terrible risk of ruin at every change in the government here." Then he turned again to Harry.
"And what are you thinking of doing ?" "I will speak frankly to your highness.

I am not a Mahratta, as you and everyone else suppose.

I am the son of English parents." And he then went on to give an account of the killing of his father and mother, and of how he was saved by Soyera, and brought up as her son; until such times as he might, with advantage, go down to Bombay.

Nana listened with great interest.
"It is a strange tale," he said, when Harry brought the story to a conclusion, "and explains things which have, at times, surprised me.