He had, six weeks before this, been carried off suddenly by an outbreak of cholera; and she had been waiting at Calcutta, in order to see her brother, before sailing for England.

She was the daughter of an English clergyman, who had died some seventeen years before.

Nellie, who was then eighteen, being motherless as well as fatherless, had determined to sail for India.

A great friend of hers had married and gone out, a year before.

Nellie's father was at that time in bad health; and her friend had said to her, at parting: "Now mind, Nellie, I have your promise that, if you should find yourself alone here, you will come out to me in India.