so slim that I remember Khourabene's ideas of art being much offended by a picture of savages in the 'Illustrated London News,' which had represented them all with large calves to their legs, and he pointed out the defect, perhaps I ought rather to say superfluity, with very great disdain. I supposed that she might be seven years old, but as she had changed all her first teeth, she was evidently older than she looked. Her skin, like that of the children at Albany whom Mrs. Smythe had noticed, was darker than her hair, which was soft and curly, setting off by its lighter colour the line of jet-black eyebrow and the dark expressive eyes below.
She shared the Malay nose and mouth with her countrymen in general, a type of feature which is unfortunately far more commonly found amongst them than fine hair, and which imparts to the countenance a sullen look even when there is no real sullenness in the temper; but nature's even hand makes amends for this by the brilliancy of the teeth and eyes, so that a smile on a native face is like a flash of light. Although she was quite clean, I could not sufficiently divest my mind of home traditions to suppose otherwise than that to wash her must be the first thing to be done, so Rosa and I put her in a bath; but as she had arrived before I had been able to prepare her wardrobe, to dress her on leaving the tub was a matter far more difficult. I had managed, however, by sundown to complete an overall pinafore, in which she immediately started off to exhibit herself to her parents, returning to sleep at our house, which from that day forth became her home.
Two mornings afterwards, just as the sun had risen, a
