Page:On the Coromandel Coast.djvu/225

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ORPHANS
213

before he had been seen and approved of by the chaplain. In one institution a widower of about forty introduced himself and inquired if he could see the girls with a view to making choice of a wife. He was asked to produce his credentials; and when they found that he had none, the girls armed themselves with the sweepers' brooms and drove him out of the compound.

A handsome young sepoy from one of the regiments stationed at Trichinopoly ventured to pay attention to a girl in the orphanage. She was the daughter of a native by a European soldier. The ample diet of the school had conduced to plumpness in the maid who had no pretentions to beauty of feature. Embonpoint is reckoned by the natives one of the most attractive of female charms. It was doubtless the attraction in this case. Marriage between natives and Eurasians was not encouraged, and no applications were entertained from either Hindus or Mohammedans. Aware of this fact, the son of Mars trusted to his own personal charm. Whenever they met upon the road, as she took her walk with the other girls, he directed amorous glances at her, which she received with flattered embarrassment. One day he brought a beautiful sugared cake as a love-token. A small boy was decoyed from the playground and bribed to take it in with a message. Having fulfilled his part of the contract the little urchin returned to the playground with the news that a sepoy was courting Susan. The boys trooped off in the direction indicated, and found the unfortunate man waiting near the girls' side of the house, in the hope of receiving some sign that his gift had created a favourable impression upon the heart of his plump lady-love. Whooping like a pack of jackals they descended upon him, and he took to his heels in terror. He attempted to escape over a wall, but they seized his legs and administered a sound pommelling with their fists. He never