FAIRY PALACE. 183

was one of my. father’s pupils, and we
had been together almost from our
childhood. JI had no brother; but
Charles Evelynn supplied to me the
place of a brother and a_ friend.
The most perfect confidence and affec-
tion subsisted between us. My uncle
disapproved of our attachment, and
cruelly formed a scheme to separate us
for ever. Absolutely forbidding me
-either to see or write to him, he took me
with him to Portsmouth ; and fabricat-
ing a report of Charles’s marriage with
a lady whom I had formerly known and
once highly esteemed, persuaded me to
accompany him to Calcutta.

“ Thad not been long in India before

I reccived offers of marriage, in my un-
ele’s opinion, at least, highly eligible.
I refused several whom he approved, ~
R 2 and