Produced by Moti Ben-Ari and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Ballantyne Press, BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO. EDINBURGH AND LONDON
BY H. S. CUNNINGHAM AUTHOR OF "WHEAT AND TARES," "LATE LAURELS," ETC.
LONDON SMITH, ELDER, & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1877 [_All rights reserved_]
You promised me once that, if ever the 'Chronicles of Dustypore' shaped themselves into being, they might be dedicated to you. While writing them my thoughts have often turned to happy hours passed in your society, and pleasant scenes witnessed beneath your roof. If the story has profited thereby, and Felicia has borrowed whatever charms she may possess from those remembered scenes and hours, forgive me, and let me lay the portrait, with all its imperfections, at your feet.
CHAP. PAGE I. THE SANDY TRACTS 1 II. MAUD 10 III. WAR AT THE SALT BOARD 22 IV. FELICIA 29 V. 'SUTTON'S FLYERS' 38 VI. 'A COMPETITION WALLAH' 46 VII. THE RUMBLE CHUNDER GRANT 58 VIII. GOLDEN DAYS 64 IX. THE FIRST BALL 72 X. THE WOES OF A CHAPERON 83 XI. FRIENDS IN COUNCIL 92 XII. A CHAPTER OF DISCLOSURES 108 XIII. DESVOEUX MAKES THE RUNNING 115 XIV. TO THE HILLS! 126 XV. A DISTRICT OFFICER 141 XVI. ELYSIUM 147 XVII. A BATTLE ROYAL 156 XVIII. GAUDIA IN EXCELSIS 163 XIX. A BRUSH ON THE FRONTIER 175 XX. A LAST RIDE 184 XXI. MAUD'S SECRET 192 XXII. LOVE IS BEGUN 201 XXIII. A STRAY SHOT 208 XXIV. THE GULLY 220 XXV. AN INVALID 235 XXVI. DESVOEUX IN DESPAIR 243 XXVII. CHRISTMAS AT DUSTYPORE 256 XXVIII. MORNING CLOUDS 264 XXIX. THE HILL CAMP 273 XXX. TEMPTATION 281 XXXI. BOLDERO ON GUARD 287 XXXII. A GRASS WIDOW 298 XXXIII. FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNI 305 XXXIV. BAD TIMES IN THE PLAINS 314 XXXV. AN ELYSIAN PICNIC 320 XXXVI. A KISS 330 XXXVII. ILL NEWS FLY APACE 348 XXXVIII. FLIGHT 359 XXXIX. THE PRODIGAL'S RETURN 366 L'ENVOI 373
He seems like one whose footsteps halt, Tolling in immeasurable sand; And o'er a weary, sultry land, Far beneath a blazing vault, Sown in a wrinkle of the monstrous hill, The city sparkles like a grain of salt.
Any one who knows or cares anything about India--that is, say, one Englishman in a hundred thousand--is familiar with the train of events which resulted in the conquest of the Sandy Tracts, the incorporation of that unattractive region in the British Indian Empire, and the establishment of an Agency at Dustypore. The ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine, who neither know nor wish to know, would not be grateful for all account of battles fought at places of which they never heard, of victories gained by generals whose fame is already forgotten, or of negotiations which nobody but the negotiators understood at the time, and which a few years have effectually relegated to the oblivion that awaits all that is at once dull, profitless, and unintelligible.