Excerpt from The Silver Hand: A Story of India in the Eighteenth Century A long, low, white-stuccoed house, with a broad ve randa hung with scented grass purdahs, faced a green lawn, the uniformity of which was broken by beds of many-coloured flowers, which only the continuous water ing by the native gardener, or mali as he was called, kept fresh. A broad carriage drive swept round the lawn beneath shady trees, whilst two great groups of palm trees on either side of the veranda gave an im pression of cool restfulness; the world seemed shut out. Every window of the house was carefully screened by chiks to keep the interior cool; the cawing of the crows and the twittering of innumerable smaller birds alone broke the stillness. As the evening crept on an almost imperceptible breeze stirred the leaves of the trees. Suddenly the silence was broken by the sharp clatter Of horses' hoofs, and a young man, mounted on a native pony, rode up the carriage drive. He was followed by a syce (native groom), who, when his young master dismounted at the veranda steps, led his horse away in the direction of the stables. The youth scanned the front of the house with a discontented expression. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.