From One Generation to Another

by Henry Seton Merriman

Before attempting to investigate the origin of this mistake, I hasten to write to you, knowing, dearest, what a shock this must have been to you. It is true that I was in the Makar Akool affair, and was slightly wounded -- a mere scratch in the arm -- but nothing more. I have not written to you for some months past because I have been turning something over in my mind. Anna, dearest, there is no chance of my being in a position to marry for some years yet, and I feel it incumbent upon me . . ." This letter, half written, lay on a camp table before a keen-faced young officer. He ceased writing suddenly, and, leaping to his feet, walked to the door of his bungalow, which was open to the four winds of heaven. In doing this he passed from the range of the lazy punkah flapping somnolently over table and bed. It may have been this sudden change to hotter air that caused him to raise his hand to his forehead, which was high and strangely rounded. "By George!" he said, "suppose I do it that way!"

Paperback

First published January 1, 1892

About the author

Hugh Stowell Scott was an English novelist (under the pseudonym of Henry Seton Merriman).

Born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1862, he became an underwriter at Lloyd's of London, but then devoted himself to travel and to writing novels, many of which had great popularity. Scott visited India as a tourist in 1877-8 and set his novel Flotsam (1896) there. He was an enthusiastic traveller, many of his journeys being undertaken with his friend and fellow author Stanley J. Weyman. He was unusually modest and retiring in character. He died of appendicitis at the age of about forty at Melton, Suffolk.