Six to Sixteen : Large Print

My name is Margaret Vandaleur. My father was a captain in her Majesty's 202nd Regiment of Foot.

The regiment was in India for six years, just after I was born; indeed, I was not many months old when I made my first voyage, which I fancy Eleanor is thinking of when she says that I have had some adventures.Military ladies are said to be unlucky as to the times when they have to change stations; the move often chancing at an inconvenient moment.

My mother had to make her first voyage with the cares of a young baby on her hands; nominally, at any rate, but I think the chief care of me fell upon our Ayah.

My mother hired her in England. The Ayah wished to return to her country, and was glad to do so as my nurse.

I think that at first she only intended to be with us for the voyage, but she stayed on, and became fond of me, and so remained my nurse as long as I was in India.I have heard that my mother was the prettiest woman on board the vessel she went out in, and the prettiest woman at the station when she got there.

Some people have told me that she was the prettiest woman they ever saw.

She was just eighteen years old when my father married her, and she was not six-and-twenty when she died.