'Coc-coka-cokatoo!' screamed a harsh voice, which I certainly could distinguish from the first. 'Pretty cockatoo!' said the other coaxingly; and the next minute the large pink-flushed bird itself popped his head over the top-stones above the door, floundering about with his throat foul of the silver chain fast to his leg, till he hung by his beak on my side of the wall, half-choked, and trying to croak out--'Pretty--pretty cocky!' Before I had time to think, the door opened, and, by heavens! there was my very charmer herself, with the shade of the green leaves showered over her distressed face. She had scarcely seen me before I sprang up and caught the cockatoo, which bit me like an imp incarnate, till the blood ran down my fingers as I handed it to its mistress, my heart in my mouth, and more than a quarter-deck bow in my cap. The young lady looked at me first in surprise, as may be supposed, and then, with a smile of thanks that set my brain all afloat, 'Oh, dear me!' exclaimed she, 'you are hurt!' '_Hurt!_' I said, looking so bewildered, I suppose, that she couldn't help laughing. 'Tippoo is very stupid,' continued she, smiling, 'because he is out of his own country, I think. You shall have no sugar to-night, mister cockatoo, for biting your friends.' "'Were you--ever in India--madam?' I stammered out. 'Not since I was a child,' she answered; but just then I saw the figure of the nabob sauntering down the garden, and said I had particular business and must be off. 'You are very busy here, sir?' said the charming young creature archly. 'You are longing till you go to sea, I daresay--like Tippoo and me.' 'You?' said I, staring at the keyhole whilst she caught my eye, and blushed a little, as I thought 'Yes, we are going--I long to see India again, and _I_ remember the sea, too, like a dream.'