Kela Bai An Anglo-Indian Idyl

The Lady whose fate you will follow, being but a Pagan and of barbarous speech, may not solicit your favor in her proper person. Yet through the lips of the Author, she would proffer one request: that you pronounce her name as though it were written Kay-la Bah-ee, not otherwise; the first word-I cannot call it Christian name-being rhymed to Sailor as the English speak it, with a clipping of the end, while the second part ends something like a Sigh. Yet she would not have you sigh, nor I neither, but rather to find pleasure and delight. For, wide apart in other things, the Lady and the Author are yet alike in this: that we depend for our well-being on the general good-will. Gaining but this, we your petitioners will ever pray.