by the memory of the time
when he had been at a disadvantage in worldly things. Such memories came
to him when he prepared to go to the railway station to meet the
Rexfords. He concealed it perfectly, but it gave him certain swellings
of heart to think that Miss Rexford would now gradually see all to which
he had attained.

When Captain Rexford had decided upon buying a farm at Chellaston, he
had had some correspondence with Principal Trenholme on the subject,
having been put into communication with him by the widow of the relative
at whose house Sophia and Trenholme had first met. This was the whole
extent of the acquaintance. Of Sophia's step-mother and her numerous
children Robert Trenholme knew nothing, save that a second family
existed. Nor did Captain Rexford imagine that his eldest daughter had
any distinct remembrance of a man whom she had so casually known.
Fathers are apt to assume that they know the precise extent of their
daughters' acquaintanceships, for the same reason that most people
assume that what they never heard of does not exist. Yet when Trenholme
actually repaired to the station at the hour at which Captain Rexford
had announced his arrival, it was a fact that many of his leisure
thoughts for a month back had been pointing forward, like so many
guide-posts, to the meeting that was there to take place, and it was
also true that the Rexford family--older and younger--were prepared to
hail him as a friend, simply because their knowledge of him, though
slight, was so much greater than of any other being in the place to
which they were come--and everything in this world goes by comparison.

Now the main feature of the arrival of the Rexford family in Chellaston
was that they brought their own carriage with them. It was an old, heavy
carriage, for it had come into Captain Rexford's possession in the first
place by inheritance, and it was now a great many years since he had
possessed horses to draw it. From its long and ignominious retreat in an
outhouse it had lately emerged to be varnished and furbished anew, in
order to make the handsomer appearance in the new country. It had been
one of the considerations which had reconciled Mrs. Rexford to
emigration, that on a farm this carriage could be used with little extra
expense.

Principal Trenholme had come to the station, which was a little way from
the village, in a smart gig of his own. According to Captain Rexford's
instructions, he had sent to th