the great white pillars
of the portico. Then Maurice remembered that this was his first coming
home as master, and felt a momentary shyness take possession of him
before his own new importance. He had been able during his absence to
keep Hunsdon so much in the background, and to be so thoroughly the
natural, portionless, Maurice Leigh. He jumped out of the carriage,
however, and was too much occupied in helping his father, to think, for
the next few minutes, of his own sensations at all. Then he discovered
what he had not before thought about--that there were still two or three
of the old servants who remembered his mother and her marriage, and who
were eager to be recognised by "the Captain."

And so the coming home was got over, and Mr. Leigh was fairly settled in
the house from which so long ago he had stolen away his wife. After he
had once taken possession of his rooms--the very ones which had been
hers,--he seemed to think no more about Canada, but to be quite content
with the new link to the past which supplied the place of his accustomed
associations. And, perhaps, he felt the change all the less because of
that inclination to return to the recollections of youth rather than of
middle age, which seems so universal with the old.

Maurice sent over a messenger to Dighton to announce their arrival, and
to tell his cousin that he intended leaving home again after one day's
interval. That one day was fully occupied, but, as he had half expected,
in the afternoon Lady Dighton came over.

She knew already of his disappointment, and had sympathised with it. She
came now with the kind intention of establishing such friendly relations
with Mr. Leigh as would make Maurice more comfortable in leaving his
father alone. She even proposed to carry the old man off to Dighton, but
that was decided against.

"And you really start to-morrow?" she asked Maurice.

"Early to-morrow morning. I cannot imagine what the railway-makers have
been thinking about; it will take me the whole day to get to Chester."

"How is that?"

"Oh! there are about a dozen changes of line, and, of course, an hour to
wait each time."

"Cut off the exaggeration, and it is provoking enough. Is it in Chester
this gentleman lives?"

"No, three or four miles away, I fancy. I shall have to inquire when I
get there."

"And after you find him what will you do?"

"If I get their address, I shall go straight from Mr. Wynter to them,
wherever they are."