a communication of the same nature to
yourself.' Then Caldigate took the letter, and, with his mind still
bewildered, made himself acquainted with the gratifying fact that all
the big-wigs were very sorry for the misfortune which had befallen him.

In his state of mind, as it then was, he was by no means disposed to
think much of the injustice done to him. He had in store for him, for
immediate use, a whole world of glorious bliss. There was his house, his
property, his farm, his garden, and the free air. And there would be the
knowledge of all those around him that he had not done the treacherous
thing of which those wretches had accused him.

And added to all this, and above all this, there would be his wife and
his child! It was odd enough that a word from the mouth of an exalted
Parliamentary personage should be able to give him back one wife and
release him from another,--in opposition to the decision of the
law,--should avail to restore to his boy the name and birthright of
which he had been practically deprived, and should, by a stroke of his
pen, undo all that had been done by the combined efforts of jury, judge,
and prosecutor! But he found that so it was. He was pardoned, forsooth,
as though he were still a guilty man! Yet he would have back his wife
and child, and no one could gainsay him.

'When can I go?' he said, jumping from his bed.

'When you please;--now, at once. But you had better come into the house
and breakfast with me first.'

'If I may I would rather go instantly. Can you send for a carriage for
me?' Then the governor endeavoured to explain to him that it would be
better for his wife, and more comfortable for everybody concerned, that
she should have been enabled to expect him, if it were only for an hour
or two, before his arrival. A communication would doubtless have been
made from the Home Office to some one at Folking, and as that would be
sent out by the foot-postman it would not be received before nine in the
morning.

But Caldigate would not allow himself to be persuaded As for eating
before he had seen the dear ones at home, that he declared to be
impossible. A vision of what that breakfast might be to him with his own
wife at his side came before his eyes, and therefore a messenger was at
once sent for the vehicle.

But the postmaster, who from the beginning had never been a believer in
the Australian wife, and, being a Liberal, was staunch to the Caldigate
side of the question,