ng down her cheeks.
Why cry, when she was so happy? The thing was absurd! Why do anything
but laugh, and dance, and sing with mirth, when at long, long last they
were all four together, and Arthur stood before her in solid flesh and
blood?

"How tall you are! Taller than your father, my dear big son!"

"How good it is to see you again, my boy! We have wearied for this
day."

"Oh, Arthur, what a big moustache! What a dear you look! We never,
never expected to see you before we got to London."

"I was not sure of coming, but I worked it somehow, for I could not wait
an hour longer than was necessary. Peg, you're a lady growed! I looks
towards you! Oh, let us be joyful! This is grand to be together again,
with no more miserable partings ahead. Welcome to England, mother!
First step on the old land--eh? Feels nice and sound beneath your feet,
doesn't it? Just the sort of solid, durable old place to take root in
after a roaming life!" And Arthur led his mother on shore, rattling
away in his old merry style, though the tears shone in his eyes also,
and his voice was not so clear as it might have been.

The years that had passed since he had seen his parents last had not
been altogether easy ones for him. He had had to face the bitterest
disappointment of his life, to adapt himself to a new and uncongenial
sphere, and, in spite of all his courage, there had been moments when
the task had seemed too heavy to bear. It had been an effort to write
cheerfully, and to refrain from repinings over his lost hopes, but he
had made the effort, and he was rewarded for his forbearance a hundred
times over in this moment of meeting, as he noticed the hollows in his
mother's cheeks, and the grey locks on his father's brow. It had been
hard enough for them as it was. He was thankful he had not laid on them
the additional burden of his own sufferings.

The reunited family travelled up to town together, and dined in a
private room in the hotel, so that they might be able to talk without
interruption. Arthur was, of course, the hero of the occasion, and was
handed about from one to another of his adoring relatives in a manner
which would have been amusing to an onlooker. First of all Mrs Saville
claimed him, and they sat on the sofa together, stroking each other's
hands like a charming pair of lovers, as a mother and grown-up son
should always be. Then she cast an apologetic glance at her husband,
and made an excuse t