. You know our house, I think, on the
cliff. Good-day, sir, good-day."

So saying, the old gentleman accompanied me downstairs to his carriage,
and, shaking me warmly by the hand, departed. Again I had cause to
ponder on the strangeness of the fate that had led me to
Hampshire--first to the village where my father was born, and then to
Bournemouth, where by saving this young man's life I had made a firm
friend of a man who again had known my father. By such small
coincidences are the currents of our lives diverted.

That same afternoon, while tacking slowly down the bay, I met the
Marquis. He was pulling himself in a small skiff, and when he saw me he
made haste to come alongside and hitch on. At first I wondered whether
it would not be against his father's wishes that he should enter into
conversation with such a worldly person as myself. But he evidently saw
what was passing in my mind, and banished all doubts by saying:

"I have been on the look-out for you, Mr. Hatteras. My father has given
me permission to cultivate your acquaintance, if you will allow me."

"I shall be very pleased," I answered. "Won't you come aboard and have a
chat? I'm not going out of the bay this afternoon."

He clambered over the side and seated himself in the well, clear of the
boom, as nice-looking and pleasant a young fellow as any man could wish
to set eyes on.

"You can't imagine how I've been thinking over all you told me the other
day," he began when we were fairly on our way. "I want you to tell me
more about Australia and the life you lead out there, if you will."

"I'll tell you all I can with pleasure," I answered. "But you ought to
go and see the places and things for yourself. That's better than any
telling. I wish I could take you up and carry you off with me now; away
down to where you can make out the green islands peeping out of the
water to port and starboard, like bits of the Garden of Eden gone astray
and floated out to sea. I'd like you to smell the breezes that come off
from them towards evening, to hear the 'trades' whistling overhead, and
the thunder of the surf upon the reef. Or at another time to get inside
that selfsame reef and look down through the still, transparent water,
at the rainbow-coloured fish dashing among the coral boulders, in and
out of the most beautiful fairy grottos the brain of man can conceive."

"Oh, it must be lovely! And to think that I may live my life and never
see these wonders. Pl