"He sent you his love, and
he will write to you next time. He was so busy, his first
lieutenant was down in fever."

"Where was he?"

"Off Zanzibar--otherwise the crew was healthy--the 12th of August,"
she answered, squeezing out the sentences as if constrained by the
mother's anxious gaze.

"And he was quite well when you parted with him?"

"Quite."

"Ah! you nursed my boy, and we must nurse you for him."

"Thank you, I am quite well." But she bit her lip, and spoke
constrainedly, as if too shy and reserved to give way to the rush of
emotion; but the coldness pained Mrs. Poynsett, whose expansiveness
was easily checked; and a brief silence was followed by Charlie's
return to report that he could not find nurse, and thought she was
out with the other servants, watching for the arrival; in another
moment, the approaching cheers caused him to rush out; and after
many more noises, showing the excitement of the multitude and the
advance of the bridal pair, during which Mrs. Poynsett lay with
deepening colour and clasped hands, her nostrils dilating with
anxiety and suppressed eagerness, there entered a tall, dark,
sunburnt man bringing on his arm a little, trim, upright, girlish
figure; and bending down, he exclaimed, "There, mother, I've brought
her--here's your daughter!"

Two little gloved hands were put into hers, and a kiss exchanged,
while Raymond anxiously inquired for his mother's health; and she
broke in by saying, "And here is Anne--Miles's Anne, just arrived."

"Ah, I did not see you in the dark," said Raymond. "There, Cecil,
is a sister for you--you never had one."

Cecil was readier with greeting hand and cheek than was Anne, but at
the same moment the tea equipage was brought in, and Cecil, quite
naturally, and as a matter of course, began to preside over the low
table, while Raymond took his accustomed chair on the further side
of his mother's sofa, where he could lean over the arm and study her
countenance, while she fondled the hand that he had hung over the
back. He was describing the welcome at the station, and all through
the village--the triumphal arches and shouts.

"But how they _did_ miss you, mother," said Charlie. "Old Gurnet
wrung my hand in tears as he said, 'Yes, sir, 'tis very fine, but it
beats the heart out of it that madam bain't here to see.'"

"Good old Gurnet!" responded Raymond. "They are famously loyal.
The J. C. P. crowned all above all the Cs and Rs, I was happy t