more than pleased at seeing you again, Willie. It is so
natural for me to call you that, that it will be some time before I can
get out of it. So you have got on very well?"

"Entirely owing to you, Mrs. Archer, as I told you in the first letter I
wrote to you after I got my promotion. You taught me to like study, and
were always ready to help me on with my work, and it was entirely owing to
my having learned so much, especially mathematics, that I was able to
attract the attention of the officers and to get put on the quarter-deck.
I have, I am happy to say, done very well, and I am sure of my step as
soon as I have passed.

"I had the extraordinary good fortune," he said, after chatting for some
time, "to be put in command of a prize that had been taken from some
pirates, and was thus able to earn a good deal of prize-money. But nothing
has given me greater pleasure since I went away than the purchasing of
this little present for you as a token, though a very poor one, of my
gratitude to you for your kindness;" and he handed her a little case
containing a diamond brooch, for which he had paid one hundred and fifty
pounds as he came through London.

"Willie!" she exclaimed in surprise as she opened it, "how could you think
of buying such a valuable ornament for me?"

"I should have liked to buy something more valuable," he said. "If I had
paid half my prize-money it would only have been fair, for I should never
have won it but for you."

"I have nothing nearly so valuable," she said. "Well, now, you must take
up your abode with us while you stay here. How long have you?"

"I have a fortnight's leave, but it has taken me four days to come down
here, and of course I shall have to allow as many for the return journey.
I have therefore six days to spare, and I shall be very pleased indeed to
stay with you. I must, of course, spend one day going over to the village
to see John Hammond and his wife. I am happy to say that I shall be able
to make their declining days comfortable. Your father is, I hope, well,
Mrs. Archer?"

"Yes, he is going on just as usual. I was over there a fortnight ago. I am
sure he will be very glad to see you; he always enquires, when I go over,
whether I have had a letter from you, and takes great interest in your
progress."

"Tom Stevens has come back with me, and has gone on to-day to the village.
I told him not to mention about my coming, as I want to take the old
couple by surprise."