hought. It vanished quickly as a heavy hand was
laid on his shoulder, and he turned to meet the look of the new partner.

"You don't mean that you are the Harry Elliott that sailed with me in
the `Steadfast,' ten years ago."

"Yes, I am Harry Elliott, and I crossed the sea in the `Steadfast' ten
years ago. I knew _you_ at the first glance, Mr Ruthven."

"I never should have known you in the least," said Mr Ruthven. "Why,
you were quite a little fellow, and now you can nearly look down on me."

"I never thought of that," said Harry, looking foolish.

"And you thought the new partner fancied himself too big a man to know
you," said Charlie. "And that's the reason you took umbrage at him, and
told your sister he was--ahem, Harry?"

Miss Elphinstone's laugh recalled Charlie to a sense of propriety, and
Harry looked more foolish than ever. But Mr Ruthven did not seem to
notice what they were saying.

"I never should have known you. I see your father's look in you now--
and you have your elder sister's eyes. Why did you not write to me as
you promised?"

"We did write--Norman and I both, and afterwards Graeme. We never heard
a word from you."

"You forget, it was not decided where you were to settle when I left
you. You promised to write and tell me. I wrote several times to your
father's friend in C---, but I never heard from him."

"He died soon after we arrived," said Harry.

"And afterward I heard of a Reverend Mr Elliott in the western part of
New York, and went a day's journey thinking I had found you all at last.
But I found this Mr Elliott was a very young man, an Englishman--a
fine fellow, too. But I was greatly disappointed."

Harry's eyes grew to look more like Graeme's than ever, as they met
Allan's downward gaze.

"I can't tell you how many Mr Elliotts I have written to, and then I
heard of your father's death, Harry, and that your sisters had gone home
again to Scotland. I gave up all hope then, till last winter, when I
heard of a young Elliott, an engineer--Norman, too--and when I went in
search of him, he was away from home; then I went another fifty miles to
be disappointed again. They told me he had a sister in a school at
C---, but Rose never could have grown into the fair, blue-eyed little
lady I found there, and I knew it could not be either of the others, so
I only said I was sorry not to see her brother, and went away."

Harry listened eagerly.

"I daresay it was our Norma