an be to you.'

'I never expected to see you again,' said Mark, as soon as he could
speak; 'even now I can hardly believe it.'

'I'm quite real, however,' said Holroyd, laughing; 'there's more of me
now than when they carried me on board from Colombo; don't look so
alarmed--the voyage has brought me round again, I'm my old self
again.'

As a matter of fact there was a great change in him; his bearded face,
still burnt by the Ceylon sun, was lined and wasted, his expression
had lost its old dreaminess, and when he did not smile, was sterner
and more set than it had been; his manner, as Mark noticed later, had
a new firmness and decision; he looked a man who could be mercilessly
severe in a just cause, and even his evident affection was powerless
to reassure Mark.

The hatches had by this time been closed over the hold again and the
crane unshipped, the warning bell was ringing for the departure of the
tender, though the passengers still lingered till the last minute, as
if a little reluctant, after all, to desert the good ship that had
been their whole world of late; the reigning beauty of the voyage, who
was to remain with the vessel until her arrival at Gravesend, was
receiving her last compliments during prolonged and complicated
leave-takings, in which, however, the exhilaration of most of her
courtiers--now that their leave or furlough was really about to
begin--was too irrepressible for sentiment. A last delay at the
gangway, where the captain and ship's officers were being overwhelmed
with thanks and friendly good-byes, and then the deck was cleared at
last, the gangway taken in and the rail refastened, and, as the
tender steamed off, all the jokes and allusions which formed the
accumulated wit of the voyage flashed out with a brief and final
brilliancy, until the hearty cheering given and returned drowned them
for ever.

On the tender, such acquaintances as Holroyd had made during the
voyage gave Mark no chance of private conversation with him, and even
when they had landed and cleared the Custom House, Mark made no use of
his opportunity; he knew he must speak soon, but he could not tell him
just then, and accordingly put off the evil hour by affecting an
intense interest in the minor incidents of the voyage, and in
Vincent's experiences of a planter's life. It was the same in the
hotel coffee-room, where some of the 'Coromandel's' passengers were
breakfasting near them, and the conversation became genera