ome and
see you again, Dick. You must rest now.'

'Come--again!' repeated Dick, his eyes appealing to Jack.

'I will,' replied Jack, getting up to go into the cottage.

'How do you do, Mrs. Peet?' said Estelle, as Dick's mother appeared.
'Poor Dick is quite startled and faint at the sight of us.'

'Lady Estelle!' she exclaimed, lifting her hands in amazement. 'Wherever
did you come from? No wonder Dick is startled! Why, you might knock me
down with a feather! And how bonnie you look! Not at all the worse for
all you've been so long away.'

'I am coming to tell you all about it, but I must first go and see Aunt
Betty.'

'Well, it will do her good to see you. It is a sight for old eyes to see
your sweet face again, Missie!' Then, glancing at Jack, 'Is that the man
who has taken care of you, and brought you home?'

'Yes, Mrs. Peet, it is; and you shall hear some day how good and kind he
and his mother have been to me. But I have not time now, and you had
better see how poor Dick is.'

Jack had wandered down to the gate in a stunned frame of mind, and here
Estelle joined him, to beg him to walk up to the house with her.

'No, no, Missie, I could not--not after what has happened. I couldn't
have people thanking me, and all that. I should feel a brute!'

Estelle looked distressed, but Jack went on, his hand on the gate:

'You see the business is not over yet. I must tell Dick's father. Where
do you think I can find him?'

'Must you tell him to-day--just to-day?'

'It is best got over at once.'

'Then come up with me and find him, and we can see Aunt Betty at the
same time.'

The gate at which they were standing was some dozen yards or so from the
road, and, as Estelle spoke, some one rode round the bend and came
towards them.

'Father!' cried Estelle, springing towards him, her face radiant, and
forgetting everything in the joy of seeing him.

'My little girl!' he cried, springing from his horse.

He clasped her in his arms with a force which at any other time would
have startled the child. Neither could speak, for at such an hour speech
fails. Who shall describe the meeting? After nearly a year the lost had
been found! A year which had laid its mark on all their lives, but
which, now that it had passed, seemed to Lord Lynwood as 'a dream when
one awaketh.' His child back in his arms, looking well and strong as
ever, with every evidence of having been well cared for, her sweet eyes
looking up into his!-