t you are bound for,
wait on board, and I will meet you at the earliest hour possible."

* * * * *

Old Mr. Salton was delighted when Adam's reply arrived and sent a groom
hot-foot to his crony, Sir Nathaniel de Salis, to inform him that his
grand-nephew was due at Southampton on the twelfth of June.

Mr. Salton gave instructions to have ready a carriage early on the
important day, to start for Stafford, where he would catch the 11.40 a.m.
train. He would stay that night with his grand-nephew, either on the
ship, which would be a new experience for him, or, if his guest should
prefer it, at a hotel. In either case they would start in the early
morning for home. He had given instructions to his bailiff to send the
postillion carriage on to Southampton, to be ready for their journey
home, and to arrange for relays of his own horses to be sent on at once.
He intended that his grand-nephew, who had been all his life in
Australia, should see something of rural England on the drive. He had
plenty of young horses of his own breeding and breaking, and could depend
on a journey memorable to the young man. The luggage would be sent on by
rail to Stafford, where one of his carts would meet it. Mr. Salton,
during the journey to Southampton, often wondered if his grand-nephew was
as much excited as he was at the idea of meeting so near a relation for
the first time; and it was with an effort that he controlled himself. The
endless railway lines and switches round the Southampton Docks fired his
anxiety afresh.

As the train drew up on the dockside, he was getting his hand traps
together, when the carriage door was wrenched open and a young man jumped
in.

"How are you, uncle? I recognised you from the photo you sent me! I
wanted to meet you as soon as I could, but everything is so strange to me
that I didn't quite know what to do. However, here I am. I am glad to
see you, sir. I have been dreaming of this happiness for thousands of
miles; now I find that the reality beats all the dreaming!" As he spoke
the old man and the young one were heartily wringing each other's hands.

The meeting so auspiciously begun proceeded well. Adam, seeing that the
old man was interested in the novelty of the ship, suggested that he
should stay the night on board, and that he would himself be ready to
start at any hour and go anywhere that the other suggested. This
affectionate willingness to fall in with his own plans quite won th