It had been kind Sir John's contrivance to give him a surprise. He had asked the Naylors to receive him as their guest, and when he found their willingness to do so, he proposed to him to go down into the country with his servants, and spend several weeks under the same roof as Dick.
[Illustration: THE MEETING OF MR WALTERS AND DICK.]
He knew the pleasure it would give to both to be together again. He had desired that Dick should not be told who was Mrs Naylor's expected guest.
Dick was more altered than Walters. He had grown taller and stouter, and his cheeks were rounder and more rosy than they had been when he lived in Roan's Court.
"Now come in, Mr Walters," said Mrs Naylor, when the first surprise and greeting was over. "Come in, we'll do our best to make you comfortable, and I'm sure I hope you'll spend a pleasant time here. It shan't be our fault if you don't. As for Dick, I expect he won't sleep a wink to-night for joy."
It was a pleasant reception, and when the old man went to bed in Dick's little chamber, he kneeled and thanked God for this new and unexpected mercy that had been vouchsafed him. As for Dick, far from fulfilling Mrs Naylor's prognostication that he would not sleep a wink, he was in so profound a slumber, at the hour when the other two lads awoke in the morning, that they had a delightful excuse for jumping on his bed and playing off a variety of tricks in order, as they said, to "arouse him thoroughly."
Very pleased and proud was Dick to take his old friend over the gardens and numerous glass-houses, containing such fruits and flowers as he had never seen even in former days, when he had visited with his master at gentlemen's houses. Dick had an entire holiday given him the day after Walters' arrival, both from school and from gardening, and Mr Naylor told him to take his friend where he liked. Such a permission made him feel of almost as much importance as if he were master of the estate himself. He found it difficult to limit his own pace to that of Walters', so eager was he to go from one place to another, always assuring him the next thing he had to show was far better than any he had yet seen. Walters' admiration quite satisfied him, for it was unbounded.