“I declare—no, I won't say the spiteful thing that crossed my mind—but I will say, I 'd like to have seen a meeting between you and your brother Temple.”
“You think he'd have been so ashamed of me,” said Jack, with a laugh.
“Not a bit of it. You might possibly have been ashamed of the situation—shocked with being such an unworthy member of a great house—but he, Temple, would have accepted you like a fever or an ague,—a great calamity sent from above,—but he would not have felt shame, any more than if you had been the scarlatina. Look at poor George,” cried she, with a merry laugh. “He thinks I 've said something very wicked, and he feels he ought to deplore it and possibly rebuke me.”
Jack could not help laughing at the rueful expression of L'Estrange's face, and his emotion was catching; for the others joined in the laugh, and in this merry mood returned to the garden.
CHAPTER LX. A RETURN HOME
The morning that followed this scene broke very happily on the villa; for Augustus was to arrive by the afternoon packet, and all were eager to meet him. His telegram said, “Cutbill is with me; but I do not know if he will stop.” And this announcement, indeed, more than tempered the pleasure they felt at the thought of meeting Augustus.
Jack, whose sailor's eye had detected a thin streak of smoke in the sky long ere the others had seen it, and knew by what time the steamer might arrive, hastened down to the shore to meet his brother alone, not wishing that the first meeting should be observed by others. And he was so far right. Men as they were,—tried and hardened by the world's conflict,—they could not speak as they clasped each other in their arms; and when they separated to gaze at each other's faces, their eyes swam in heavy tears. “My poor fellow!” was all that Augustus could say for several minutes, till, struck by the manly vigor and dignified bearing of the other, he cried out, “What a great powerful fellow you have grown, Jack! You are twice as strong as you used to be.”
“Strong enough, Gusty; but I suppose I shall need it all. But how comes it that you have gray hair here?”
“You find me terribly changed, Jack! I have aged greatly since we met.”