"So this is Juliet?" he said, looking at her with evident admiration. "I am happy to make your acquaintance, my dear;" and as he took the hand she offered him, he bowed over it with old-fashioned courtesy.
"Juliet," said Mrs. Tracy, who was looking much pleased and excited, "this is your uncle, your father's only brother, whom everyone thought was dead."
"How delightful!" exclaimed Juliet, in clear, ringing tones. "I am very glad that everyone was wrong. How delightful to have an uncle!"
"It is very pleasant to hear you say so," said her uncle, looking intensely gratified; "and, for my part, I am ready to say, 'How delightful to have such a niece!'"
His face had a very agreeable expression as he spoke. His eyes, if keen, were kindly, and had a humorous twinkle. Juliet looked at him, and felt that she should like him.
"It is but lately I have learned that I might claim so precious a possession," continued Mr. Tracy. "Strange to say, I never heard of my brother's marriage nor of his death till quite recently, chance brought to my remote Australian dwelling a gentleman who had formerly been in your father's regiment. He told me that he believed my brother's widow and child were living somewhere in London. I pondered the news for some little time ere I made up my mind to come home. I had grown weary of a lonely life; the reasons which had led me to cut myself adrift from all who had known me in the Old World no longer existed. Perhaps I was wrong in acting as I did, but I thought myself justified at the time. However, there is no need to dwell upon that now."
Mrs. Tracy manifested no indiscreet curiosity. She judged it best the past should remain in obscurity. An attempt on her part to explore its mysteries might result in bringing to light facts concerning her husband, Captain Tracy, which it would be painful to learn.
Juliet, too, had no desire to learn more of her uncle's history than he was disposed to tell. She was interested in him for various reasons, but not at all in his past. It was not strange that he should display considerable interest in her; that seemed to her only what was to be expected. She received his flattering attention in the most unabashed manner, wondering that he was so old-looking, and so unlike the portraits of her father she had seen.
"You are not married, I think?" Mrs. Tracy said to him presently.
"I have been married, but my wife is dead," was his reply. "I had a little daughter, too, but she died."