"I?" cried Miss Warren, flushing hotly. "Impossible, Theophilus! You cannot wish it!"
"Indeed I do! Why is it impossible?" her brother asked gently. "Shall you never visit your niece when she and her husband return from India? They are to make their home at the Manor House, I understand."
"Oh, that alters the case altogether," Miss Warren allowed. "I should like to see the Manor House; and I like Mrs. Compton. If Sir Richard wishes it, I will certainly call!"
Dick could talk of nothing but the secret passage during tea-time; he asked his uncle scores of questions, but the doctor had told all there was to tell.
The following day the little boy accompanied his aunt to the Manor House, where every one was so pleased to see Miss Warren, and made so much of her, that her bright face simply beamed with radiant smiles. She was shown the picture-gallery, and the little room which the martyr's picture had hidden so many years, and peeped down the steep stone steps built in the thickness of the wall.
Although Dick had really been the one to find the secret passage, Ruth took more than her share of the honour and glory, as her brother did not fail to remind her; he was rather vexed himself at not having had anything to do with the discovery.
That first visit of Miss Warren's to the Manor House quite broke down the barrier which had existed between her and Sir Richard; she was fully satisfied now that the old man had entirely forgiven his son for his marriage.
Mrs. Compton and her children remained with her father until the new year, when they returned to their London home. Sir Richard felt very lonely after his visitors had gone, for the weather was wet and cheerless, and, in consequence, Dick was not continually coming and going between No. 8 Fore Street and the Manor House as he had been in the habit of doing during the time his aunt and cousins had been visiting his grandfather. February, however, brought a change in the weather. Towards the end of the month the heavy rains ceased, and after a few days of genial sunshine, a marked alteration was visible in the dank hedgerows; a faint stir as of coming life murmured through the leafless woods like a whisper of the approaching spring; and with the lengthening days Dick told himself that surely his parents would be coming home soon.
"They are coming! They are coming!" was the joyous refrain continually in his ears; and every time he looked at the old clock in the hall at No. 8 Fore Street, and watched the ship rocking to and fro, he was reminded of the ship which would one day come, bearing his mother and father to him from across the sea.
Dick had been in England now more than a year, and was very different to the forlorn, pale-faced little lad who had been sent home to the tender care of Aunt Mary Ann and Uncle Theophilus, and whose short stature and delicate appearance had been, at first, such a disappointment to his grandfather. He had grown considerably, his slight frame had become more robust, and with the sea-tan on the firm, round cheeks which had once been so white and thin, he looked a picture of perfect health.