"You are Katie," he said, "and you are Lizzie, certainly, and this is—why, it is Ada!
"This is a surprise, indeed; but I sha'n't beg your pardon, Ada, for I kissed you at parting, and quite intended to do so when I met again, at least if you had offered no violent objection.
"How you are all grown and changed, while you, Mother, look scarcely older than when I left you.
"But there, I have quite forgotten Peters. He has come home with me, and will stay till he has formed his own plans."
He hurried out and brought in Peters; who, not wishing to be present at the family meeting, had been paying the coachman, and seeing to the things being brought into the house. He was warmly received, by the ladies, as the friend and companion of Charlie in his adventures; scarcely a letter having been received, from the latter, without mention having been made of his comrade.
In a minute or two Mr. Tufton, who had been in the large garden behind the house, hurried in. He was now quite an old man; and under the influence of age, and the cheerful society of Mrs. Marryat and her daughters, he had lost much of the pomposity which had before distinguished him.
"Ah! Nephew," he said, when the happy party had sat down to dinner, their number increased by the arrival of Mrs. Haines, who had a house close by; "wilful lads will go their own way. I wanted to make a rich merchant of you, and you have made of yourself a famous soldier. But you've not done badly for yourself after all; for you have, in your letters, often talked about prize money."
"Yes, Uncle. I have earned, in my way, close upon a hundred thousand pounds; and I certainly shouldn't have made that if I had stuck to the office at Madras, even with the aid of the capital you offered to lend me, to trade with on my own account."
There was a general exclamation of surprise and pleasure, at the mention of the sum; although this amount was small, in comparison to that which many acquired, in those days, in India.
"And you're not thinking of going back again, Charlie?" his mother said, anxiously. "There can be no longer any reason for your exposing yourself to that horrible climate, and that constant fighting."