This, said Captain Davis is your grand-son, and this is Lord Wallace, your grand-father.
Walter extended his hand, but Lord Wallace faltered.
Can you, he said, take my hand and call me “grand-father,”—I who have so cruelly wronged your parents—who so madly drove them from my house?
But not from your heart, Walter responded.
No—no, boy, throwing his arm about him. They have always occupied a place there. They were forgiven long ago—yet I had nothing to forgive. I, and I only was the one to ask forgiveness.
You were forgiven, and that forgiveness is recorded in heaven, where your children now are. Your children loved and prayed for you.
Bless you, my son—may God bless you. And now, here in the presence of these witnesses, I receive you as my grand-son and heir, the son of Amelia and William Wallace.
Excuse me, said Lieutenant Powers, for this interruption, but the joy of this meeting has caused us to forget our duty to the dead. We must make arrangements for my father’s funeral.
The Navy will attend to that, rejoined Captain Davis. And as the object of the meeting on board of the Reindeer is accomplished by the meeting of grand-father and grand-son at this place, we may as well talk of the future. I have learned that I shall soon be ordered to America. Will your grand-son accompany me?