He looked at me from behind the bush, so that I thought he was wondering if it was to Mary alone such dreams came; and then, saying:
"Madam, I fear I shall be made vain here," he begged me to permit him to enter and greet his friend.
That greeting it was good to see. Mr. Kinchella gazed for a moment at the stranger entering so abruptly and then, springing to his feet, exclaimed, "Gerald! Gerald!" and folded him in his arms, while Mary, who had also risen hastily, repeated him, crying, "'Gerald!' Is this indeed Lord St. Amande?"
"Dear lad, dear heart!" said Mr. Kinchella, who, after his embrace, held the other at arm's length so as to survey him. "It is indeed you! And how you are grown; a man and a handsome one. But how you came here passes my understanding. Yet how I rejoice. How I do rejoice. Oh! Gerald! Gerald! this is a day of days." Then he went on, "Mistress Bampfyld, I see already you know; this other lady is my future wife, Miss Mills," whereon his lordship bowed with most stately grace while Mary curtsied low.
"But tell me, tell us," continued her lover, "what brings you here. We knew not, I knew not where you were. The last heard of you was that you had been impressed for the sea and had sailed under Sir Chaloner Ogle, who had testified a kindly disposition to you. But to what part of the world you had sailed, we did not know. Papers reach here but fitfully, and, though a friend of mine does sometimes send me The London Journal, owned by that sturdy writer, Mr. Osborne, I have seen nothing that told me of your fleet."
"'Tis not so far off now," said his lordship, with his grave smile, "I being at the moment on leave from it. I have adopted the calling of a sailor--what use to haunt the streets of London idly waiting until the House of Lords shall do me justice, if ever?"---there was a bitterness in his tone as he spake that we all well understood--"and I am now master's-mate in the Namur, with promise of a lieutenancy from Sir Chaloner. As for the fleet itself, a portion of it is at Halifax and a portion off Boston, while the Namur is at the mouth of the James River waiting to capture some of the pirates that still haunt the spot."
"You have a long leave, I hope, Lord St. Amande," I said, though I knew that I blushed, as I did so. "You must not quit Mr. Kinchella for some time, and, in Virginia, we love to show hospitality to our friends or friends' friends."
He bowed graciously to me and told me he was entitled to many days' leave of absence, since he had had none in their long cruise, except now and then a day or so ashore; and then Mary, whose vivacity I always envied, asked him why the House of Lords behaved so ill to him and did not put him in possession of his rights.
"For," said she, "it would be the most idle affectation to pretend that here, far away as we are from England, we do not take the deepest interest in your affairs. Virginia has, and this portion of it particularly, been so much mixed up with your family and so interested in it by the fact of your friend, Mr. Kinchella, coming here, that it seems as though we, too, had some concern in those affairs."
"The House of Lords in Ireland has done me justice," he replied, "as I learnt but recently, since they had pronounced me to be what in very truth I am, my father's son. In England the House will not yet, however, decide that I am heir to the Marquis of Amesbury--though he hesitates not to acknowledge me--and it may not do so for years. Yet even my present title is disputed by my villainous uncle, Robert, who now has another son by his second wife, whom he proclaims as heir. For," addressing us all, "that the wretch, Roderick, is dead there can be, I imagine, no doubt; and his father amongst others believes so."