"I have been very remiss, indeed, Mr. Clifford."
Arthur started, as she pronounced the name, and turning round, for the first time beheld the stranger.
"But you will excuse me, I am sure; for this return home, and the meeting with an old friend, has quite bewildered me. Allow me, Mr. Bernard to introduce to you my companion on the voyage, and one who like myself, has known the privations of exile, though for a much longer period than I."
Mr. Clifford advanced to Arthur, and the young men shook hands heartily.
"There needed no apology, Miss Wiltshire," said Ernest; "for your emotion, at returning home again, is only natural. It has afforded me, I assure you, the purest pleasure to witness it; a foretaste of what I trust myself to experience, when I embrace my mother again; if, indeed, she be yet in the land of the living."
"And now," said Arthur, "you will excuse me, while I go and prepare Mr. Denham for this interview with his long-lost niece, for it would not be prudent," he said, turning to Agnes, "for you suddenly to surprise him. I am afraid it would be too much for him in his present weak state."
Agnes thankfully acquiesced, and awaited with as much patience as she could command, the return of Arthur.
He was back again in a few moments.
"Your uncle is waiting to see you, and is almost delirious with joy. Mr. Clifford will excuse me while I conduct you to the apartment, and then I think my presence can be dispensed with."
The servants had flocked to the hall to see their dear young mistress again, and to find if it were indeed, as John had declared, her very self. It was with some difficulty that Agnes made her way through them, but shaking each warmly by the hand, and with many kind inquiries, she passed on, requesting, however, the cook to prepare some refreshments for the gentleman in the library.