Lord Reginald was somewhat surprised, though Dick thanked him heartily, when he declined the first part of his offer.
“My wants are not likely to be great, and I hope that the cash I now have and such prize-money as we may gain in future, will be ample to supply them,” he added.
“Well, well,” said Lord Reginald, fully appreciating Dick’s feelings on the subject, “you are very unlike poor Voules, who did not scruple to borrow what he had no intention to repay; but we will not talk of his faults, poor fellow! I understand him now better than I did, but I have more reason to blame myself for having been toadied by such a man, than to find fault with him for paying court to me.”
The Wolf reached Portsmouth after a somewhat long voyage, and going into harbour, was at once paid off.
Lord Reginald invited Dick to accompany him to Elverston. “Don’t say who you are, and they’ll suppose that I have got another Voules in tow,” he said, laughing.
Dick thought it would appear ungrateful not to accept the invitation.
Lord Reginald was received as one from the dead, as the news of his disappearance had reached home, and nothing had been heard of him since. After his mother and sisters had somewhat recovered from the agitation into which they had been thrown by his reappearance, and he had received the congratulations of his father and his elder brothers, Viscount Elverston and Lord John, he took Dick by the arm and introduced him as his friend and late shipmate, without mentioning his name. The whole party then entered the drawing-room. There were several persons, including three young ladies, engaged in various feminine occupations. One of them, a bright-eyed blooming girl, Dick thought resembled greatly in features his sister Janet. He was describing to Lady Julia, who, now married, was staying with her husband in the house, their adventures on the island, when, turning round, he saw the last-mentioned young lady trembling violently, and gazing earnestly at him.
“Oh, my brother, my dear brother!” she exclaimed, suddenly rising and throwing herself into his arms, quite forgetting the company present. “Have you really come back? I know you, Dick, though I never saw your face before. I know you by your voice and your likeness to our father.”
Dick, giving vent to his feelings in a way midshipmen are not wont to do, pressed her to his heart.
“You are quite right, Miss Hargrave, it is your brother Richard, and my dearest and best friend,” said Lord Reginald, coming forward.