The handsome entrance gates were reached, and through the sweeping approach, gravelled to perfection, and bordered by shrubbery and flower-beds in all their splendour, Derval proceeded till he found himself, as one in a dream, before the beautiful villa; and as a portion of that dream, too, he found himself face to face with his father, who grasped his hand, yet gazed upon him with an expression in which astonishment at the change in his appearance, too evidently exceeded the emotion of welcome; nor was it till Patty Fripp threw her arms round his neck, weeping over and kissing him, in an obstreperous fashion all her own, that the spell seemed broken, and that tears sprang to his own eyes, as the ready flood-gates of affection opened. "His mother's darling! his mother's darling and mine!" she continued to exclaim. "Oh, Master Derval, Master Derval, how glad we are to have you safe home again!" Derval felt a sense of mortification and disappointment. Of all the sudden and wonderful changes around him, he, the wandering sailor, had been kept in utter ignorance! Why was this? As a surprise for him, perhaps, hope suggested. He found his father grayer, but less lined in visage than he could remember him, for prosperity had smoothed out many a line that Mary had seen growing, to her sorrow. Derval thought his manner nervous, and that he welcomed him, perhaps with affection, but certainly with outward constraint, especially when under the cold and observant eyes of Mrs. Hampton; and when the latter put her large, if white and shapely, hand into that of Derval, there flashed back upon his memory that which he had long forgotten--how viciously she flogged him in the stable with her riding-switch for poodling the cat. She seemed quite unchanged since then, as young and handsome as ever, for no thought, care, or consideration would ever write a line on her smooth forehead and certainly brilliant face. "This is your younger brother, Derval," said his father, as Rookleigh came to take his place at the late dinner table. He had his mother's expression of face; her light hazel eyes, only a little more green in tint and shifty in expression, with short white lashes. Derval went to him cordially, though he was no longer like the sleeping baby over whom he had wept on the morning he left home, but a big hulking boy of eleven years old. Rook, as they named him, eyed his elder brother sullenly, distrustfully, and even malevolently, for already had his mother contrived to implant in his dawning mind, that this tall sailor was a species of natural enemy; but his face lighted up and his manner softened, when this enemy put a handful of silver in his hand, and produced the model junk, some packets of sweetmeats, a jack-knife, shells, and many knick-knacks, brought specially for him from far beyond the sea; and eventually Master Rook, who coveted everything that Derval had to give, contrived to "screw" loose change out of him on every available occasion.