When he had dwelt on the letter as long as possible he returned it to its owner with manifest reluctance and cast covetous glances at the pile of letters from which it had been drawn. “Would you like to read all your daughter’s letters? You can, of course, if you wish it, sir,” said Palma kindly. “Oh, madam, if you would be so good as to let me do so,” gratefully replied the father. “Here they are, then, about twenty of them in all, and they are long letters. Take them and read them at your leisure. Now there is the dinner bell. You will join us, I hope.” “Thank you, my dear madam; but I am just off a long journey, and hardly presentable in a sitting-room, much less at a dinner table,” said The O’Melaghlin, glancing down at his dusty garments. “Oh, never mind. We are plain country people,” said Palma, with a smile; for having lived in a crowded city all her life, with the exception of one short season at “Lull’s,” she took pride in thinking of herself as a country woman. “If you would like to go to a room to brush off a little, I should be pleased to show you the way,” said Stuart. “Thank you, Wolfscliff, I think I would if it will not delay your dinner or spoil your soup. Now speak frankly. There should be candor among kinsmen.” “It will spoil nothing,” put in Palma, knowing that Cleve could not answer that question, “so, Mr. Stuart, please show The O’Melaghlin to the oak room.” Cleve turned with a bow to his guest and led the way out. Palma rang the bell and gave orders that the soup should be kept back for fifteen minutes. In due time The O’Melaghlin reappeared in the drawing-room, and the small party went in to dinner. In the course of that meal Stuart said to Palma: “My dear, The O’Melaghlin has kindly promised to remain with us a few days, and has sent back his chaise to the Wolfshead to fetch his baggage.” “I am very much pleased to hear this,” said Palma, turning with a bright smile to the visitor. “Thank you, madam! You may wonder, perhaps, why I should have chosen to travel all the way down from New York to West Virginia to get from you the London address of my children, when I might have written to you and got it by return mail.” “No; indeed, I never once thought of it in that manner.” “Well, I may as well tell you how it was. When I learned from Mr. Walling that my children were in London, I determined to go there as soon as possible. And knowing what a rush there is across the big pond at this season of the year, I went to get my passage secured in the first available steamer. But, bless you! though I went to every office of ocean steamers in New York, and wrote to every one in Boston, I could get no sort of a passage in any one for the next six weeks. The first one I could engage was for the first of July, in the steamer _Leviathan_ for Southampton.” “Why! Are you going by the _Leviathan_? We are going by that ship!” impulsively exclaimed Palma. “You are!” cried The O’Melaghlin, appealing to Stuart.