This requirement placed me in a little dilemma. Where was I to find a sponsor? I was a perfect stranger in London. So were my travelling companions. I knew not a soul belonging to the great city--much less one who should be known to the magnates of the Bank. To whom should I apply? When I had mentally repeated this question, for the twentieth time, I bethought me of Captain Nowell. He should be the very man. I at once hailed a cab; and drove to the address he had given me. Fortunately he had arrived from Portsmouth; and was at home. Without a moment's hesitation, he accompanied me to the Bank, where everything was satisfactorily arranged. Instead of drawing out the deposit, I added to it, by paying in an additional sum--consisting of the gold I had gathered in Australia. My only object in troubling myself about it at the time, was to make sure that the gold I had forwarded from California had arrived safely, and was otherwise "all right." Before parting with Captain Nowell, he requested to know why I had not gone to his house to see him sooner. "Your coming to-day," he said, "was not a visit; and I shan't take it as such. You only came to trouble me on business for which you needed me, or probably I should not have seen you at all. You must pay me a regular visit. Come to-morrow; or any time that best suits your convenience. You know my style at sea? You'll find me just the same ashore. Don't forget that I've something to show you--something you had better have a look at, before you choose elsewhere." I gave the kind-hearted Captain my promise to call upon him--though not from any inclination to be assisted by him in the way he seemed to wish. The finding a wife was a thing that was far--very far from my thoughts. Several days had elapsed after my interview with Captain Nowell; and each day I was becoming more discontented, with the life I was leading in London. My brother, his wife, and Mrs Morell, were very kind to me; and strove to make me as happy as possible. But much of their time was taken up in paying visits, or spent in amusements, in which I could feel no interest. I soon found that to be contented, it would be necessary for me, either to take an active part in the busy scenes of life, or be in possession of great domestic happiness. The latter I could never expect to attain; and London appeared to present no employment so well suited to my disposition and habits, as that I had followed upon the gold-fields. I might have passed some of my time very pleasantly in the company of Captain Nowell; but I was prevented from availing myself of that pleasure--even of paying my promised visit to him--by the very thing that might otherwise have attracted me. I had no desire to form the acquaintance of the young lady, he had spoken of; and for me to call at his house might give occasion for him, as well as others, to think differently.