"You'll have to dine with a wild man of the woods, Miss Brandon," he said apologetically. "I have only the clothes I stand up in." "Never mind, Lance," said his father, "we're glad to have you in any. We'll go over to London next week, and I'll give you a blank cheque for Poole. You've no idea what a dandy he has always been, Hilda!" "Oh, I remember him!" said I. "Like Solomon in his glory--that is to say, dressed like any other well-dressed young man." "And I remember you--" Lance broke off with a quizzical glance. "Come, my lad, postpone reminiscences till we're over the soup," said the General as he offered me his arm. We dined at a little round table, which brought us all in close neighbourhood. As Captain MacNeill ate his soup I had time to look at him. He was a good deal changed from the young man I remembered. No doubt rest and good living would bring back much of the youth and brightness, but there were lines in the keen brown face that would never be obliterated. He was thin, and a little haggard: that, of course, was to be expected; but the years of suffering had not changed his eyes, nor his smile, with its quick flash of white teeth; by these I felt I should have known him under any circumstances. "How good everything here is!" he said, looking up suddenly. "I never knew how beautiful a thing a dinner-table was before. Such flowers in the winter! And how golden the candle-light is! To say nothing at all of this delicious soup!" "Ah! Mrs. O'Connor has done her best with the cookery. I am glad you still care for your food, my boy. Appetite, rightly considered, is a gift of God." The young man's eyes twinkled. "I've the appetite of a school-boy still, and you remember, Dad, that mine was a record, even for Harrow. I've been saving it up all the years of my imprisonment." "Hilda decorated the table in your honour. How she got the flowers out of old Crosbie I don't know!" "He's a heart-broken man to-night, General," said I. "Still, to give him his due, he chopped away generously under the excitement of the good news, though to an accompaniment of grumbles." "Crosbie's a good fellow," said the General. "I think I must take on that lad of his, though there's little enough for him to do." "There's an epidemic of joy in the household, General. If you begin rewarding, I don't know where you'll stop." "Hilda thought to reward us, Lance, by running away without her dinner." "That would have been unkind," said the Captain seriously. "You don't know what she's been to me, Lance," said the General, looking at me affectionately. "I was such a lonely old man till that day I came into my desolate house, and found her perched on my library steps, a little bit of white and gold, like a daisy." "I found her in precisely the same position," said the Captain, laughing. "Do you live at such an eminence, Miss Hilda?"