That afternoon we took the first packet boat for Holyhead, where, being favoured by fortune, we found a fast coach about to start for London which, in spite of its rapidity and in consequence of the badness of the roads and some falls of snow in the West, took five days in reaching the Metropolis. Yet, long as the journey was--though rendered easier by the quality of the inns at which we halted and the excellence of the provisions, to which, in my youth, there was nothing to compare in Ireland--yet, I say, long as the journey was and tedious, I was happy to find myself once more in London--in which I had not been since I was a child of six years of age, when my father and mother were then living happily together in a house in the new Hanover Square. Nay, I was more than happy at the thought that I was about so soon to see my dear and honoured mother again, so that, as the coach neared London, I almost sang with joy at the thought of all my troubles being over, and of how we should surely live together in peace and happiness now until my rights were made good. Oliver had rid himself of his occupation by a simple method; he had merely abstained from going to his work at the butcher's any more, and had sent round to say he had found other and more suitable employment, and, as a slight recompense to his master for any loss he might suppose himself to sustain, had bidden him keep the few shillings of wage due to him. So that he felt himself, as he said, now entirely free to look after and protect me. "For look after you I always shall," he said, "So long as it is in my power and until I see you accorded your own. Then, when that happens, you may send me about my business as soon as you will, and I will shift for myself." "It can never happen," I replied, "that the time will come when you and I must part,"--alas! I spake as what I was, a child who knew not and could not foresee the stirring events that were to be my portion for many years to come, nor how the seas were to roll between me and that honest creature for many of those years,--"nor can the time ever come when I shall fail in my gratitude to you or to Mr. Kinchella. You! my only friends." Then Oliver's face lighted up with pleasure as I spoke, and he grasped my hand and said that if Providence would only allow it we would never part. To Mr. Kinchella I had gone between the time of the affray with my uncle--of whom the last I saw was his being half-led and half-carried to a coach by Considine, after he had learnt who it was who had gone to Virginia in my place--and the sailing of the packet, and I had found him busy making his preparations for departing for his vacation, the Michaelmas term being now nearly at its end. He was astonished at my appearance, as he might well be, and muttered, as he looked smilingly down at me, "_Quantum mutatus ab illo!_ Have you come in for your fortune and proved your right to your title, my lord?"