‘A teetotaller?’ said Maria.

’Anything you like to call it.  Only, what a gentleman’s habits are in that respect needn’t be made the subject of general remark.’  It was evident he was a little sore, and Jane, therefore, offered him a dish full of gooseberries.  He took the plate in his hand and ate them assiduously for a while in silence, as though unconscious of what he was doing.  ‘You know all about it now, don’t you?’

‘Oh my dearest boy!’ ejaculated the mother.

‘You didn’t get better gooseberries than those on your travels,’ said the doctor, calling him back to the condition of the world around him.

Then he told them of his adventures.  For two terrible years he had been a shepherd on different sheep-runs up in Queensland.  Then he had found employment on a sugar plantation, and had superintended the work of a gang of South Sea Islanders,—­Canakers they are called,—­men who are brought into the colony from the islands of the Pacific,—­and who return thence to their homes generally every three years, much to the regret of their employers.  In the transit of these men agents are employed, and to this service Dick had, after a term, found himself promoted.  Then it had come to pass that he had remained for a period on one of these islands, with the view of persuading the men to emigrate and reemigrate; and had thus been resident among them for more than a couple of years.  They had used him well, and he had liked the islands,—­having lived in one of them without seeing another European for many months.  Then the payments which had from time to time been made to him by the Queensland planters were stopped, and his business, such as it had been, came to an end.  He had found himself with just sufficient money to bring him home; and here he was.

‘My boy, my darling boy!’ exclaimed his mother again, as though all their joint troubles were now over.

The doctor remembered the adage of the rolling stone, and felt that the return of a son at the age of thirty, without any means of maintaining himself, was hardly an unalloyed blessing.  He was not the man to turn a son out of doors.  He had always broadened his back to bear the full burden of his large family.  But even at this moment he was a little melancholy as he thought of the difficulty of finding employment for the wearer of those yellow trousers.  How was it possible that a man should continue to live an altogether idle life at Pollington and still remain a teetotaller?  ‘Have you any plans I can help you in now?’ he asked.

’Of course he’ll remain at home for a while before he thinks of anything,’ said the mother.

‘I suppose I must look about me,’ said Dick.  By-the-by, what has become of John Caldigate?’

They all at once gazed at each other.  It could hardly be that he did not in truth know what had become of John Caldigate.

‘Haven’t you heard?’ asked Maria.

‘Of course he has heard,’ said Mrs. Rewble.