Agnes thankfully acquiesced, and awaited with as much patience as she could command, the return of Arthur.

He was back again in a few moments.

“Your uncle is waiting to see you, and is almost delirious with joy.  Mr. Clifford will excuse me while I conduct you to the apartment, and then I think my presence can be dispensed with.”

The servants had flocked to the hall to see their dear young mistress again, and to find if it were indeed, as John had declared, her very self.  It was with some difficulty that Agnes made her way through them, but shaking each warmly by the hand, and with many kind inquiries, she passed on, requesting, however, the cook to prepare some refreshments for the gentleman in the library.

Arthur, as he threw open the drawing-room door, observed that Mr. Denham had raised himself on the couch, and was gazing eagerly in that direction.  Agnes instantly sprang forward into her uncle’s outstretched arms, the old man murmuring with a voice weak with emotion, “My darling here,—­you come back to your old uncle once more.”

With instinctive delicacy Mr. Bernard softly closed the door, and retired, feeling that the scene had become too sacred for a stranger’s eye.

CHAPTER XIII.

Lights streamed gayly from every window of Mr. Hilton’s spacious and hospitable mansion, where a party of friends had assembled to celebrate the return of the long-lost Agnes.  This gentleman, whose letter had confirmed to Arthur, while yet in France, the painful intelligence of the destruction of the steamer in which Agnes had embarked, and the subsequent supposed shipwreck of its passengers, had been among the first to hasten to welcome her home, for a warm admirer of woman in general, Miss Wiltshire had secured his especial regard, and having no daughters of his own, he used often to remark to his excellent wife, that there was but one thing he envied Mr. Denham, and that was the possession of so winningly lovely a niece.

The party had been postponed from time to time, awaiting Mr. Denham’s recovery, and it was not until early in July, that his perfect restoration to health, enabled him, together with Mrs. Denham, to accompany his niece on this festive occasion.

Mr. Denham, as he entered the brilliantly illuminated drawing-room, seemed by his appearance almost to have recovered his youth, so much so, as to call forth from more than one of the company,—­

“The old gentleman is looking twenty years younger, than when I last saw him.  What a change the return of his niece has made.”

Mr. and Mrs. Denham were accompanied by Mr. Clifford, on whose arm Agnes leaned as she entered the room.  His fine form, no longer enveloped in sailor-garb, but in more appropriate costume, was displayed to full advantage, and elicited the admiration of not a few of the ladies, as the whispers, here and there, of “What a fine looking-man; so tall, and dignified, so imposing in appearance,”—­bore ample testimony.