half-an-hour before dinner-time. Then he came quietly into the smoking-
room, where Mr. Salton and Sir Nathaniel were sitting together, ready
dressed.

"I suppose there is no use waiting. We had better get it over at once,"
remarked Adam.

His uncle, thinking to make things easier for him, said: "Get what over?"

There was a sign of shyness about him at this. He stammered a little at
first, but his voice became more even as he went on.

"My visit to Mercy Farm."

Mr. Salton waited eagerly. The old diplomatist simply smiled.

"I suppose you both know that I was much interested yesterday in the
Watfords?" There was no denial or fending off the question. Both the
old men smiled acquiescence. Adam went on: "I meant you to see it--both
of you. You, uncle, because you are my uncle and the nearest of my own
kin, and, moreover, you couldn't have been more kind to me or made me
more welcome if you had been my own father." Mr. Salton said nothing. He
simply held out his hand, and the other took it and held it for a few
seconds. "And you, sir, because you have shown me something of the same
affection which in my wildest dreams of home I had no right to expect."
He stopped for an instant, much moved.

Sir Nathaniel answered softly, laying his hand on the youth's shoulder.

"You are right, my boy; quite right. That is the proper way to look at