Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/98

88 visit. Remember we shall always be pleased to see you. You know our house, I think. Good-day, sir, good-day."

So, shaking me warmly by the hand, the old gentleman accompanied me downstairs to his carriage and departed.

Again I had cause to ponder on the strangeness of the fate that had led me to Hampshire—first to the village where my father was born, and then to Bournemouth, where by saving this young man's life I had made a firm friend of a man who again had known my father. By such small coincidences are the currents of our lives diverted.

That same afternoon, while tacking slowly down the bay, I met the Marquis again. He was pulling himself in a small skiff, and when he saw me he made haste to come alongside and hitch on. At first I wondered whether it would not be against his father's wishes that he should enter into conversation with such a worldling as myself. But he evidently saw what was passing in my mind, and banished all doubts about it by saying:

"I have been on the look out for you, Mr. Hatteras. My father has given me permission to cultivate your acquaintance, if you will allow me?"

"That is very kind of you," I answered. "Won't you come aboard and have a chat? I'm not going out of the bay this afternoon."

He clambered over the side and seated himself in the well, clear of the boom, as nice-looking and pleasant a young fellow as any man could wish to set eyes on. "Well," I thought to myself, "if all Peers were like this boy there'd be less talk of abolishing the House of Lords."

"You can't imagine how I've been thinking over all