"Now I can speak," Captain Dowsett said. "I have had hard work to
keep a stopper on my tongue all this time, for I have been well-nigh
bursting to congratulate you. I wish you joy, my lad," and he wrung
Cyril's hand heartily, "and a pleasant voyage through life. I am as
glad, ay, and a deal more glad than if such a fortune had come in my
way, for it would have been of little use to me, seeing I have all
that the heart of man could desire."
He ran to the door and shouted loudly for his wife and daughter.
"I have news for you both," he said, as they came in. "What do you
think? Cyril, like the King, has come to his own again, and he is now
Sir Cyril Shenstone, the owner of the estate of Upmead."
Both broke into exclamations of surprise and pleasure.
"How has the wonder come about?" Nellie asked, after the first
congratulations were over. "What good fairy has brought this round?"
"The good fairy was the Mr. Harvey whose name Cyril once mentioned
casually, and whose life, as it now appears, he saved, though he has
said nothing to us about it. That gentleman was, most strangely, the
man who bought the estate from his father. He, it seems, is a wealthy
man, and his conscience has for some time been pricked with the
thought that he had benefited too largely from the necessities of Sir
Aubrey, and that, having received back from the rents all the money
he paid, and goodly interest thereon, he ought to restore the estate
to its former owner.
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