He complained in these letters
that he did not hear from home; not once had news reached him; had his
father and mother abandoned him?
The question brought forth a gush of tears from Mrs. Gum, and a sharp
abuse of the post-office. The clerk took the news philosophically,
remarking that the wonder would have been had Willy received the letters,
seeing that he seemed to move about incessantly from place to place.
Close upon this came another letter, written apparently in haste. Willy's
"fortune" had turned into reality at last; he was coming home with more
gold than he could count; had taken his berth in the good ship _Morning
Star_, and should come off at once to Calne, when the ship reached
Liverpool. There was a line written inside the envelope, as though he had
forgotten to include it in the letter: "I have had one from you at last;
the first you wrote, it seems. Thank dad for what he has done for me.
I'll make it all square with him when I get home."
This had reference to a fact which Calne did not know. In that unhappy
second visit of Clerk Gum's to London, he _did_ succeed in appeasing the
wrath of Goldsworthy and Co., and paid in every farthing of the money.
How far he might have accomplished this but for being backed by the
urgent influence of old Lord Hartledon, was a question. One thing was in
his favour: the firm had not taken any steps whatever in the matter, and
those handbills circulated at Calne were the result of a misapprehension
on the part of an officious local police-officer.
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