She had not seen her boy since he quitted Calne, considerably more than two years before, and he was now nearly nineteen.

A few days' holiday had been accorded him by the banking-house each Christmas; but the first Christmas Willy wrote word that he had accepted an invitation to go home with a brother-clerk; the second Christmas he said he could not obtain leave of absence--which Mrs.
Gum afterwards found was untrue; so that Willy Gum had not been at Calne since he left it.

And whenever his mother thought of him--and that was every hour of the day and night--it was always as the fair, young, light-haired boy, who seemed to her little more than a child.
A year or so of uncertainty, of suspense, of wailing, and then came a letter from Willy, cautiously sent.

It was not addressed directly to Mrs.
Gum, to whom it was written, but to one of Willy's acquaintances in London, who enclosed it in an envelope and forwarded it on.
Such a letter! To read it one might have thought Mr.William Gum had gone out under the most favourable auspices.

He was in Australia; had gone up to seek his fortune at the gold-diggings, and was making money rapidly.
In a short time he should refund with interest the little sum he had borrowed from Goldsworthy and Co., and which was really not taken with any ill intention, but was more an accident than anything else.