“My wife and I try to make her happy,” the Javanese went on, “but one day Chi-Yun say she go to England. She get money from this Lord, she say, because she his lady, she Lady Lynche.”

“So she went?” Lord Lynche asked.

“Yes, she went,” the Javanese answered, “and when she go to big ship, she ask our son – Dipa – go with her to harbour. Dipa very pleased, like going in carriage.”

“I begin to see what happened,” Lord Lynche said reflectively.

“When Dipa not come home,” the little man continued, “my wife very worried. We go to harbour. They tell us Chi-Yun take Dipa with her on ship.”

“So what did you do then?” Lord Lynche enquired.

“I work – very very hard,” the man answered. “I work and work – until I have enough money come to England. My wife remember all that Chi-Yun tell her about big Castle where Master live as little boy. I sure when I arrive England I find Chi-Yun and – Dipa.”

He stopped and looked first at Lord Lynche and then at Carina.

“Dipa?” he asked anxiously, “Dipa, my little son – he here?”

Carina jumped to her feet.

“Wait a minute,” she said.

She ran across the room, pulled open the door and sped through the hall. It took her only a few seconds to reach the kitchen.

Dipa was sitting at the kitchen table eating currant cakes, which the cook was handing to him hot from the oven.

Carina lifted him down from the chair.

“Come, Dipa, come quickly,” she said breathlessly.

As if her excitement infected him, he started to laugh and to jump about.

She caught him by the hand and ran back with him to the drawing room.

She stood back and let him enter first.

He was talking about the kittens, trying to tell Carina the names he had chosen for them.

Then his voice died away on his lips as he saw who stood inside the room.

For a moment he was still and then with a shout, a high, excited, joyous cry that seemed to rend the hearts of those who listened, he ran forward and flung himself against the little man.

There was no mistaking their happiness at the reunion. There was no mistaking that Dipa had in fact found his father, his own flesh and blood.

They chattered away in their own language, which sounded somehow like a paean from two happy songbirds.

Lord Lynche led them into another room and ordered food for Dipa’s father.

Then he came back into the drawing room, closing the door behind him. He stood for a moment watching Carina as she waited by the fireplace.

“I will settle a large sum of money on them,” he said, almost as if he was speaking to himself. “Dipa shall be a rich man when he grows up.”

“I don’t think that Dipa will worry about money,” Carina answered. “He has now what is much more important – happiness.”