She was smiling and self-confident.
"I thought," he said, looking at her closely, "as I stood behind you, that there were tears in your eyes." She went past him into the hall to meet Sep and his father, who were already on the threshold.
"It must have been the firelight," she said to Barebone as she passed him.
A minute later Septimus Marvin was shaking him by the hand with a vague and uncertain but kindly grasp.
"Sep came running to tell me that you were home again," he said, struggling out of his overcoat.

"Yes--yes.

Home again to the old place.
And little changed, I can see.

Little changed, my boy.

Tempora mutantur, eh?
and we mutamur in illis.