d Mrs. Buckley. "Is he not joking now, Captain
Brentwood? That is far too good news to be true."

"It is true, nevertheless, madam," said Captain Brentwood. "I thought
it would meet with your approval, and I can see by Sam's face that it
meets with his. You see, my dear lady, Buckley has got to be rather
necessary to me. I miss him when he is absent, and I want to be more
with him. Again, I am very fond of my son Jim, and my son Jim is very
fond of your son Sam, and is always coming here after him when he ought
to be at home. So I think I shall see more of him when we are ten miles
apart than when we are fifty. And, once more, my daughter Alice, now
completing her education in Sydney, comes home to keep house for me in
a few months, and I wish her to have the advantage of the society of
the lady whom I honour and respect above all others. So I have bought
Garoopna."

"If that courtly bow is intended for me, my dear Captain," said Mrs.
Buckley, "as I cannot but think it is, believe me that your daughter
shall be as my daughter."

"Teach her to be in some slight degree like yourself, Mrs. Buckley,"
said the Captain, "and you will put me under obligations which I can
never repay."

"Altogether, wife," said the Major, "it is the most glorious
arrangement that ever was come to. Let us take a glass of sherry all
round on it. Sam, my lad, your hand! Brentwood, we have none of us ever
seen your daughter. She should be handsome."

"You remember her mother?" said the Captain.

"Who could ever forget Lady Kate who had once seen her?" said the Major.

"Well, Alice is more beautiful than her mother ever was."

There went across the table a bright electric spark out of Mrs.
Buckley's eye into her husband's, as rapid as those which move the
quivering telegraph needles, and yet not unobserved, I think, by
Captain Brentwood, for there grew upon his face a pleasant smile,
which, rapidly broadening, ended in a low laugh, by no means
disagreeable to hear, though Sam wondered what the joke could be, until
the Captain said,--

"An altogether comical party that last night at the Donovans', Buckley!
The most comical I ever was at."

Nevertheless, I don't believe that it was that which made him laugh at
all.

"A capital party!" said the Major, laughing. "Do you know, Brentwood, I
always liked those Donovans, under the rose, and last night I liked
them better than ever. They were not such very bad neighbours, although
old Donovan