a friend, who had rendered her and her father an
essential service.

"Well, I will try it, however," thought Jack. "Perhaps at Murray's
wedding, I shall be able to judge better how she feels towards me."

Admiral Triton accompanied his young friends up to London, where they
remained a couple of days, he taking them to see every sight that could
by any possibility be inspected during the time, while Jack spent most
of his time with Murray at the Bradshaws'. When he bade farewell, after
having promised Alick to return in a couple of weeks, he felt quite as
uncertain as at first as to Fanny's feelings towards him.

Of course every one was delighted to see him at Halliburton. Tom and
Desmond were as happy as the day was long, they only wished that Archy
Gordon, who had gone back to his friends in Scotland, could have been
with them. Gerald Desmond behaved with wonderful discretion and
propriety.

"Really, Jack, if Lieutenant Adair is as quiet and steady as his nephew
appears to be, we need no longer fear, should he come here, that he will
play the tricks we once supposed he would," observed Lucy.

"I always told you that Terence is as well conducted a young Irishman as
one can wish to meet with," answered Jack. "I will ask him to come over
and pay us his long-promised visit before I go to Ballymacree, and he
then can attend Murray's wedding with me."

Jack wrote, and Terence accepted the invitation and came. Lucy
confessed that she thought Lieutenant Adair was the most pleasing,
right-minded gentleman she had ever met.

"Of course he is," said Jack. "But then, remember that he is a half-pay
navy lieutenant, and that his paternal estate is in the Encumbered
Estate Court."

The day before Murray's wedding, Jack and Terence went up to London, and
at once called at his lodgings. They found a gentlemanly-looking man,
with the cut of a lawyer, seated with him. He significantly introduced
his friend as Mr Stapleton, "who is to undergo the same fate for which
I am destined tomorrow."

After some lively conversation, Mr Stapleton took his departure.

"Who is he?" asked Jack. "He seems a very happy fellow."

"He is the destined husband of Fanny Bradshaw," answered Alick.
"Matters, for certain reasons, were not settled till after you left
town, and therefore Mr Bradshaw did not inform you of the cause of his
coming to England. It has been a long engagement; and as Stapleton
could not go out to the West Indies,