d admit their own wine and brandy without
charging some duty upon it. Are you ready to enter upon your duties, Mr.
Embleton?"

"Quite ready, my lord."

"Well, I have nothing for you to do, and as far as I am concerned your
duties will be a sinecure until the day we arrive in Chili. Katherine, you
must take this young gentleman in hand."

Lady Cochrane smiled. "I am new to command, Mr. Embleton. Lord Cochrane
has not been to sea since our marriage six years ago, and consequently I
am altogether in ignorance of the powers of an admiral's wife. Are you
fond of children?"

"I don't know anything about them, Lady Cochrane; I have never had any
little brothers and sisters. Of course some of my school-fellows had them,
and it always seemed to me that they were jolly little things when they
were in a good temper."

"But not at other times, Mr. Embleton?"

"Well, no," he said honestly, "they did not seem particularly nice when
they got in a passion."

"My children don't get into passions," Lady Cochrane said with a laugh,
"at least very very seldom."

"Don't praise them up too much, Katherine," her husband said. "Children
are naturally plagues; and though unfortunately I have been so busy a man
that I have not had time to do more than make their casual acquaintance, I
don't expect that they differ much from others; and besides, even I fly
into passions occasionally--"

"Occasionally?"

"Well, pretty often, if you like--I certainly shall not be surprised if I
find that they take after me."

The next two days were spent by Mr. Embleton and Stephen in exploring
Boulogne.

"I have often looked at the place from the sea," the lieutenant said, "as
we were cruising backwards and forwards, keeping a bright look-out to see
that Bonaparte's boat flotilla did not put to sea, but I did not expect
that I should some day be walking quietly about the streets."

"Lady Cochrane seems very nice, father," Stephen said presently, as they
strolled along the wharves watching the French fishing-boats come in.

"She is very nice; and so she ought to be, for she has cost Lord Cochrane
a fortune. She was a Miss Barnes, and was an orphan of a family of good
standing in the Midlands; she was under the guardianship of her cousin,
who was high sheriff of Kent when Cochrane first met her. He fell in love
with her and was accepted; he was at that time living with his uncle, the
Hon. Basil Cochrane, who had realized a large fortune in the East