udness, if she ever had been loud, was
certainly all gone,--and her fastness, if ever she had been fast, had
been worn out of her. She was an old woman, with the relics of great
beauty, idolizing her two sons for whom all her life had been a
sacrifice, in weak health, and prepared, if necessary, to sit in silent
awe at the feet of the Earl who had been so good to her boy.

"I don't know how to thank you for what you have done," she said, in a
low voice.

"No thanks are required," said the Earl. "He is the same to us as if he
were our own." Then she raised the old man's hand and kissed it,--and
the old man owned to himself that he had made a mistake.

As to Jack Neville--. But Jack Neville shall have another chapter opened
on his behalf.

CHAPTER IV.

JACK NEVILLE.

John is a very respectable name;--perhaps there is no name more
respectable in the English language. Sir John, as the head of a family,
is certainly as respectable as any name can be. For an old family
coachman it beats all names. Mr. John Smith would be sure to have a
larger balance at his banker's than Charles Smith or Orlando Smith,--or
perhaps than any other Smith whatever. The Rev. Frederic Walker
might be a wet parson, but the Rev. John Walker would assuredly be
a good clergyman at all points, though perhaps a little dull in his
sermons. Yet almost all Johns have been Jacks, and Jack, in point of
respectability, is the very reverse of John. How it is, or when it
is, that the Jacks become re-Johned, and go back to the original and
excellent name given to them by their godfathers and godmothers, nobody
ever knows. Jack Neville, probably through some foolish fondness on his
mother's part, had never been re-Johned,--and consequently the Earl,
when he made up his mind to receive his sister-in-law, was at first
unwilling to invite his younger nephew. "But he is in the Engineers,"
said Lady Scroope. The argument had its weight, and Jack Neville was
invited. But even that argument failed to obliterate the idea which had
taken hold of the Earl's mind. There had never yet been a Jack among the
Scroopes.

When Jack came he was found to be very unlike the Nevilles in
appearance. In the first place he was dark, and in the next place he
was ugly. He was a tall, well-made fellow, taller than his brother,
and probably stronger; and he had very different eyes,--very dark
brown eyes, deeply set in his head, with large dark eyebrows. He wore
his black ha