g
you, particularly. What do you feel, Bob?"

"I think Bob feels as if he wants a holiday," Captain O'Halloran
put in.

"Well, then, we must tell the professor that we don't want him to
come, for a bit. Of course, Teddy Burke has given up coming,
already.

"But if you have a holiday, Bob, what will you do with yourself?"

"I don't think I shall get any better here, Carrie. I think I want
change of air."

"Nonsense, Bob! You can't be as bad as all that; and you never said
anything about it, before.

"If he is not well, you must ask Teddy Burke to come up to see him,
Gerald. Besides, how can he have change of air? The only place he
could go to would be Tetuan, and it would be hotter there than it
is here."

"I think, Carrie," Captain O'Halloran said, "I can prescribe for
him without calling Teddy Burke in. I fancy the very thing that
would get Bob set up would be a sea voyage."

"A sea voyage!" his wife repeated. "Do you mean that he should go
back to England? I don't see anything serious the matter with him.
Surely there cannot be anything serious enough for that."

"No, not so serious as that, Carrie. Just a cruise for a bit--on
board the Antelope, for example."

Mrs. O'Halloran looked from one to the other; and then, catching a
twinkle in Bob's eye, the truth flashed across her.

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Gerald," she said, laughing
in spite of herself. "You have quite frightened me. I see now.
Captain Locket has invited Bob to go for a cruise with him, and all
this about his being ill is nonsense, from beginning to end. You
don't mean to say that you have been encouraging Bob in this
ridiculous idea!"

"I don't know about encouraging, Carrie; but when he put it to me
that he had been working very steadily, for the last six months;
and that he had got into no scrapes; and that he had really earned
a holiday, and that this would be a very jolly one; I did not see
any particular reason why he shouldn't have it."

"No particular reason! Why, the Antelope is a privateer; and if she
is going to cruise about, that means that she is going to fight,
and he may get shot."

"So he may here, Carrie, if a ball happens to come the right way.

"I think Bob certainly deserves a reward for the way he has stuck
to his lessons. You know you never expected he would do as he has
done; and I am sure his uncle would be delighted, if he heard how
well he speaks Spanish.

"As to his health, the boy is well