merica and spend it. They will take good
care there that he sucks no blood out of them; for, although an American
would always rather lose a drop of blood than a dollar, they keep a
pretty sharp look out upon both."

"The proposal can be made to him," said Henry, "at all events. It is one
which I don't dislike, and probably one that he would embrace at once;
because he seems, to me, to have completely done with ambition, and to
have abandoned those projects concerning which, at one time, he took
such a world of trouble."

"Don't you trust to that," said the admiral. "What's bred in the bone
don't so easily get out of the flesh; and once or twice, when Master
Varney has been talking, I have seen those odd looking eyes of his flash
up for a moment, as if he were quite ready to begin his old capers
again, and alarm the whole country side."

"I must confess," said Charles Holland, that I myself have had the
impression once or twice that Varney was only subdued for a time, and
that, with a proper amount of provocation, he would become again a very
serious fellow, and to the full as troublesome as he has been."

"Do you doubt his sincerity?" said Henry.

"No, I do not do that, Henry: I think Varney fully means what he says;
but I think, at the same time, that he has for so long lead a strange,
wild, and reckless life, that he will find it very far from easy, if
indeed possible, to shake off his old habits and settle down quietly, if
not to say comfortably."

"I regret," said Henry, "that you have such an impression; but, while I
do so, I cannot help admitting that it is, to a considerable extent, no
more than a reasonable one; and perhaps, after all, my expectation that
Varney will give us no more trouble, only amounts to a hope that he will
not do so, and nothing more. But let us consider; there seems to be some
slight difference of opinion among us, as to whether we should take up
our residence at this new house of ours, which we did not know we owned,
at Dearbrook, or proceed to London, and there establish ourselves, or
again return to Bannerworth Hall, and, by a judicious expenditure of
some money, make that a more habitable place than it has been for the
last twenty years."

"Now, I'll tell you what," said the admiral, "I would do. It's quite out
of the question for any body to live long unless they see a ship; don't
you think so, Miss Flora?"

"Why, how can you ask Flora such a question, uncle," said Charles
H