rion_ was not seen, even
Jack began to feel somewhat anxious. She was not likely to have gone
ahead of the _Empress_, which was the faster ship of the two, nor could
she have dropped so far astern as to be altogether out of sight in so
short a time. Still, as Jack observed to Tom, "They had often, during
their early days, been inclined to give each other up for lost, and
always met again," and he still hoped that such would be the case. At
last, however, when the shores of Old England appeared in sight, he
began to dread having to tell his sister Lucy his anxiety about her
husband. Proceeding up Channel, Spithead was reached, and the _Empress_
immediately received orders to go into harbour to be paid off.

Jack wisely, when writing to his wife, who, with Lucy, was staying at
Lady Rogers', did not speak of his anxiety about Adair, but merely said
that he had parted from him at sea and hoped the _Orion_, which had
proved herself rather a slower ship than the _Empress_, would soon make
her appearance at Spithead. Murray and Stella, with their children,
were, he learned, at Bercaldine, for which he was sorry, as he thought
he might have had the satisfaction of meeting them in the south. Some
days must elapse before he could pay off his ship; he fully expected
that Julia and Lucy would forthwith come down with their elder girls to
Southsea, though he felt very much inclined to advise them to wait. Tom
was glad to find that Archie Gordon had been promoted for more than a
year, and was now serving in the Channel squadron, so that he was very
likely to fall in with him before long. As Jack had expected, scarcely
two days had passed since the _Empress_ had dropped anchor, before Julia
and Lucy arrived at Southsea, each with a little girl, the very image of
their mothers. Jack had the happiness of hearing that a little Jack had
been born a few months after he had left England, and was grown into a
fine chubby fellow, and that if the small Lucy was the image of her
mamma, still more so was young Jack that of his papa. Poor Lucy began
to look very sorrowful, when day after day went by, and the _Orion_ did
not appear.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

A VISIT TO THE GRAVE OF AN OLD FRIEND--THE THREE OLD SHIPMATES MEET--
DESMOND IN IRELAND--LAYS CLAIM TO A TITLE AND ESTATE--THE POST CAPTAINS
TAKE TO YACHTING--CRUISES ON BOARD THE STELLA--A NAVAL REVIEW--DOWN
CHANNEL--A GALE--A RUN UP THE IRISH SEA--DUBLIN REACHED--GERALD DESMOND
H