as was the
custom in days of yore, when half-a-dozen hogsheads of claret were on
tap at once, and anybody who asked for it got the key."

The young ladies were, perhaps, not quite so much interested with the
account Adair gave of his nephew as were their parents, or in the
prospect of seeing the future viscount. Murray feared that he should be
unable to visit Ballymacree.

"We are due at Bercaldine in the autumn," he observed. "We are
unwilling to disappoint the people there, who always look forward to our
return, and we have been so many years absent that we do not like to
remain away oftener than is necessary."

"You'll be getting your flag soon," observed Adair. "Then if you have
an appointment offered you, surely you would not wish to decline it. It
will be some time before Jack and I become admirals, although I shall
scarcely feel myself neglected if I do not get a ship. In the mean
time, I have paid several visits to the Admiralty lately to ascertain by
ocular demonstration what are my prospects, and, judging by appearances,
they are not so bad as may be supposed. By my calculations, you will
have your flag in a couple of years at the outside."

"How is that?" asked Mrs Murray.

"Why, I will tell you. Your husband, as well as Rogers, well knows the
waiting-room to which officers are ushered, who desire to pay their
respects to the First Lord of the Admiralty, to obtain anything they can
out of him. When I see a number of old post-captains collected, I
generally drop a remark that I have not come to ask for employment, but
to inquire how soon I am likely to obtain my flag. Some one is sure to
think I'm cracked, and to beg that I will say how I can possibly learn
that? My reply is that I watch the way in which my seniors go upstairs.
If they run nimbly up when summoned, I am pretty sure that they are
likely to remain on the books as long as I am, and become admirals. But
if they drag their legs up after them, and ascend at a slow pace, I feel
certain that they will be placed on the retired list, or perhaps go out
of the world altogether. On hearing this my respected seniors have
generally cast angry looks at me; and when they are summoned I follow
them out. The first few steps they go up nimbly enough, but by the
fourth or fifth they drag their legs slower. Before they are out of
sight I see them creeping on, and often blowing like grampuses with the
unusual exertion they have made. I generally p