of Wight.

It was the first of several pleasant trips the three old friends with
their young people took on board the _Stella_. The captains declared
that they felt like boys again, and that it was the happiest time in
their lives. They had picnics at Alum Bay, Netley Abbey, on the shores
of Southampton Water; they pulled up Beaulieu River in the boats, and
several times sailed round the Isle of Wight.

Adair received a letter from his nephew Gerald, giving a hopeful account
of his prospects.

"What do you say to a trip round to Dublin to congratulate him if he
succeeds, or to console the poor fellow if he fails?" said Murray. "You
will come, I am sure, and I dare say Jack will have no objection to the
trip."

Both Adair and Jack were perfectly ready to accept the invitation. Mrs
Rogers expressed her readiness, and Lucy undertook to remain at Ryde to
look after the children. It was finally settled that the eldest Miss
Murray and Miss Rogers should go with the yacht, with, of course, young
Alick, while the rest remained behind. It was arranged that the
_Stella_ should sail as soon as a grand review of the fleet, which was
about to take place, was over. The review was in honour of a visit paid
to the Queen by the Sultan of Turkey and the Pasha of Egypt, or rather
to exhibit Britannia's might and power to the two Eastern potentates.
Murray had invited several friends of his own, as well as of Jack's and
Adair's, to see the fleet. As soon as they were on board, the _Stella_
got under way, and making sail ran down the two lines, the one composed
of lofty line-of-battle ships and frigates, relics of days gone by,
consisting of the _Victory_, the _Duke of Wellington_, the _Donegal_,
the _Revenge_, the _Saint Vincent_, the _Royal George_, the _Saint
George_, the _Dauntless_, and many others, whose names recalled the
proudest days of England's glory, but which were probably three or four
times the size of the old ships, with a weight of metal immensely
surpassing their predecessors. In the other line were cupola or
turret-ships; iron-clads, with four or five huge guns, armoured screw
frigates, and screw corvettes, and rams--hideous to look at, but
formidable monsters--and gun-boats innumerable, like huge beetles turned
on their backs, each with a single gun capable of dealing destruction on
the proudest of the ancient line-of-battle ships.

The fleet getting under way stood to the eastward, when they formed in
per