Part 1 (2/2)
He showed this when, after having helped several of the party from the side-board, he returned with his own well-loaded plate to the table.
The guardsman watched him with astonishment, and even his brother, the barrister, thought that Jack had got an enormous appet.i.te. Jack, who was hungry, saw no reason why he should not eat till he was satisfied, and had laid in a store of food to last him till the seven o'clock dinner, for luncheon he eschewed as effeminate and an unnecessary interruption to the business of the day.
Before breakfast was concluded the post-bag was brought in, opened by Sir John, and its contents distributed. An official-looking letter, addressed to Jack, attracted universal attention.
”Who is it from?” asked Mary anxiously.
”About your prize-money, Jack?” inquired his mother. ”You are not yet again appointed to a s.h.i.+p, I hope, my dear boy?”
”I am, though!” exclaimed Jack exultingly, for the moment not thinking of his mother's feeling, ”and second of a fine new thirty-six gun frigate the _Plantagenet_, commanded by my old friend Hemming. Couldn't wish for anything better. Where there's work to be done he is sure to be sent.”
”But you will not have to go away at once, dear Jack, I trust,” cried Lucy, who loved her sailor brother dearly.
Tom said nothing, and it might have been difficult to decide whether he was about to cry or laugh. He evidently felt as much interested in the announcement as Jack himself.
”Faith, they do work you hard,” observed his guardsman brother. ”If the purchase-system was allowed in your service I suspect that buyers would be rare.”
”I am very glad it doesn't; for now, if a hardworking fellow gets his foot on the ratlines he has a chance of climbing upwards,” answered Jack. ”However, as the _Plantagenet_ has only just been commissioned, I shall be able to enjoy the civilising influences of home for a short time longer. In truth, I am almost ashamed at being pleased with the thoughts of going off again to sea; but after having knocked about all one's life as a mids.h.i.+pman it is satisfactory to feel that one is an officer in reality, with a cabin of one's own.”
”Of course, my boy; much more natural than to wish to be dangling after your sisters, or any other of the petticoat tribe who might take it into their heads to patronise you,” said Sir John, glancing with all a father's pride at his gallant son. ”To what station are you to be sent?”
”As far as I can discover, that remains as yet in the mysterious depths of my Lords Commissioners' minds,” answered Jack, glancing over some other letters. ”Hemming has an idea that it may be to the West Indies; at least such is the opinion of the Portsmouth tailors, who have generally more correct information on these matters than any one else.
Just now, when the world is so peaceably disposed, it is not of much consequence where we go; and as I have never been in those seas I would rather be sent there than anywhere else.”
”I trust that it will not be to the West Indies, my dear boy,” said Lady Rogers. ”I have read such sad accounts of the dreadful yellow fever which kills so many people, and of those terrible hurricanes which send so many s.h.i.+ps to the bottom, and devastate whole islands whenever they appear, that I tremble at the thoughts of your going there.”
”Pray don't let such an idea trouble you, mother,” answered Jack; ”the yellow fever only comes once in a way, and hurricanes appear even less frequently; so that we may hope to escape both one and the other, even if we do go there. I have no wish, however, to leave home in a hurry, and should be glad to remain long enough to receive Murray and Adair, whom I invited to come here, but I am afraid when they hear of my appointment that they will write to put off their visit till another time, which may never arrive. It is not likely that we shall be at home together again. They are capital fellows. You remember them, Lucy, when we were all on sh.o.r.e after our first trip to sea, and they came to call on us in London, and afterwards Adair went down with us for a few days into the country.”
”Yes, indeed. Mr Adair, I suppose I must now call him, was, I remember, a terrible pickle; while Mr Murray appeared to be a wonderfully sedate, taciturn young Scotchman, a pattern of correctness and propriety,” said Lucy.
”Maybe, but as n.o.ble and brave a fellow as ever breathed!” exclaimed Jack warmly. ”I should like to know what opinion you would form of him now. I must write by to-day's post, and beg him to put off other engagements if he can, and come to us at once.”
”And that terrible pickle, as Lucy calls him, your Irish friend, Mr Adair, are we to have the honour of renewing our acquaintance with him before you go away?” asked Mary. ”I must protest against having him here unless you are present to restrain his exuberant spirits, and the various eccentricities in which he may take it into his head to indulge.”
”Oh, Paddy Adair is as gentle as a pet lamb if you only manage him properly,” answered Jack, laughing. ”Those various eccentricities are merely his little frolicsome ways, which can be restrained by silken cords. There isn't a quieter fellow breathing in the society of grown-up young ladies, such as you now are. Remember, you were school girls when you saw him last, and he possibly did not think it necessary to treat you with the respect he now would.”
”He must indeed be much altered then,” observed Lucy. ”He had then a curious fancy for standing on his head, jumping out of windows, and climbing in at them too, dressing up the dogs and cats in costume, letting off squibs under horses' noses, putting gunpowder into candles, etcetera, while his tongue kept up a continued rattle from morning till night.”
”Avast there, sister,” cried Jack, interrupting her; ”I beg your pardon; you have made me speak like a sailor on the stage. I a.s.sure you that Paddy would not dream of committing any of the atrocities you enumerate; on the contrary, if you ask him what is the chief drawback to his pleasure in society he will tell you that it is an overpowering bashfulness, which prevents him from expressing himself with the fluency he desires, and that his great wish when mixing in society is to receive sympathy and gentle encouragement to enable him to feel at his ease.”
”From what I recollect of your friend, Mr Adair, I should have thought it difficult to find a young man more at his ease in any society into which he may be thrown,” observed Lady Rogers, who was somewhat matter of fact; ”I beg therefore, my dear Jack, that you will not persuade your sisters to give him any of that sympathy and gentle encouragement he wishes for, or I do not know where he will stop short.”
”Depend on me, mother, I will be as discreet as a judge,” said Jack, who had thus succeeded as he desired in turning the thoughts of Lady Rogers and his sisters from the yellow fever and hurricanes of the West Indies, and the conversation for the remainder of breakfast-time became general.
He wrote immediately to his two old messmates, begging them to come at once, and telling them of his appointment to the _Plantagenet_. Much to his regret, and possibly to that of his sisters, who were curious to see into what sort of persons the young mids.h.i.+pmen had grown, they could neither of them immediately avail themselves of his invitation. They congratulated him on his good luck, and said that as their friends were exerting their interest to get them afloat it was possible that they might ere long meet again, though as they were of the same standing in the service they could not hope all to be appointed to one s.h.i.+p. Alick Murray wrote from Scotland. He had taken under his wing a young orphan cousin, Archy Gordon, who longed to go to sea. Alick said that his great wish was to have the lad with him, should he get a s.h.i.+p, ”if not,”
he added, ”I shall be thoroughly satisfied to have him with either you or Adair, as I am sure that you will both stand his friend in case of need, and keep an eye on him at all times.”
”Of course I will,” said Jack to himself. ”Murray's friends must always be my friends, and those he cares for I must care for; however, I hope that he will not be allowed to rust long on sh.o.r.e; little chance of it when once he has made himself known.”
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