“I am delighted to see you looking so bright and blooming, my dear Mrs Murray!” exclaimed the old admiral, shaking her warmly by the hand; “it shows that the Highland air agrees with you, notwithstanding your long sojourn in the West Indies.”
“Except in being more bracing, the climate differs but little from that to which I was accustomed in the north of Ireland till I grew up; and I was scarcely long enough in the West Indies to become acclimatised,” answered Stella, and a shade passed over her countenance as she recollected the trying scenes she had gone through during the time to which the admiral referred.
He observed it, and changed the subject. “And so you are expecting to see our old shipmate, Terence Adair?” he remarked, as he sat himself down in a chair which Murray placed for him. “I shall be heartily glad to shake him by the hand again, and to talk over old times. I haven’t forgot his making me carry his portmanteau for him, the rogue!” and the admiral chuckled and laughed, and told Stella the story while he rubbed his hands. “I made him pay, though. He thought he was going to do me out of that, but I was too sharp for him. Ha! ha! ha!” and he laughed till the tears ran down his cheeks. He was becoming more garrulous than before—another sign of advancing age, which Murray was sorry to observe. He told many of his old anecdotes, laughing as heartily at them as ever. He was interrupted by the appearance of Polly, who had been watching for an opportunity of introducing the baby, which she now brought to its mamma.
The admiral started up on seeing it. “What! I hadn’t heard of this small stranger!” he exclaimed; “is it a boy or a girl? A fine little creature, at all events! I congratulate you, my dear Mrs Murray, with all my heart. A sailor’s wife is all the better for a few small ones to occupy her thoughts when her ‘guid mon,’ as you call him in Scotland, is away from home; though I suppose you have no intention of letting Murray go to sea again just yet?”
“I hope not, indeed,” answered Stella, turning pale at the thought. “There are numberless officers who have nothing to do on shore, and he has plenty to occupy him.”
“But he ought to take a trip to sea, to prevent himself from growing rusty,” said the admiral. “We want the best officers to command Her Majesty’s ships, and he is among them. You will not contradict me on that point?”
“I am sure he is,” said Stella, with a sigh.
“Then, in case the Admiralty require his services, you will not dissuade him from accepting an appointment?”
“Oh, admiral, are they going to send him to sea?” exclaimed Stella suddenly.
“Not that I know of,” answered the admiral. “I have not been let into their secret intentions, and I don’t wish to act the part of a bird of ill-omen; though I confess that, were he to have the offer of a ship, I should advise him to accept it.”