Whether or not Murray asked Stella the question on that occasion does not matter, but very shortly afterwards, Fanny told Jack that all was settled, and that she had promised to become his soon after their arrival in London, where her father intended to remain for some weeks.
Alick escorted the ladies and Mr Bradshaw to town the next day, after they had somewhat recovered their fatigue by a night’s rest.
Jack had to remain at Portsmouth to pay off the brig, though he would rather have accompanied his friends. Admiral Triton stopped also, as he said, to look after Tom and Desmond, but in reality to hear the yarns which he made the youngsters spin about their adventures.
It did not take long to pay off the poor little Supplejack, which was then towed up the harbour and placed on the mud, never again to float on blue water.
Needham heaved a deep sigh as he heard the report of her destined fate. It was too true, he found. She was to become a target for the guns of the Excellent.
“Well, well,” he said, “she has done good service in her day. It is better to be of use to the last than to be broken up, as is the lot of many a once stout ship, for firewood.”
Through the interest of Admiral Triton, Needham got charge of a ship in ordinary, where he hoped to remain till he should get appointed to one on active service.
Jack immediately on his arrival wrote to Terence, who had gone to Ballymacree; he had invited Desmond to accompany Tom to Halliburton. In reply, Terence begged him to come over to Ireland as soon as he could tear himself away from home. “Nora is of course anxious to see her boy,” he added, “so I beg you will bring him over, and Tom also, if his mother and sisters can spare him.” Jack, however, was very doubtful about going to Ballymacree at all; he had been greatly attracted by the person and manners of Fanny Bradshaw, though, to be sure, she had not said anything to make him suppose that she regarded him in any other light than that of a friend, who had rendered her and her father an essential service.
“Well, I will try it, however,” thought Jack. “Perhaps at Murray’s wedding, I shall be able to judge better how she feels towards me.”
Admiral Triton accompanied his young friends up to London, where they remained a couple of days, he taking them to see every sight that could by any possibility be inspected during the time, while Jack spent most of his time with Murray at the Bradshaws’. When he bade farewell, after having promised Alick to return in a couple of weeks, he felt quite as uncertain as at first as to Fanny’s feelings towards him.