one hand over his eyes, while Skeff went on rambling over the odds and ends he had picked up in the course of Rory Quin's story, and the devoted love he bore to Tony himself. "By the way, they say that it was for you Garibaldi intended the promotion to the rank of officer; but that you managed to pass it to this fellow, who couldn't sign his name when they asked him for it.

"If he couldn't write, he has left his mark on some of the Neapolitans!" said Tony, fiercely; "and as for the advancement, he deserved it far more than I did."

"It was a lucky thing for that aidede-camp of Filangieri who accompanied me here, that your friend Rory hadn't got two legs, for he wanted to brain him with his crutch. Both of you had an antipathy to him, and indeed I own to concurring in the sentiment. My godfather you called him!" said he, laughing.

"I wish he had come a little closer to my bedside, that's all," muttered Tony; and Skeff saw by the expression of his features that he was once more unfortunate in his attempt to hit upon an unexciting theme.

"Alice knew of your journey here, I think you said?" whispered Tony, faintly.

"Yes. I sent them a few lines to say I was setting out to find you." "How soon could I get to Naples? Do you think they would let me move to-morrow?"

"I have asked that question already. The doctor says in a week; and I must hasten away to-night, there's no saying what confusion my absence will occasion. I mean to be back here by Thursday to fetch you."

-

"Good fellow ! Remember, though," added he, after a moment, we must take Rory. I can't leave Rory here."

Skeff looked gravely.

"He carried me when I was wounded out of the fire at Melazzo, and I'm not going to desert him now."

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Strange situation for H.M.'s

Chargé d'Affaires," said Skeff—"giving protection to the wounded of the rebel army."

"Don't talk to me of rebels. We are as legitimate as the fellows we were fighting against. It was a good stand-up fight, too-man to man some of it; and if it wasn't that my head reels so when I sit or stand up, I'd like to be at it again."

"It is a fine bull-dog- just a bull-dog," said Skeff, patting him on the head, while in the compassionate pity of his voice he showed how humbly he ranked the qualities he ascribed to him. "Ah! now I remember what it was I wished to ask you (it escaped me till this moment): who is the creature that calls himself Sam M'Gruder?"

"As good a fellow as ever stepped, and a true friend of mine. What of him?"

"Don't look as if you would tear me in pieces and scatter the fragments to the four winds of heaven. Sir, I'll not stand it-none of your buccaneering savageries to me!"

Tony laughed, and laughed heartily, at the air of offended dignity of the other; and Skeff was himself disposed at last to smile at his own anger. "That's the crying sin of your nature, Tony," said he.

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It is the one defect that spoils a really fine fellow. I tell you frankly about it, because I'm your friend; and if you don't curb it, you'll never be anything-never! never!"

"But what is this fault? you have forgotten to tell it."

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Over and over again have I told it. It is your stupid animal confidence in your great hulking form; your coarse reliance on your massive shoulders- a degenerate notion that muscle means manhood. It is here, sir-here;" and Skeff touched his forehead with the tip of his finger; "here lies the godlike attribute. And until you come to feel that, you never will have arrived at the real dignity of a great creature."

Well, if I be the friend of one, Skeffy, it will satisfy all my ambi

tion," said he, grasping his hand warmly ; "and now what of M'Gruder how did you come to know of him?"

"Officially; officially, of course. Skeffington Damer and Sam M'Gruder might revolve in ether for centuries and their orbits never cross! but it happened that this honest fellow had gone off in search of you into Sicily; and, with that blessed propensity for blundering the British subject is gifted with, had managed to offend the authorities and get imprisoned. Of course he appealed to me. They all appeal to me! but at the moment, unhappily for him, the King was appealing to me, and Cavour was appealing to me, and so was the Emperor; and, I may mention in confidence, so was Garibaldi !—not in person, but through a friend. I know these things must be. Whenever a fellow has a head on his shoulders in this world, the other fellows who have no heads find it out and work him. Ay, sir; work him! That's why I have said over and over again the stupid dogs have the best of it. I declare to you, on my honour, Tony, there are days I'd rather be you than be Skeff Damer!"

Tony shook his head.

"I know it sounds absurd, but I pledge you my sacred word of honour I have felt it."

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With all my heart I concede to him all the rough virtues you may desire to endow him with; but please to bear in mind, Master Tony, that a man of your station and your fortune cannot afford such intimacies as your friend Rory here and this M'Gruder creature.”

"Then I was a richer man when I had nothing, for I could afford it then," said Tony, sturdily; “and I tell you more, Skeffy-I mean to afford it still. There is no fellow living I love better-no, nor as well -as I love yourself; but even for your love I'll not give up the finehearted fellows who were true to me in my days of hardship, shared with me what they had, and gave me-what was better to metheir loving-kindness and sympathy."

"You'd bring down the house if you said that in the Adelphi, Tony."

"It's well for you that I can't get out of bed," said Tony, with a grim laugh.

"There it is again-another appeal to the brute man and the man brute! Well, I'll go to dinner, and I'll tell the fair Sister to prepare your barley-water, and administer it in a more diluted form than heretofore ;" and, adjusting his hat so as to display a favourite lock to the best advantage, and drawing on his gloves in leisurely fashion, Skeff Damer walked proudly away, bestowing little benevolent gestures on the patients as he passed, and intimating by certain little signs that he had taken an interest in their several cases, and saying by a sweet smile, "You'll be the better of this visit of mine. You'll see, you will."

On the evening of the 6th September a corvette steamed rapidly

out of the Bay of Naples, threading her way deviously through the

other ships of war, unacknowledged by salute-not even an ensign dipped as she passed.

"There goes the King and the monarchy," said Skeff, as he stood on the balcony with the Lyles, and pointed to the fast-retreating vessel.

"I suppose the sooner we leave the better," said Lady Lyle, whose interest in political affairs was very inferior to that she felt on personal matters.

"Skeff says that the Talisman will take us on board," said Sir Arthur.

"Yes," said Skeff; "Captain Paynter will be here by-and-by to take your orders, and know when he is to send in his boats for you; and though I feel assured my general directions will be carried out here, and that no public disturbance will take place, you will all be safer under the Union Jack."

"And what of Tony Butler? when is he to arrive?" asked Bella.

from one of those he cared for in his humbler days. Don't you agree with me, Alice?"

Alice made no reply, but continued to gaze at the ships through a glass.

The danger is that he'll carry that feeling to excess," said Skeff; "for he will not alone hold to all these people, but he'll make you and me hold to them too."

"That would be impossible, perfectly impossible," said my Lady, with a haughty toss of her head.

"No, no; I cannot agree to go that far," chimed in Sir Arthur. "It strikes me," said Alice, quiet

ly, we are all of us deciding a little too hastily as to what Tony Butler will or will not do. Probably a very slight exercise of patience would save us some trouble."

"Certainly not, Alice, after what Mr Damer has said. Tony would seem to have thrown down a sort of defiance to us all. We must accept him with his belongings, or do without him."

And you will know his rag friend?" asked Lady Lyle.

"Ay, that will I; and an Irish creature too that he calls Rory-a fellow of six feet four, with a voice like an enraged bull and a hand as wide as one of these flags!'

"It is Damon and Pythias over again, I declare!" said Lady Lyle. "Where did he pick up his monster?"

"They met by chance in England, and, equally by chance, came together to Italy, and Tony persuaded him to accompany him and join Garibaldi. The worthy Irishman, who loved fighting and was not very particular as to the cause, agreed; and though he had originally came abroad to serve in the Pope's army, some offence they had given him made him desert, and he was well pleased not to return home without, as he said, 'batin' somebody.' It was in this way he became a Garibaldian. The fellow,

it seems, fought like a lion; he has been five times wounded, and was left for dead on the field; but he bears a charm which he knows will always protect him."

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"A charm-what is the charm?" "A medallion of the Pope, which he wears around his neck, and always kisses devoutly before he goes into battle."

"The Pope's image is a strange emblem for a Garibaldian, surely," said Sir Arthur, laughing.

"Master Rory thinks it will dignify any cause; and as he never knew what or for whom he was fighting, this small bit of copper saved him a world of trouble and casuistry; and so in the name of the Holy Father he has broken no end of Neapolitan skulls."

"I must say Mr Butler has surrounded himself with some choice associates," said Lady Lyle; "and all this time I have been encouraging myself to believe that so very young a man would have had no connections, no social relations, he could not throw off without difficulty."

"The world will do all this sifting process for him, if we only have patience," said Sir Arthur; and indeed it is but fair to say that he spoke with knowledge, since, in his own progress through life, he had already made the acquaintance of four distinct and separate classes in society, and abandoned each in turn for that above it.

"Was he much elated, Mr Damer," asked Lady Lyle, "when he heard of his good fortune?"

"I think he was at first; but it made so little impression on him, that more than once he went on to speculate on his future, quite for getting that he had become independent; and then, when he remembered it, he certainly did look very happy and cheerful."

"And what sort of plans has he?" asked Bella.

"They're all about his mother; everything is for her. She is to keep that cottage, and the ground about it, and he is to make a garden

VOL. XCVI.-NO. DXC.

At the moment, too, a young midshipman saluted Damer from the street, and informed him that the first cutter was at the jetty to take the party off to the Talisman; and Captain Paynter advised them not to delay very long, as the night looked threatening. Lady Lyle needed no stronger admonition; she declared that she would go at once; and although the Captain's own gig, as an attention of honour, was to be in to take her, she would not wait, but set out immediately.

"You'll take care of me, Skeffy,' said Alice, "for I have two letters to write, and shall not be ready before eleven o'clock."

For a while all was bustle and confusion. Lady Lyle could not make up her mind whether she would finally accept the frigate as a refuge or come on shore again the next day. There were perils by land and by water, and she weighed them and discussed them, and turned fiercely on everybody who agreed with her, and quarrelled with all round. Sir Arthur, too, had his scruples, as he bethought him of the effect that would be produced by the fact that a man of his station and importance had sought the protection of a ship of war; and he asked Skeff if some sort of brief protest-some explanation-should not be made in the public papers, to show that he had taken the step in compliance with female fears, and not from the dictates of his own male wisdom. "I should be sorry, sincerely sorry to affect the

3 A

Funds," said he; and really the remark was considerate.

As for Bella, she could not bear being separated from Skeffy, he was so daring, so impulsive, as she said, and with all this responsibility on him now-people coming to him for everything, and all asking what was to be done—he needed more than ever support and sympathy.

And thus is it the world goes on, as unreal, as fictitious, as visionary as anything that ever was put on the stage and illuminated by footlights. There was a rude realism outside in the street, however, that compensated for much of this. There, all was wildest fun and jollity; not the commotion of a people in the throes of a revolution, not the highly-wrought passion of an excited populace mad with triumph; it was the orgie of a people who deemed the downfall of a hated government a sort of carnival occasion, and felt that mummery and tomfoolery were the most appropriate expressions of delight.

Through streets crowded with this dancing, singing, laughing, embracing, and mimicking mass, the Lyles made their way to the jetty reserved for the use of the ships of war, and soon took their places, and were rowed off to the frigate, Skeffy waving his adieux till darkness rendered his gallantry unnoticed.

All his late devotion to the cares of love and friendship had made such inroads on his time that he scarcely knew what was occurring, and had lamentably failed to report to "the Office" the various steps by which revolution had advanced, and was already all but installed as master of the kingdom. Determined to write off a most telling despatch, he entered the hotel, and, seeing Alice engaged letter-writing at one table, he quietly installed himself at another, merely saying, "The boat will be back by midnight, and I have just time to send off an important despatch."

Alice looked up from her writing, and a very faint smile curled her lip. She did not speak, however;

Ah, yes; Bella told me that. Bella herself, indeed, only learned to feel an interest in them through me; but, as I told her, the woman who will one day be an ambassadress cannot afford to be ignorant of the great European game in which her husband is a player."

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'Quite true; but I have no such ambitions before me; and fortunate it is, for really I could not rise to the height of such lofty themes.”

Skeff smiled pleasantly; her humility soothed him. He turned to the last paragraph he had penned, and re-read it.

"By the way," said Alice, carelessly, and certainly nothing was less apropos to what they had been saying, though she commenced thus"By the way, how did you find Tony looking-improved, or the reverse?"

"Improved in one respect; fuller, browner, more manly, perhaps; but coarser; he wants the-you know what I mean-he wants this!" and he swayed his arm in a bold sweep, and stood fixed, with his hand extended.

"Ah, indeed!" said she, faintly.