ard to meet his visitor as he entered, thinking it
probable that this naval officer had come in reference to some
arrangements to be made with regard to the transports that would carry
the French army away. It was three years since he had last seen Edgar,
and the latter had grown from a boy into a young man, and the uniform
had altered him beyond recognition, for no news had been received from
England since he had left, and Mr. Muller had supposed that he was all
this time there with his father. Edgar smiled as he saw the absence of
recognition in his face.

"Don't you know me, Mr. Muller?" he asked. "I have no doubt changed a
good deal since you saw me last in the dress of an Arab."

"Mr. Edgar Blagrove!" the latter exclaimed in astonishment. "Your
disguises are endless, sir, and I think that this is the best of them,
though why you should have adopted it I do not know."

"It happens that it is not a disguise at all this time. I am what I seem
to be, a naval lieutenant. I have been serving in the navy ever since I
joined it, ten days after I sailed from here, and was through the siege
of Acre with Sir Sidney Smith. As you see, I have had the good fortune
to be promoted. I have been serving ashore since we first landed here,
and have been up to Cairo with the force that marched there as a sort of
guide and interpreter."

"I am sure I congratulate you heartily. But you don't intend to stop in
the navy, do you?"

"No, I think not. Of course I like the life, and have been so fortunate
in getting early promotion and in being mentioned in despatches that I
ought to rise very rapidly if I stayed in it, and I am sure that Sir
Sidney Smith would interest himself for me. But I do not think that it
would be fair to my father. He has reckoned on taking the management of
the business at home, and that I should be established here with you,
and probably it would be the best thing for me in the long run. The war
with France cannot last many years, and when peace comes there will, of
course, be a great reduction of the navy, and an immense number of
officers put upon half-pay, without much chance of again obtaining
employment. My time during the last three years will not have been
misspent. As a lieutenant in the service who had obtained exceptionally
rapid promotion I should be able to secure orders for stores or repairs
to any men-of-war who might put in, and the knowledge I have gained of
ships, their fittings, rigging, and so