tiff had been dispelled, like the smoke from the discharge of the
_Victory's_ last gun, whereat I could hear him whisper under his breath
as he kissed her cheek softly, "All's well that ends well, my dear!"

CHAPTER FOUR.

DOWN AT PORTSMOUTH.

Next morning, ere I seemed to have been asleep five minutes, it came
upon my dreams so suddenly, I was awakened by a terrible din of drumming
and bugling from the adjacent barracks close to the line of
fortifications which at that time enclosed Portsmouth--but whose moats
and ramparts were pulled to pieces, as I have already said, some few
years ago to make room for the officers' and men's recreation grounds
and gymnasium, with other modern improvements.

Then, I could hear the heavy tramp of men marching, followed by the
hoarse sound of words of command in the distance, "Halt! Front!
Dress!"

I assure you, I really thought for the moment that the long-talked-of
French invasion, about which I had been recently reading in my
historical researches, had actually come at last and that the garrison
had been hurriedly called to arms to resist some unexpected attack on
the town.

This reminiscence of my cramming experiences, mixed up in hotch-potch
fashion with the martial echoes that caught my ear from the banging drum
and brazen bugle, at once recalled the gruesome fact that this was the
eventful day fixed for my examination on board the _Excellent_; so,
dreading lest I should be late, I incontinently jumped out of bed in a
jiffy, proceeding; albeit unconsciously, to obey the last gruff order of
the sergeant of the guard, relieving the sentries.

This, as Dad subsequently explained, was the reason for all the
commotion, the sergeant parading his men as he came up to each "post" in
turn, with the usual stereotyped formula, "Halt! Front! Dress!"

Dear me! I did "dress;" though in rather a different sense to that
implied by the sergeant's mandate, huddling on my clothes in my haste so
carelessly that I broke the button off my shirt collar and put on my
jacket the wrong way!

All my hurry, too, was to very little purpose; for, when I reached the
coffee-room of the hotel below, after getting confused and losing my
proper course amongst the many intricate passages and curving corkscrew
staircases that led downwards from the little dormitory I had occupied
right under the tiles at the back of the building, I found that neither
Dad nor mother had yet put in an appearance f