as blended with joy at my promotion--I was going to take
up my command! She has never seen me since my disgrace."

"Don't call it that, Jack; we all know there is no other blame attaches
to you than rashness."

"When rashness can make a man forget his condition, it's bad enough; but
I 'll not go back to these things. Tell me how I am to meet her."

"Perhaps it would be best I should first see Julia, and tell her you
are here. I always like to ask her advice."

"I know that of old," said Jack, with a faint smile.

"I 'll leave you in the summer-house at the end of the garden, there,
till I speak with Julia."

"Not very long, I hope."

"Not an instant; she never requires a minute to decide on what to do.
Follow me, now, along this path, and I 'll place you in your ambush. You
'll not leave it till I come."

"What a lovely spot this seems; it beats Castello hollow!"

"So we say every day. We all declare we 'd like to pass our lives here."

"Let me be one of the party, and I 'll say nothing against the
project," said Jack, as he brushed through a hedge of sweet-brier, and
descended a little slope, at the foot of which a shady summer-house
stood guardian over a well. "Remember, now," cried he, "not to tax my
patience too far. I 'll give you ten minutes, but I won't wait twenty."

L'Estrange lost no time in hastening back to the house. Julia, he heard,
was giving orders about the room for the stranger, and he found her
actively engaged in the preparation. "For whom am I taking all this
trouble, George?" said she, as he entered.

"Guess, Julia, guess! Whom would you say was best worth it?"

"Not Mr. Cutbill--whom Nelly fixed on--not Sir Marcus Cluff, whose name
occurred to myself, nor even the Pretender, Count Pracontal; and now I
believe I have exhausted the category of possible guests."

"Not any of these," said he, drawing her to his side. "Where is Nelly?"

"She went down to gather some roses."

"Not in the lower garden, I hope," cried he, eagerly.

"Wherever she could find the best--but why not there? and what do you
mean by all this mystery?"

"Go and fetch her here at once," cried he. "If she should see him
suddenly, the shock might do her great harm."

"See whom? see whom?" exclaimed she, wildly. "Don't torture me this
way!"

"Jack, her brother,--Jack Bramleigh," and he proceeded to tell how he had
found him, and in what condition; but she heard nothing of it all, for
she had sunk down on a seat