ack,
here's to your health, my boy, and success to you in whatever honest
calling you determine to follow!"

Dr Nathaniel's word was law in Mr Deane's family, as it was in several
others in the town, and he therefore quickly succeeded in smoothing down
the somewhat ruffled temper of different members of the family.

Other toasts and speeches followed, but the songs which were generally
sung on such occasions were reserved for the supper, of which all the
guests present were expected to partake, at a later hour of the day.

The ladies then rising, gracefully sailed out of the room, while the
gentlemen continued to pass the battle round for some time longer. It
was still broad daylight, though the fresh air of evening was already
blowing through the windows. Mrs Deane therefore proposed to her
female guests that they should enjoy the breeze for a while on the
Castle Terrace, which was the usual promenade of the gay world of
Nottingham, and there was a general call for hoods and gloves. The
party of ladies, as they glided out of the house, precedence being given
to the more elderly dames, took their way towards the castle, and
passing through the grand gateway which had stood so many attacks, soon
ascended the broad stone steps with massive balustrades which led in two
flights to the noble terrace in front of the building. It was well
paved with large flat stones, and with a breastwork of stone, and on the
south side of the castle a convenient arcade, where in rainy or hot
weather the gentry of the town could walk under shelter. On that
beautiful summer's evening, however, the ladies required only their
green fans to protect their eyes from the almost level rays of the
setting sun, which fans the young ones occasionally found useful for
other purposes--either to hide their faces from an unwelcome admirer, or
to beckon a too timid one, perchance. The park with its three long
avenues lay before them, and the steep declivities which ran down from
it to the river Leen were covered with woods, broken here by some old
tower which had withstood all attempts at its demolition, and there by a
jutting mass of grey rock, looking scarcely more solid than the
rock-like masonry of the tower. The new building had only been finished
the year Jack was born, as Mrs Deane was in the habit of telling any
friends who came to visit her for the first time at Nottingham. It was
built in the Italian style of architecture, with a fine dou