was: he was
decidedly a gentleman; and there was, throughout his conduct and
conversation, a tone of such strict propriety; there was so much
delicacy, and good feeling, and sound principle, in all he said and did,
that the Consul at length resolved, that he had no right to suspect,
and no authority to question him. He was just on the point, however, of
conferring with his daughter, when the town was suddenly enlivened, and
his attention suddenly engrossed, by the arrival of two other English
gentlemen.

CHAPTER V.

_A Tender Avowal_

IT MUST be confessed that Captain Ormsby and Major M'Intyre were two
very different sort of men to Mr. Ferrers. Never were two such gay,
noisy, pleasant, commonplace persons. They were '_on leave_' from one
of the Mediterranean garrisons, had scampered through Italy, shot
red-legged partridges all along the Barbary coast, and even smoked a
pipe with the Dey of Algiers. They were intoxicated with all the sights
they had seen, and all the scrapes they had encountered, which they
styled 'regular adventures': and they insisted upon giving everyone a
description of what everybody had heard or seen. In consequence of their
arrival, Mr. Ferrers discontinued dining with his accustomed host; and
resumed his old habit of riding up to the casino, every evening, on his
Barbary ass, to eat oranges and talk to the Consul's daughter.

'I suppose you know Florence, Mr. Ferrers?' said Major M'Intyre.

Mr. Ferrers bowed.

'St. Peter's, of course, you have seen?' said Captain Ormsby.

'But have you seen it during Holy Week?' said the major. 'That's the
thing.'

'Ah, I see you have been everywhere,' said the captain: 'Algiers, of
course?'

'I never was at Algiers,' replied Mr. Ferrers, quite rejoiced at the
circumstance; and he walked away, and played with the gazelle.

'By Jove,' said the major, with elevated eyes, 'not been at Algiers!
why, Mr. Consul, I thought you said Mr. Ferrers was a very great
traveller indeed; and he has not been at Algiers! I consider Algiers
more worth seeing than any place we ever visited. Don't you, Ormsby?'

The Consul inquired whether he had met any compatriots at that famous
place. The military travellers answered that they had not; but that Lord
Bohun's yacht was there; and they understood his lordship was about to
proceed to this island. The conversation for some time then dwelt upon
Lord Bohun, and his adventures, eccentricities, and wealth. But Cap