ere was not a breath of wind, and a lamp on a
table there burned without a flicker.

They had scarcely taken their seats when Manola announced Dr.
Burke, and a minute later an officer in uniform made his appearance
on the terrace. He wore a pair of blue spectacles, and advanced in
a stiff and formal manner.

"I wish you a good evening, Mrs. O'Halloran. So this is our young
friend!

"You are well, I hope, Master Repton; and are none the worse for
the inconveniences I hear you have suffered on your voyage?"

Carrie, to Bob's surprise, burst into a fit of laughter.

"What is the matter, Mrs. O'Halloran?" Dr. Burke asked, looking at
her with an air of mild amazement.

"I am laughing at you, Teddy Burke. How can you be so ridiculous?"

The doctor removed his spectacles.

"Now, Mrs. O'Halloran," he said, with a strong brogue. "Do you call
that acting fairly by me? Didn't you talk to me yourself, half an
hour yesterday, and impress upon me that I ought to be grave and
steady, now that I was going to enter upon the duties of a
pedagogue; and ain't I trying my best to act up to your
instructions, and there you burst out laughing in my face, and
spoil it all, entirely?

"Gerald said to me, 'Now mind, Teddy, it is a responsible affair.
The boy is up to all sorts of divarsions, and divil a bit will he
attend to ye, if he finds that you are as bad, if not worse, than
he is himself.'

"'But,' said I, 'it's Latin and such like that you are wanting me
to teach him; and not manners at all, at all.'

"And he says, 'It is all one. It is quiet and well behaved that you
have got to be, Teddy. The missis has been houlding out about the
iniquity of taking a spalpeen, like yourself; and it is for you to
show her that she is mistaken, altogether.'

"So I said, 'You trust me, Gerald, I will be as grave as a doctor
of divinity.'

"So I got out these glasses--which I bought because they told me
that they would be wanted here, to keep out the glare of the
sun--and I came here, and spoke as proper as might be; and then,
Mrs. O'Halloran, you burst out laughing in my face, and destroy the
whole effect of these spectacles, and all.

"Well, we must make the best of a bad business; and we will try,
for a bit, anyhow. If he won't mind me, Gerald must go to the
chaplain, as he intended to; and I pity the boy, then. I would
rather be had up before the colonel, any day, than have any matter
in dispute with him."

"You are too bad, Teddy