ends to
me for my disappointment in not getting my promotion."

"I say, Archie, I suppose that you will be appointed to the same craft?"
exclaimed Desmond.

"Nae doot about it, mon," answered Archie; "I've a notion it's the doing
of our cousin, Admiral McAlpine, who returned home not long ago from the
West Indies, and would of course have been looking after our interests,
for he is a very kind man."

"I suspect that Mrs Murray considers it a very cruel kindness,"
observed the admiral; "but every sailor's wife must be prepared to be
parted from her husband, and to make the most of him when he is on
shore."

"He is a lucky fellow who has got a wife to be parted from," said
Terence, thinking of Lucy; "at all events, when he is away, he can look
forward to the happiness of being again united to her, instead of having
to come home, as is the lot of some of us, without anyone who cares for
him to give him a welcome; so the favours of Heaven are very fairly
divided, and in my opinion Murray has the best of it, though it may give
him and his wife a severe pang to part from each other."

"Here they come, and we shall learn how they have settled the matter,"
observed the admiral; "but as duty has ever been my friend Murray's
guiding star, I am very sure that he will not allow his inclination to
prevent him from acting as he thinks right, and, unless I am mistaken as
to his wife's character, she will not utter a word to prevent him."

No one would have supposed from the countenances of Alick and Stella how
much their hearts were agitated. "I am sorry, admiral, we must give up
our projected cruise for to-morrow, and cut yours and Adair's visit
short, as we shall have much to do in preparing to leave Bercaldine,
though I must beg you to stay as long as we remain," said Alick, quite
calmly. "We must treat you without ceremony; and I know, Adair, that
you and Desmond will lend a hand in setting things in order for our
departure."

"Then you have made your mind up to accept the command of the _Opal_,"
said the admiral. "I said it would be so; I was sure of it. I must
compliment Mrs Murray, for there are some wives, who don't love their
husbands a jot the better, who would have turned the scale the other
way. Duty, my lads, duty should carry everything before it," continued
the admiral, turning to the midshipmen. "Learn a lesson from your
superiors, and never let anything induce you to swerve from duty!"

Murray, of cour