es," said Skeff; "Captain Paynter will be here by and by to take your
orders, and know when he is to send in his boats for you; and though I
feel assured my general directions will be carried out here, and that
no public disturbance will take place, you will all be safer under the
Union Jack."

"And what of Tony Butler? When is he to arrive?" asked Bella.

"Tony," said Skeff, "is to arrive here to-night I have had a note
from his friend M'Gruder, who has gone down to meet him, and is now at
Salerno."

"And who is his friend M'Gruder?" asked Lady Lyle, superciliously.

"A rag-merchant from Leghorn," said Skeff; "but Tony calls him an
out-and-out good fellow; and I must say he did n't take five minutes to
decide when I told him Tony was coming up from Cava, and would be glad
to have his company on the road."

"These are, of course, exceptional times, when all sorts of strange
intimacies will be formed; but I _do_ hope that Tony will see that his
altered circumstances as to fortune require from him more care in the
selection of his friends than he has hitherto been distinguished for."

"Don't trouble yourself about that, my dear," said Sir Arthur; "a man's
fortune very soon impresses itself on all he says and does."

"I mistake him much," said Bella, "if any wealth will estrange him from
one of those he cared for in his humbler days. Don't you agree with me,
Alice?"

Alice made no reply, but continued to gaze at the ships through a glass.

"The danger is that he'll carry that feeling to excess," said Skeff;
"for he will not alone hold to all these people, but he 'll make you and
me hold to them too."

"That would be impossible, perfectly impossible," said my Lady, with a
haughty toss of her head.

"No, no; I cannot agree to go that far," chimed in Sir Arthur.

"It strikes me," said Alice, quietly, "we are all of us deciding a
little too hastily as to what Tony Butler will or will not do. Probably
a very slight exercise of patience would save us some trouble."

"Certainly not, Alice, after what Mr. Darner has said. Tony would seem
to have thrown down a sort of defiance to us all. We must accept him
with his belongings, or do without him."

"He shall have me on his own terms," said Skeffy. "He is a noble savage,
and I love him with all my heart."

"And you will know his rag friend?" asked Lady Lyle.

"Ay, that will I; and an Irish creature, too, that he calls Rory,--a
fellow of six feet four, with a voice