The Three Lieutenants | Page 4

to indulge."
"Oh, Paddy Adair is as gentle as a pet lamb if you only manage him
properly," answered Jack, laughing. "Those various eccentricities are
merely his little frolicsome ways, which can be restrained by silken
cords. There isn't a quieter fellow breathing in the society of grown-up
young ladies, such as you now are. Remember, you were school girls
when you saw him last, and he possibly did not think it necessary to
treat you with the respect he now would."
"He must indeed be much altered then," observed Lucy. "He had then a
curious fancy for standing on his head, jumping out of windows, and
climbing in at them too, dressing up the dogs and cats in costume,

letting off squibs under horses' noses, putting gunpowder into candles,
etcetera, while his tongue kept up a continued rattle from morning till
night."
"Avast there, sister," cried Jack, interrupting her; "I beg your pardon;
you have made me speak like a sailor on the stage. I assure you that
Paddy would not dream of committing any of the atrocities you
enumerate; on the contrary, if you ask him what is the chief drawback
to his pleasure in society he will tell you that it is an overpowering
bashfulness, which prevents him from expressing himself with the
fluency he desires, and that his great wish when mixing in society is to
receive sympathy and gentle encouragement to enable him to feel at his
ease."
"From what I recollect of your friend, Mr Adair, I should have thought
it difficult to find a young man more at his ease in any society into
which he may be thrown," observed Lady Rogers, who was somewhat
matter of fact; "I beg therefore, my dear Jack, that you will not
persuade your sisters to give him any of that sympathy and gentle
encouragement he wishes for, or I do not know where he will stop
short."
"Depend on me, mother, I will be as discreet as a judge," said Jack,
who had thus succeeded as he desired in turning the thoughts of Lady
Rogers and his sisters from the yellow fever and hurricanes of the West
Indies, and the conversation for the remainder of breakfast-time
became general.
He wrote immediately to his two old messmates, begging them to come
at once, and telling them of his appointment to the Plantagenet. Much
to his regret, and possibly to that of his sisters, who were curious to see
into what sort of persons the young midshipmen had grown, they could
neither of them immediately avail themselves of his invitation. They
congratulated him on his good luck, and said that as their friends were
exerting their interest to get them afloat it was possible that they might
ere long meet again, though as they were of the same standing in the
service they could not hope all to be appointed to one ship. Alick
Murray wrote from Scotland. He had taken under his wing a young

orphan cousin, Archy Gordon, who longed to go to sea. Alick said that
his great wish was to have the lad with him, should he get a ship, "if
not," he added, "I shall be thoroughly satisfied to have him with either
you or Adair, as I am sure that you will both stand his friend in case of
need, and keep an eye on him at all times."
"Of course I will," said Jack to himself. "Murray's friends must always
be my friends, and those he cares for I must care for; however, I hope
that he will not be allowed to rust long on shore; little chance of it
when once he has made himself known."
Adair was in Ireland. "Things are not quite so bad as I expected to find
them in the halls of my ancestors," he wrote. "Although the estate with
its thousands of acres of forest and bog was knocked down as I told you,
the old castle of Ballymacree, with a few dirty acres surrounding it, was
bought back again, and still serves as a residence for my father and
mother, and the best part of a score of my brothers and sisters, and the
wives and husbands and children of the elder ones--a pretty large party
we make, you may fancy. I felt myself quite lost at first among them all,
and the noise and confusion which prevailed after the quiet and
regularity of a man-of-war quite confounded me; however, I have got
accustomed to it now, and can join heartily in the fun and frolic which
goes on from morning till night, and considering my bashful and
retiring disposition, this will show you that I feel myself at home and
perfectly happy."
"I said so," exclaimed Jack triumphantly, showing the letter to his
sisters; "I