“Indeed!”

“Yes, to be sure.  Have we not, doctor?”

“We have, admiral.”

“Good; and what, now, Miss Flora, do you suppose it is?”

“I really cannot say.”

“Why, it’s change of air, to be sure.  You must get away from here as quickly as you can, or there will be no peace for you.”

“Yes,” added Mr. Chillingworth, advancing; “I am quite convinced that change of scene and change of place, and habits, and people, will tend more to your complete recovery than any other circumstances.  In the most ordinary cases of indisposition we always find that the invalid recovers much sooner away from the scene of his indisposition, than by remaining in it, even though its general salubrity be much greater than the place to which he may be removed.”

“Good,” said the admiral.

“Then we are to understand,” said Henry, with a smile, “that we are no longer to be your guests, Admiral Bell?”

“Belay there!” cried the admiral; “who told you to understand any such thing, I should like to know?”

“Well, but we shall look upon this house as yours, now; and, that being the case, if we remove from it, of course we cease to be your guests any longer.”

“That’s all you know about it.  Now, hark ye.  You don’t command the fleet, so don’t pretend to know what the admiral is going to do.  I have made money by knocking about some of the enemies of old England, and that’s the most gratifying manner in the world of making money, so far as I am concerned.”

[Illustration]

“It is an honourable mode.”

“Of course it is.  Well, I am going to—­what the deuce do you call it?”

“What?”

“That’s just what I want to know.  Oh, I have it now.  I am going to what the lawyers call invest it.”

“A prudent step, admiral, and one which it is to be hoped, before now, has occurred to you.”

“Perhaps it has and perhaps it hasn’t; however, that’s my business, and no one’s else’s.  I am going to invest my spare cash in taking houses; so, as I don’t care a straw where the houses may be situated, you can look out for one somewhere that will suit you, and I’ll take it; so, after all, you will be my guests there just the same as you are here.”

“Admiral,” said Henry, “it would be imposing upon a generosity as rare as it is noble, were we to allow you to do so much for us as you contemplate.”

“Very good.”

“We cannot—­we dare not.”

“But I say you shall.  So you have had your say, and I’ve had mine, after which, if you please, Master Henry Bannerworth, I shall take upon myself to consider the affair as altogether settled.  You can commence operations as soon as you like.  I know that Miss Flora, here—­bless her sweet eyes—­don’t want to stay at Bannerworth Hall any longer than she can help it.”

“Indeed I was urging upon Henry to remove,” said Flora; “but yet I cannot help feeling with him, admiral, that we are imposing upon your goodness.”