JACK NEVILLE.


John is a very respectable name;--perhaps there is no name more
respectable in the English language. Sir John, as the head of a family,
is certainly as respectable as any name can be. For an old family
coachman it beats all names. Mr. John Smith would be sure to have a
larger balance at his banker's than Charles Smith or Orlando Smith,--or
perhaps than any other Smith whatever. The Rev. Frederic Walker
might be a wet parson, but the Rev. John Walker would assuredly be
a good clergyman at all points, though perhaps a little dull in his
sermons. Yet almost all Johns have been Jacks, and Jack, in point of
respectability, is the very reverse of John. How it is, or when it
is, that the Jacks become re-Johned, and go back to the original and
excellent name given to them by their godfathers and godmothers, nobody
ever knows. Jack Neville, probably through some foolish fondness on his
mother's part, had never been re-Johned,--and consequently the Earl,
when he made up his mind to receive his sister-in-law, was at first
unwilling to invite his younger nephew. "But he is in the Engineers,"
said Lady Scroope. The argument had its weight, and Jack Neville was
invited. But even that argument failed to obliterate the idea which had
taken hold of the Earl's mind. There had never yet been a Jack among the
Scroopes.

When Jack came he was found to be very unlike the Nevilles in
appearance. In the first place he was dark, and in the next place he
was ugly. He was a tall, well-made fellow, taller than his brother,
and probably stronger; and he had very different eyes,--very dark
brown eyes, deeply set in his head, with large dark eyebrows. He wore
his black hair very short, and had no beard whatever. His features