A NAVAL CONQUEST.


It was the habit of the Doctor and the Admiral to accompany each other
upon a morning ramble between breakfast and lunch. The dwellers in
those quiet tree-lined roads were accustomed to see the two figures, the
long, thin, austere seaman, and the short, bustling, tweed-clad
physician, pass and repass with such regularity that a stopped clock has
been reset by them. The Admiral took two steps to his companion's three,
but the younger man was the quicker, and both were equal to a good four
and a half miles an hour.

It was a lovely summer day which followed the events which have been
described. The sky was of the deepest blue, with a few white, fleecy
clouds drifting lazily across it, and the air was filled with the low
drone of insects or with a sudden sharper note as bee or bluefly shot
past with its quivering, long-drawn hum, like an insect tuning-fork. As
the friends topped each rise which leads up to the Crystal Palace, they
could see the dun clouds of London stretching along the northern skyline,
with spire or dome breaking through the low-lying haze. The
Admiral was in high spirits, for the morning post had brought good news
to his son.

"It is wonderful, Walker," he was saying, "positively wonderful, the way
that boy of mine has gone ahead during the last three years. We heard
from Pearson to-day. Pearson is the senior partner, you know, and my boy
the junior--Pearson and Denver the firm. Cunning old dog is Pearson, as
cute and as greedy as a Rio shark. Yet he goes off for a fortnight's
leave, and puts my boy in full charge, with all that immense business in
his hands, and a freehand to do what he likes with it. How's that for