The Crooked Stick

r secret heart a coolness in the demeanour of her old friend which troubled her. He was always so kind, so honest, so considerate. 'Tender and true' expressed her thou

the stars with strange undefined yearnings, that Harold should be right this time! He had said nothing, only showed by his manner, by his countenance, every inflexion of which she knew so well, that he dis

y constructed organ the female heart being full of all manner of strange corridors, galleries, and shafts, of utterly unknown measure and limit.

hemselves,' as Mr. Gateward expressed it, the highly original idea of a summer trip, for the

say that she doesn't look well, but a voyage must benefit her. It will give a change of i

teamer to Melbourne. From that city they would take one of the New Zealand boats, so as to pass a portion of

's mental and bodily improvement. But that was not all. With womanly quickness sharpened by a mother's instinct, she h

n say anything against him. He is clever, manly, good-looking in his way. I didn't think so at first. But somehow I don't seem to be able to know him. He is as great a s

Pollie availed herself of one of the sex's weapons, and retic

-ch

hing rich

y increasing power of a fascination which she was powerless to resist. In its present stage-such is

us foreign existence, such as in the future she might never have the chance of realising under similar conditions. Joyou

e. Coldly self-possessed as usual, however, he betrayed

asked. 'The time would not be so much longer. You have friends and relation

serious a matter to be undertaken lightly. We are doing great things in going to New Zealand and Melbourne.

would even benefit you, after your many anxieties,' continued the tempter suavely. 'There'll be not

younger lady, with a pout. 'Some people will thin

anner for which she could not account, as he bent his searching, steadfast gaze upon her. 'But you ought to see the "kin

with the tenderness one bestows on a child; and again her eyes

once,' she replied slowly. 'We require to be educated up to it. Wait until we return fro

d further controversy. 'Some of these days you will awake to your privileges, I suppos

arture. This eventually took the form of being driven to the nearest railway terminus, a short day's journey, and being deposited in a first-class carriage, with all their effects in the brake-v

ternal mystery of ocean, guarded only by the grim sandstone portals, against which so many ages of tidal force have foamed and raged-'after all we make too much of leaving home for a few months' travel. What wonders and mira

ons of wild delight. It cannot be good for any one to revel in pleasure, the mere luxurious sensation of change of scene, so intensely, so pas

of our nature, for wise reasons? Like speech, laughter, thought, they are unutterable mercies, to be reasonably used and economised. But I see your meaning, and I will guard

ally, don't you think Melbourne will be quite far enough, and very plea

l. 'I want to get a little nearer to the p

n a breezy morn saw the ladies of Corindah steaming out of the harbour on board the Cathay, a magnificent sea-

h a few mechanical senses feebly revolving, as it were. Isn't this unutterably lovely-quite an eastern fairy-tale in action? Look at those splendidly ugly Seedees in the engine-room, ghouls and a

hour, the motion was increased and perhaps complicated, whereupon an entirely new class of sensations succeeded those

constitution of the girl triumphed over temporary malaise, and soon she was enabled to sit upon deck

ir living or their reception in clubs and coteries; home-returning Australians, visiting Europe for the first time in their lives, or after many years; mere intercolonial voyagers like themselves; a successful gold-digger or two, treating themselves to first-class passages, plain of aspect, but reserved and correct of manner, as such men generally are, whatever may be said to the contrary by superficial scribes. After Pollie had got over her astonished delight at the Arabian Ni

hold property, and so on. Now Pollie was unquestionably the belle of the ship, and persons of prepossessing appearance were not scarce either; but the slight paleness and languor produced by her unwonted sensations had given her haughty beauty a tinge of softness which, when she issued from her cabin

e was enabled to realise her position. Here was she, seated almost upon the dais in point of social elevation, above the wives and daughters of the military, civil, and mercantile swells, palpably receiv

own realm, the guardian of every life so confidently entrusted to his care-where is the man who to the maiden's heart, during the long reveries of a sea voyage, so amply fills the character of a hero of romance as the captain? Who has not marked his influence in danger's darkest hour, when the moaning wind, rising fast to the shriek of the tempest, the lurid sky, the labouring b

s hand-gather around the captain to express such words of grateful confidence as are seldom yielded to man, the women tearful, the men pressing to shake his hand with honest friendliness? Such a meeting took place

plendently heroic character, and on equal terms with all the other potentates, from the first officer-a magnificent personage, and second only to the captai

and the wonders he had seen. He, nothing loath, produced from time to time, in temptingly small quantities, precious reminiscences of cyclones in the China seas, pirate schooners in the Spanish Main, slavers in Sierra Leone-for he had been in the navy-opium clippers, Chinese mail-boats taken by mutineers and never heard of after, wreck and fire, even all kinds of p

between the double rank, with the air of Caliph Haroun Al-Raschid, the men lowly salaaming as if thankful not to be doomed to death on that occasion, it was a reproduction in the romantic girl's brain of yet another chapter in the rich traditional glory of the pas

vast haven at the farther end of which Melbourne commences, on the morning of the third day. A short railway transit saw them d

ppened, an actor of world-wide reputation was performing a favourite melodrama of his own composition. This was a chance, he speciously urged, which Miss Devereux should not be su

ps glittered on either side, or faded star-like in the far distance, they were impressed wi

w the lamps glow and shimmer! What a vast size and almost sombre uniformity in the buildings which line the streets! There is something weird, too, in the elec

you come to think. There were gum-trees and blacks here "i

-but two distant from the vice-regal compartment-had been secured by the forecasting captain. The house was crammed. As the popular governor and

not help it. Something in the old tune and the reverence with which our people al

e captain. 'I never saw anything like it. You

, 'though I believe at home they think we must be esse

r sensitive nature, appreciative as well of the lightest touches of humour as the deeper tone

hen, amid the popping of champagne corks, a flow of pleasant criticism and enjoyable badinage went round-Pollie realised that she was

satisfaction with 'the way things had gone off.' 'There is so much enjoyment that it must be a little sinful. Don't you thi

test wish now and for his whole life after. Here the captain's deep voice faltered, and his expressive eyes, which had done only too much execution in their day, were fixed on hers with an ardent, well-nigh magnetic gaze. The girl trembled involuntarily for

an those who would so deeply regret her departure from the Cathay. Then, as Mrs. Devereux made the slightly perceptible movement which defined the limi