Australia Felix

any smithy. Long Jim alone came to the door to greet him. The shopman, on whose doltish honesty Mahony would have staked his head, had profited

d there, got under cover, checked off and arranged. This was carried out in sheets of cold rain, which soaked the canvas walls and made it doubly hard to get about the clay tracks that served as streets. As if this were no

ccident, too, the fellow had suffered from frequent fits of colic or cramp, and was for ever slipping off to the township to find the spirits in which his employer refused to deal. For the unload

bear public witness to his salvation. This was no doubt one reason why the young scapegrace Tom’s almost simultaneous misconduct had been so bitter a pill for him to swallow: while, through God’s mercy, he was become an exemplar to the weaker brethren, a son of his made his name to stink in the nostrils of the reputable community. Mahony liked to believe that there was good in everybody, and thought the intolerant harshness which the boy was subjected would defeat its end. Yet it was open to question if clemency would have answered be

In a corner by the fire stood an old packing-case. He lifted the lid and thrust his hand in: it was here he kept his books. He needed no light to see by; he knew each volume by the feel. And after fumbling for a little among the tumbled c

little nest in his memory. Looked back on, she stood out in high relief against her somewhat graceless surroundings. Small doubt she was both maidenly and refined. He also remembered with a sensible pleasure her brisk service, her consideration for others. What a boon it would have been, during the past week, to have a busy, willing little woman at work, with him and for him, behin

e elsewhere: he found himself trying to call to mind Polly’s face. Except for a pair of big black eyes — magnificent eyes they seemed to him in retrospect — he had carried away with him nothing of her outward appearance. Yes, stay!— her hair: her hair was so glossy that, when the sun caught it, high lights came out on it — so much he remembered. From this he fell to wondering whether her brain kept

still, and gave a short, hearty laugh. He had just seen, in a kind of phantom picture, the feet of the sisters Beamish as they sat on the verandah edge: both

te Polly a letter — a letter that called for acknowledgment — and form an opinion of the

ISS TU

YOU BE SO KIND AS TO MAKE ME A NEW ONE? I HAVE NO LADY FRIENDS HERE TO APPLY TO FOR HELP, AND I AM SURE YOU ARE CLEVER WITH YOUR

FULLY

TOWNSHEN

RGOTTEN OUR PLEASA

the letter, in the other the candle-end stuck in a bottle that

y long. After their lapse, he twice spent an hour at the Post Office, in a fruitless attempt to get near the little win

had risen to his fl

R S

nd the stuff down by my brother, who is coming to see me on Saturday. He is working at Rotten Gu

EMA

S TR

TUR

pelling were correct; the penmanship was in the Italian style, minute, yet flowing, the letters dowered with generous loops and tails. But surely he had seen this writing before? By Jupiter, yes! This was the hand of the let

t to show himself till he had found a digger of the name of Turnham. And having watched Jim set out, at a snail’s pace and murmuring t

e gave him a pleasant shock: it was just as if Polly herself, translated into male terms, stood before him. No need, now, to cudgel his brains for her image! In looking at Ned, he looked again at Polly. The wide-awake off, the same fine, soft, black hair came to li

d out his hand and helped himself from the sherry bottle Mahony had placed on the table. And the disparity in their ages notwithstanding, there was no trace of deference in his manner. Or the sole hint of it was: he sometimes smothered a profane word, or apologised, with a winning smile, for an oath that had

warehouse in Melbourne. He had also married money, and intended in due course to stand for the Legislative Council. Behind Ned’s windy bragging Mahony thought he discerned tokens of a fond, brotherly pride. If this were so, the affair had its pathetic side; for, from what the boy said, it was evident that the successful man of business held his relatives at arm’s length. And as Ned talked on, Mahony conceived John to himself as a kind of electro-magnet, which, on

warm on the air, realizing that the overture was aimed, not at Ned in person, but at Ned as Polly’s brother. But his intuition did not reconcile him to Ned’s luke-warmness; he would have preferred a straight refusal. The best trait he could discover in the lad was his affection for his sister. This seemed genuine: he was going to see her again — getting a lift halfway, tramping the other twenty odd miles — at the end o

red apology for the trouble he had put him to. And a something, the merest nuance in Ned’s manner of receiving and pocketing the money, flas

web of his mind took on no half tints. The boy had not betrayed any actual vices; and time might be trusted to knock the bluster out of him. With this reflection Mahony dismissed Ned from his mind. He had more important things to think of, chief among which was his own state with regard to Ned’s sister. And during the fortnight that followed he went about makin

n to bear her company? Yet there was something to be said for him, too. He was very lonely. Now that Purdy had gone he was reduced, for society, to the Long Jims and Ococks of the place. What would he not give, once more to have a refined companion at his side? Certainly marriage might postpone the day on which he hoped to shake the dust of Australia off his feet. Life A DEUX would mean a larger outla

for him at the store — again by hand: little Polly had plainly no sixpences to spare. The needlework as perfect, of course; he hardly glanced at it, even when he had opened and read the letter. This was of the same deco

SAY MRS. BEAMISH WOULD BE VERY PLEASED

the top of his forty

MISS POLLY, IS, WOULD

was not to

ALL BE VER

Henry Ocock. With this third letter from Polly, he held

IME. IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES WE DO NOT THINK ANY USEFUL PURPOSE WILL BE SERVED BY YOU CALLING

ying clandestine visits to Geelong. Was it conceivable that anyone in his five senses could prefer Tilly to Poll

nother of his physique, quite unfit for work on the diggings. A strict Baptist this Hempel, and one who believed hell-fire would be his portion if he so much as guessed at the “plant” o

tion, and he covered the dista

he saw them through the door as he rode in at the gate. All three girls stood before tubs, their sleeves rolled up, their arms in the lather. At his apparition ther

xpression of surprise on the part of the good woman; but the blend of sheep-faced amazement and uncivil incr

vered as to be able to finish wipi

ave way to a very

ppiness — though ‘ow we’re h’ever goin’ to get on without Polly, I reelly don’t know. Don’t I wish it ‘ad bin one o’ my two as ‘ad tuck your fancy — that’s all! Between you an’ me, I don’t believe a blessed thing’s goin’ to come of all young Smi

did not know Mrs. Beamish. He was forced not only to sit down to

ad removed all traces of the tub. The hand was cold that he too

in-doors had betrayed him to Polly, and exaggerated the ordeal that lay before her. When once she was his wife he would not consent to her remaining inti

trip many small steps to keep up with him. When they reached

re of her dear little face still waited, as it were, for the strokes of time’s chisel. It should

I’m not going to beat about the bush with you. I

er forward; now, the rim o

raid of me, ar

he was no

you forg

y word in them by heart, and had copied and practised the bold flourish of the Dickens-like signature; that she had never let his name cross her lips; that she thought him the kindest,

ony. “Because, Polly, I’ve come t

se words said. She shut her eyes, and hid her face in her hands. Such happiness seemed imp

o care for me a little, my dear? No, don’t

most unmaidenly eagerness, yet could not subdu

id Mahony. “Tha

ou feel. This is a sacred moment for us. We are promising to take each other, you know, for richer for poorer, for better for worse — as the good old words have it. And I must warn you, my dear, you are no

d. I am strong

of you. Please God, you wil

nd confessed to the dreams he had dreamt of their wedded life. It was a radiant afternoon in the distance the sea lay deep blue, with turquoise shallows; a great white bird of a ship, her canvas spread to the breeze, was making for . . . why, to-day he