At Large

drowning. But Mr. Miles was in other ways an exceptional visitor. He contrived to create entertainment instead of requiring it. He was no anxiety to anybody; he upset no household

rd. He had little peculiarities which would not have recommended other men, but which in his case were considered virtues: he was quite artless in

ndignantly resented by the Graysbrooke people. They put upon his peculiarities

ionality; they are natural. Oh that we were all Australian

e ladies through a crowded lock, the offence was hushed up with a for

the drawing-room, paused on th

me in all these years," severely to Ali

. "He walked in with his pipe, and I really did not lik

rs. Parish assumed an indulgent tone.) "He is not used to such restraints. Y

lady came to Alice, a

do not drink such stuff in the bush, and he must have what he is accustomed to. I will arra

Mrs. Parish that the guest was a noble creature, for whose personal comfort it was impossible to

n-had been in itself enough to plant in her heart a very real regard for Mr. Miles. That was

came a shade deeper. Then he made a clean breast of the affair, in his usual quiet tone, but with a nearer approach to diffidence than he had yet shown them. He had gone out for a solitary pull, and had no sooner started than a cadaverous creature with a tow-rope pestered him for a job. Miles had refused the man; doubted his strength to tow a flea wi

Miles walk quickly up the drive in his shirt-sleeves. It transpired that he had given his co

ng half so bad in my own country. If you aren't used to it, it k

pensity to odd and impulsive generosity; and the point told considerably

for the threat. When he paid Alice his first compliment he did so without the smallest hesitation, and in his ordinary tone; and his compliments were of the most direct order. They once heard him threaten to thrash a bargee for ill-treating a horse, and they were amazed when the man sulkily desisted; the threat was so gently and dispassionately uttered. As for his adventures, they were told with so much of detail and gravity that the ma

y, Mr. Miles seemed to be eloquently enumerating the resources and capabilities of some remote district of the Antipodes; for though she spent some minutes getting a book, he took no notice of her presence in the room. On

seemed evident that Mr. Miles

hen she had finished, Mr. Miles coolly asked her to sing again. The following night he extracted three songs from her. Then Mr. Miles began to spend less time in his h

retence of polite assistance, not he. But he flung himself in a chair, threw back his head, and drank in every note. At first it was generally with his back to the piano, and always with closed eyes. Then he fou

interest. Thenceforth he had made himself agreeable to both ladies, whereas before he had ignored them both. Now, although she knew well enough that Miles's attentions, so far as she was concerned, could be but politic, yet such was the inveterate vanity of

inks him a hero, and she awaited results. She soon fancied that she saw some. She thought that Miles's habitual insouciance was a trifle less apparent when he conversed with Alice; certainly his eyes began

, and coloured wit

se!" she sai

elf with cataloguing Mr. Miles's kingly attributes. Here Alice could not contradict her. The old lady even spoke of the station in Queensland and the house at Sydney. Encouraged by the girl's silence, however, she overshot t

never once occurred to her. An innocent pleasure was poisoned for her. She did not quite give up the songs, and the rest

ted in the newspapers. Alice saw the announcement, and knew that in two

and beginning to think of him daily instead of hourly-she asked herself whether this was really love. At nineteen, it was possible to get through a day-days, even-without devoting sentimental minutes to the absent one. Alice was at least madly in

rience which came to her at first-hand. Alice was honoured with two proposals of marriage, and in each case the rejected (both were wife-hunting) consoled himself elsewhere within three months. To this groundwork Mrs. Parish added some judicious facts from her own experience; and this old lady happen

uld her doubts into a definite and logical form. She did arrive at a conclusion-when she learned that Dick was nearly home. This conclusion was, that, wha

alled the old romance. The manly way in which he afterwards accepted his fate touched her still more. She began to think that she might after

by Dick. It made her more than half-inclined to give him something to be jealous of. Accordingly she was once or twice so m

ad asked no more. But Dick had never asked one word about Mr. Miles until he had been in England a fortnight, and then he offended her deeply. Up to that point her interest in Dick had been gradually growing more tender; she felt him to be true and brave, and honoured him; and contrasted her own fickleness with his honest worth. Once or twice she f

then the conduct of the other one was so different! Her manner instinctively warmed towards Mr. Miles: she should be

Was it possible that his suspicion could be absolutely groundless? Was it not credible that he might have reasons for speaking-mistaken ones, of course-which he could not

ed idly into the garden, and presently came upon a rather droll sight: her father and Mr. Miles, sound asleep, side by side, in a couple of basket-chairs under the shade of a weeping willow. The girl conceived a happy roguery: what a subject for a photograp

id she mischievously. "Well, here is yo

g glass. He had no sooner held it up to the light than it slipped thro

eant to be. Already blaming herself for having yielded to a silly impulse, and one which was even open to wrong construction, Alice said no more; and presently, when the Australian gravely begged her forgiveness, it was granted with equal gravity. Neverthele

d-bye, she asked him (casually) if he would come on Friday afternoon-the day of her dance-and help with the floor and things. She really wished him to come very much, for she foresaw an opportunity for explana

wn, on pleasure bent. The little jaunt had been long

n Thursday

so that a certain little drama, not widely differing from that astute legislator's preco

s Hut. They did not remain within above ten seconds; but during those ten seconds the genus loci-who was in his customary place on the bunk-heard

low and unconcerned; "I've seen it before; bes

cabbage-tree hat and side-spring boots rose swiftly, and peered stealthily after them. What he saw caused hi

gh the streets at a double. He followed them to Waterloo. He got into the same train with them. They got out at a station on the loop line; he got out also, paid his fare to the ticket collector, and once more dogged his quarry. An hour later the cabbage-tree hat was a

as on the 1