WISDOM 
 
 ESAU 
 
 C.H.CHOMLEY 
 
 AND 
 
 R.M.OUTHWAITE
 
 iOIIV. OF 
 
 y- u 
 
 CALIF. LIBEAHY. WS UOU* 
 
 \-t/i/*
 
 a
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 

 
 THE 
 
 WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 BY 
 
 R. L. OUTHWAITE 
 
 AND 
 
 C. H. CHOMLEY 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED 
 NEW YORK
 
 Entered at Stationers' Hall 
 
 Copyright, 1901, by 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited 
 
 All rights reserved.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 BOOK I. ANTICIPATION .... I 
 
 BOOK II. PROBATION . . . 91 
 
 BOOK III. REALISATION . 207 
 
 2135382
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ON an evening of early summer in the year 1863 
 two bronzed and bearded men sat by a camp fire 
 on a three-chain road in the north-eastern district 
 of Victoria. Their clothes were rough, and the shine 
 upon leggings and riding-breeches bore witness to 
 many days in the saddle, for it was a fortnight before 
 that John Toland and his younger mate, George 
 Scott, had met and fraternised on the road which 
 both were travelling to Thomas Harlin's Kumbarra 
 run, just thrown open for selection under the Gavan 
 Duffy Land Act. Their horses grazed among a mob 
 of others near by, whence came the sound of jingling 
 hobble-chains. Fires flickered at intervals down the 
 wide sweep of the road, and the murmur of many 
 voices was heard when the breeze rustled towards 
 them through the forest. 
 
 'I'm afraid we'll have little chance at the ballot 
 to-morrow,' said Toland, a man of fine physique, 
 with quick eyes and resolute face, as he glanced 
 towards a dimly -lighted building among the trees. 
 ' The dummies are rolling up by the dozen. ' 
 
 ' Yes; Harlin's got that wizen-faced slip of a law- 
 A
 
 2 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 yer that come up from Melbourne along with him at 
 the shanty. They say the blackguards Mallock has 
 picked up are signing agreements to transfer any lot 
 they get to Harlin, and he's to pay them ten pound 
 a head when they do it. ' 
 
 ' It's a damned swindle, and a disgrace that makes 
 my blood boil, for my own sake and every honest 
 man's! ' 
 
 Toland's voice was strenuous with anger. His 
 words needed no expressed assent, and the men 
 smoked for a time in sympathetic silence. 
 
 ' It will be just the Warrooma estate business over 
 again,' said Toland, presently. 'I rode down there, 
 a couple of hundred miles, and spent a week on the 
 land to see what lots were worth having ; but I might 
 have saved myself the trouble. The place just stank 
 of dummies, and they got all the best of the run 
 back for M'Gubbin. One chap had a nice block, but 
 M'Gubbin threatened to cut him off from water and 
 see the storekeepers sold him nothing, so he funked 
 and slung it up for a few pounds. I'd have cut my 
 throat or the squatter's rather than be done out 
 of my rights like that. ' 
 
 ' Well, if I get a bit of that open country on the 
 flats, it will take something to shift me, ' said Scott. 
 'I wouldn't take five pound an acre for it.' 
 
 ' Oh, the dummies will get all the pick of that, 
 and if there's anything left for us it will be away 
 back in the stringy bark country that Harlin doesn't 
 think worth paying for. Will you select there if 
 you have the chance? ' 
 
 ' I suppose so. A man can't waste all his little 
 savings going from ballot to ballot. It's not bad 
 land.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 3 
 
 ' No,' said Toland, reflectively, ' but a man's heart 
 will have to be in the right place to clear it. ' 
 
 1 It will that, ' agreed Scott, ' but I mean to have a 
 bit of land of my own somewhere and be as free as 
 any man. ' 
 
 4 That's what brings me here, ' replied Toland. ' In 
 a way I wasn't doing so bad in the old country, 
 where my people were tenant farmers, but I've seen 
 enough of slaving for the landlord, and, by Heaven, 
 I'll stick to any land I get, spite of squatters and 
 their dummies, if I have to live on possum and kan- 
 garoo, and work till I drop for this is going to be a 
 great country some day. ' 
 
 ' It is so, ' assented Scott, ' and I reckon that any 
 man that will work will be able to earn a living. ' 
 
 The two men lapsed into silence again, and Scott 
 went in search of more wood, while Toland, deep 
 in reverie, gazed into the glowing embers, pursuing 
 further the thoughts he had just uttered. Presently 
 his look grew sterner, and he muttered to himself as 
 he rose from the ground, ' Yes, thank God! There's 
 no poorhouse in this land. ' 
 
 Then Scott returned with some sticks, and, light- 
 ing their pipes, he and Toland strolled away to see 
 what the other men were doing. 
 
 Camp fires glowed around them on both sides of 
 the main road to Melbourne, which followed the nar- 
 rowing valley no further, but turned at a sharp angle 
 to the left, a few chains from Toland's camp, to cross 
 a gap in the hills to a mining town beyond. At the 
 corner of the road stood Mallock's shanty, grandilo- 
 quently called the ' Morning Star ' Hotel. As a 
 changing station for Cobb & Co. 's mail coaches, 
 and the only house on the road for miles, it was a
 
 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 place of some importance. There the land ballot 
 was to be held on the morrow, and at that moment 
 its neighbourhood was the scene of much activity. 
 Outside, the road was thronged with men, divided 
 instinctively into two hostile groups. In the smaller 
 were comprised miners, artisans, mechanics and 
 farmers all men who had come for the purpose of 
 trying to obtain land for themselves at the ballot. 
 The other and larger group consisted of men gath- 
 ered together by Mallock from the nearest townships 
 to dummy for Harlin, whose run, held now as lease- 
 hold, was to be thrown open for selection under the 
 Act passed only a few months previously, with the 
 nominal object of ' unlocking the lands ' and making 
 them available in smaller holdings for agriculture. 
 
 Mallock 's time as agent for Harlin was fully occu- 
 pied that night. In a room off the bar, Harlin, 
 and Wise, the lawyer, were taking the signatures of 
 the dummies, whom Mallock introduced one by one, 
 going out to the group each time to secure his man, 
 and leaving his bar meanwhile in charge of a frowsy 
 Hebe whom he had engaged for the occasion at a 
 distant township. It was evident that he took a pride 
 in his work and regarded each dummy whom he led 
 into the sitting-room as a trophy of his prowess. 
 
 Though, like Toland, a powerfully-built man, Mal- 
 lock was in other respects of a strikingly different 
 stamp. In the midst of a black bushy beard was 
 set a thick-lipped, gluttonous mouth, overhung by a 
 large hooked nose. His eyes were keen and cruel, 
 his eyebrows thick and black, and his whole appear- 
 ance suggested power and unscrupulousness. 
 
 He had come to the end of his list ; and when the 
 last of the dummies left the room, Harlin, a short,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 5 
 
 fair-bearded man with a phenomenally red face, went 
 to the door. ' Come in, Mallock, ' he said, ' and bring 
 a bottle of brandy and glasses. ' 
 
 ' Well, you have done very fairly, ' he continued 
 when the shanty keeper had returned with the 
 liquor. ' I wanted two hundred and you have got 
 me a hundred and eighty ; but I think that will be 
 enough. ' 
 
 ' Oh, plenty, ' said Mallock. ' And if any of the 
 other rascals should get a block you want you'll 
 be able to shift him all right. ' 
 
 ' I think so, ' replied Harlin. ' Of course I shall 
 take up the river frontages first, and then I shall 
 be fairly right. The back country is a God-forsaken 
 wilderness that should frighten any man who wants 
 to put a plough in it. But confound the rascally 
 Government for not letting me buy the land at the 
 pound an acre they are trying to get rid of it for to 
 all the penniless blackguards who think they are 
 going to have a landed estate and be gentlemen. ' 
 
 Wise laughed at Harlin's vehemence. ' But, my 
 dear fellow, the Government is not trying to sell 
 the land to the people only pretending to do so in 
 deference to popular clamour. You ought to thank 
 your stars that your run is thrown open for selection 
 while you can dummy it into your hands as free- 
 hold before the farce is howled off the political stage. 
 Now, as I am a little exhausted by my part in it, I 
 propose that we swallow our poison to the health of 
 Gavan Duffy." 
 
 ' Well, ' said Harlin, grudgingly, as he poured out 
 the spirit, ' things might be worse. But, after all, 
 it's a confounded expense. ' 
 
 ' Expense? ' queried Wise, with sarcastically-raised
 
 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 eyebrows. ' You call it expense to pay ten pounds 
 for the services of a dummy who puts into your hand 
 a block worth thousands in a few years' time if 
 not to-day. Truly this is an ungrateful and a stiff- 
 necked generation.' 
 
 ' Perhaps everything is for the best, ' laughed Har- 
 lin. ' Anyhow, business is done, so we may as well 
 get back to the station. Tell Bill to bring our horses 
 round, Mallock. What I think annoys me most, ' he 
 continued, glancing after Mallock as he left the room, 
 ' is that nearly all my good money will go to that 
 scoundrel, who I should like to see out of the district. 
 There'll be a glorious drunk here to-morrow night 
 after the dummies get their cheques. ' 
 
 ' I suppose he'll keep them sufficiently sober till 
 then.' 
 
 'Yes; he doesn't give tick, and I don't suppose 
 there's the price of a drink all round amongst them. 
 I can't say I like this business much, and I shall be 
 glad when it's all over.' 
 
 Harlin got up, yawning, and handed his cigar-case 
 to Wise, and by the time the lawyer had collected 
 his papers Mallock returned to say the horses were 
 ready. 
 
 With a parting injunction, as they stepped into the 
 fresh air, to take care of the dummies and have them 
 on hand early in the morning, the two men mounted 
 and rode away. 
 
 ' It looks quite picturesque, don't it?' said Wise, 
 glancing lazily down the road. 
 
 The camp fires were burning more dimly now, for 
 it was after midnight, but every one of them showed 
 up a surrounding patch of spectral forest. Voices 
 sounded from some of the camps; in others men
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 7 
 
 slept in their blankets on the ground, dreaming, 
 perhaps, of good fortune at the ballot which should 
 give them a footing on the soil. And Harlin, as he 
 rode along the line, thought of the dummies with 
 contempt, and the selectors with bitterness, as 
 enemies who had come to rob him of his own, for it 
 was war to the knife in those days between the 
 squatter and the ' cockie. ' Therefore Harlin, no 
 better and no worse than his neighbours, thought all 
 means to hold their land justified in the owners of the 
 flocks and herds the pioneers who had made the 
 country what it was. 
 
 He had no sympathy for the selectors' aspirations, 
 nor scruples about defeating them, but it was annoy- 
 ing that he had to employ such a dirty tool as 
 Mallock. In spite of what Wise might say, the whole 
 thing was a confounded expense ; and he nursed a 
 feeling of injury at the hands of the law. 
 
 Mallock stood at the door for some time and 
 watched the others well on their way down the road 
 before going back into the bar parlour to wrestle 
 with a legal problem of some complexity. Then 
 seating himself at the rickety table, in an atmosphere 
 reeking with spirits and fumes of a tallow dip 
 fashioned of twisted worsted in a pannikin of melted 
 fat he spread a piece of paper before him and pro- 
 ceeded to painfully decipher its contents. 
 
 The document was a blank form of transfer of 
 land, which the lawyer had carelessly dropped be- 
 neath the table when gathering up his papers before 
 leaving one of many for to-morrow's use, to be 
 signed by the successful dummies in accordance 
 with the agreements they had made. 
 
 Mallock pondered over it for a long time. At
 
 8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 length, saying to himself, ' It may be of use. I don't 
 see why I mightn't play their own game,' he folded 
 it carefully and put it in his pocket. Then he took 
 the dip and went into the bar. 
 
 A few men were still there in a rather maudlin 
 condition, and these he turned out, whilst a drunken 
 man, snoring in the corner, he hauled into the road 
 and left to be sobered by the cool night air. After 
 dismissing his bar help he locked the entrance door, 
 and, evidently well pleased with himself and the 
 world in general, retired to his rough, uninviting 
 couch, which consisted of a wooden stretcher with 
 a wool pack for mattress. 
 
 Having taken off his boots, by way of undressing, 
 he drew over himself a dirty blanket and soon slept 
 as placidly as an innocent child.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE laughing jackasses were merry over the first joke 
 of the day, and the magpies still warbling their matin 
 song, when the camp began to stir. From all sides 
 came voices and whistling, the barking of dogs, neigh- 
 ing of horses, and snatches of time-honoured ballads. 
 
 Toland rose at dawn and made up the fire, after 
 which he strolled along the road past Mallock's shanty 
 to a point whence an extensive view could be obtained. 
 The sun was just rising over the hills into a cloudless 
 sky and filling the valleys with light. The mists 
 were curling up like incense from the shrine of the 
 god of day, and in the distance the waters of the 
 Tonga glinted here and there amid the dark red 
 gums as it took its course through the fertile flats of 
 Kumbarra. 
 
 No prospect could have been more alluring to a 
 strong man hungry for a home than this glimpse of 
 Australia Felix, and Toland, stretching out his hand, 
 as if in anticipation of ownership, said to himself, 
 ' This is the promised land. ' After dreaming for a 
 while he strolled back to the camp and found the 
 unimaginative Scott intent upon breakfast. The 
 cold meat and damper were soon disposed of, and, 
 lighting their pipes, the two men began once more 
 to discuss the absorbing topic of the ballot and their 
 chances of securing a portion of the 6000 acres of 
 
 9
 
 10 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 river flats which Harlin had determined to obtain for 
 himself. 
 
 The hours dragged slowly till ten o'clock, when 
 Harlin and Wise drove by to the ' Morning Star, ' 
 followed shortly afterwards by Archer, the land 
 officer, and Watterson, his clerk. Then the selectors 
 began to gather at the shanty, forming a group apart 
 from the dummies, and soon the officials, with Harlin 
 and Wise, appeared upon the verandah, smoking 
 cigars and chatting together. ' These are the would- 
 be country gentlemen, I presume, ' said Archer, with 
 a sneer. ' They are an elegant-looking lot, and the 
 other crowd beyond look, if anything, worse. ' 
 
 ' Those are the gentlemen Mr Harlin hopes to see 
 provided with estates to-day, ' said Wise. 
 
 ' Ah, I am glad to see Mr Harlin has not left much 
 to chance,' commented Archer, opening his watch 
 with a yawn. ' Shall we make a start now? It's 
 about half-past ten. ' 
 
 Harlin agreed, and Watterson, placing the ballot- 
 box on the verandah, took a plan of the estate, marked 
 off in selections, into a room behind. Then Archer 
 announced that the ballot was about to begin, and 
 the men in the road pressed close to him, but the 
 troopers pushed their horses among the crowd till a 
 space was cleared before the verandah, when the land 
 officer produced a paper from which, in a weary voice, 
 he read the conditions of the ballot. 
 
 The procedure was simple enough. Numbers cor- 
 responding with those on the application forms had 
 been placed in the box, to be taken out, one by one, 
 by the land officer, who would call aloud the number 
 drawn and siimmon its owner to step into the room 
 and choose a block.
 
 II 
 
 Watterson, followed by Harlin and Wise, went 
 into the shanty, and Archer turned the crank handle 
 of the box in an ostentatious manner to mix up the 
 numbers and indicate that no manipulation was 
 possible. Then he turned back his sleeve to still 
 further advertise the honesty of the proceedings, and, 
 putting his hand into the box, drew out a number 
 and glanced at it. ' I call on No. 60 to come forward 
 and select,' he said. 
 
 A dissolute-looking ruffian stepped out from the 
 crowd, and there was a murmur from the selectors 
 as he was seen to be one of Harlin's dummies. 
 
 ' There goes the pick of the land back to the 
 squatter, ' muttered one. 
 
 ' Harlin's got his ten pounds' worth there all right/ 
 said another ; and many low-breathed curses followed 
 the man on to the verandah. 
 
 ' Go in, my good fellow, and select, ' said Archer, 
 lighting a fresh cigar and sitting down to wait. 
 
 The man on entering the room gave his applica- 
 tion to Watterson, who, having noted it as correct, 
 placed the plan before him and told him to point 
 out the block he desired to select. Harlin stepped 
 alongside to direct the man in his choice. 
 
 " I'll take this here block,' said the dummy, with a 
 wink ; and Watterson, having made an entry in his 
 book, struck out the block upon the plan. 
 
 ' I suppose that's very satisfactory to you, Mr 
 Harlin,' he said as the man retired. 
 
 ' Very,' was the reply. ' It's worth two thousand 
 pounds to me. ' 
 
 'The Duffy Act isn't such a bad thing for the 
 squatters after all,' meditatively commented Wise. 
 
 As soon as the first applicant reappeared on the
 
 12 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 verandah the land officer drew another number, 
 which again was that of a dummy, and again from 
 the selectors came angry mutterings. The man 
 selected under Harlin's orders as before, and dum- 
 mies' numbers followed one another until the 
 seventh call. ' No. 101,' said Archer. 
 
 4 Here, sir, ' answered a cheerful voice, and George 
 Scott stepped forward, radiant, his comrades con- 
 gratulating him as he went. 
 
 ' Good luck to you, George ! ' said Toland, clapping 
 him on the back. 
 
 ' Just in time for a bit of the flats, ' said one. 
 
 4 Don't let Harlin jockey you,' advised another. 
 
 4 Spoil his block, old man, ' added a third. 
 
 Scott stepped into the room tremulous with ex- 
 citement. 
 
 4 Show me your form, ' said the clerk, coldly, ' and 
 hurry up, as we have no time to lose. ' 
 
 However, Scott was too pleased with himself to be 
 flustered, and Watterson was now quite an insignifi- 
 cant person in his eyes. ' All right, I reckon, ' he 
 said cheerily as he laid the paper on the table. 
 
 ' You may select on that plan,' said the clerk, 
 while Harlin looked on by no means pleased. 
 
 4 I'll take this block,' said Scott, indicating an 
 excellent area on the edge of dummy selections. 
 
 ' All right, you can go, ' said Watterson as he 
 marked it off. 
 
 'Wait a minute, my man,' interrupted Harlin, 
 stepping forward. ' I want to see you after the 
 ballot is over. ' 
 
 4 What for? ' asked Scott, bluntly. 
 
 1 I thought we might arrange a sale,' answered 
 Harlin, rather taken aback.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 13 
 
 'Not much!' said Scott, jauntily. 'And you 
 needn't bother to try.' 
 
 Harlin glanced angrily at the retreating figure. 
 
 4 By G ! I'll make him change his tune before 
 long, ' he muttered, but the appearance of five dum- 
 mies in succession mollified him, and he turned to 
 Wise with a sigh of satisfaction. ' I'm right now,' 
 he said. 'I've got back all the flats except the block 
 of that fellow Scott, and I'll have that in time.' 
 
 So it went on, five or six blocks going to the 
 dummies for every one to a man eager to make a 
 home, and forty blocks had gone when No. 120 was 
 called. 
 
 In response Toland stepped on to the verandah, 
 but not the Toland of the hopeful morning. Watch- 
 ing fraud destroy his fondest hopes had roused in 
 him an anger that he found difficult to control. He 
 strode with a savage look into the room and flung 
 his paper to the clerk. Watterson pointed to the 
 plan and told him to select. 
 
 Harlin was leaning over it. 
 
 4 On one side ! ' said Toland gruffly. 
 
 Harlin drew back in astonishment. ' You might 
 be more civil, my man ! ' he exclaimed angrily. 
 
 ' And you more honest, ' retorted Toland, turning 
 his back on Harlin, who muttered something about 
 handing him over to the police. 
 
 Toland slowly scrutinised the plan. All the best 
 land was gone. Only the heavily-timbered country 
 remained and it was difficult to make a choice. 
 
 ' Hurry up, ' said the clerk, snappishly. 
 
 ' The day is young, ' replied Toland. 
 
 ' Is that man going to take all day? What's 
 keeping him? ' called Archer from the verandah.
 
 14 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Toland walked to the door with the plan in his 
 hand. ' I'm trying to find,' he called out, ' if those 
 rascals of dummies and the man that bought them 
 have left a decent piece of ground for an honest man 
 to select, but, by God ! sir, they've collared the lot. ' 
 
 Then he turned back into the room, marked off a 
 block, and shoved his way roughly through a group of 
 dummies to join Scott on the outskirts of the crowd. 
 
 Meanwhile the ballot proceeded, and fifty blocks 
 had been disposed of, including one secured by 
 Mallock on the main road near his shanty, when No. 
 200 was drawn. 
 
 * Is No. 200 here? ' called Archer, as no one 
 spoke. 
 
 4 Yes, ' said a gruff voice, and a burly fellow stepped 
 forward. ' I'm here all right, but I'm. not goin' to 
 select. Harlin can keep his scrub. I don't want it. ' 
 
 A laugh went round the crowd; Archer called 
 irritably to Watterson and drew another slip. Later 
 on the dummies, acting under instructions from 
 Harlin, who did not think the land worth the Govern- 
 ment price, declined to select. Some of the other 
 men, too, refused to have it, but the bulk went to 
 would-be farmers, and the Kumbarra ballot resulted, 
 as so many before it, in the allotment of rich land to 
 the rich man and poor land to the poor. 
 
 As soon as it was over Harlin and Wise began 
 taking the signatures of the dummies to the transfers 
 of the various blocks they had secured, and one by 
 one these worthy selectors filed into the bar parlour to 
 assign their land to the squatter, each one receiving 
 a ;io cheque in payment for his dishonesty. 
 
 When the last one had been dealt with Harlin 
 turned to Wise. ' We had better get away as soon
 
 15 
 
 as we can,' he said. ' There's going to be an unholy 
 orgie here, and I've asked Watterson and Archer to 
 stay the night at the station. The troopers have 
 gone back to Tongalong and Mallock will have the 
 field to himself. ' 
 
 ' I am sure I have no desire to dispute it with 
 him, ' answered Wise. ' Let us go at once. ' 
 
 Archer and Watterson were waiting on the 
 verandah. The buggies were soon brought round 
 and the party left the ' Morning Star, ' not before an 
 uproar rising in the bar gave promise of what was to 
 come. 
 
 Scott and Toland were already sitting in their 
 camp, with a damper on the fire, when the buggies 
 passed them, and shortly afterwards Bill Briggs, 
 Mallock' s stableman, appeared on the scene. 
 
 4 Good evening, mates, ' he said. ' Is one of you 
 named Scott? ' 
 
 ' I'm the man,' replied Scott. 
 
 4 Well, I've just come down to say as how Mr 
 Archer, the land hofficer, wants to see you at onst. 
 You've forgotten to fix up one of them papers an' 
 he says you've to come straight aways.' 
 
 * All right, I'll come at once, ' said Scott, alarmed at 
 the very suggestion of there being anything wrong. 
 ' I'll be back in a jiffy, mate. ' 
 
 4 Hurry up, then, ' said Toland, as he turned the 
 damper, ' and steer clear of the grog. ' 
 
 ' I'll see he don't go wrong,' said Bill, patronis- 
 ingly, and the two departed. Bill was most friendly. 
 He congratulated Scott heartily on getting a good 
 block of land, and when they reached the shanty in- 
 vited him to have a glass on the strength of it. Not 
 liking to appear churlish, Scott agreed, and though
 
 1 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 the bar was crowded they managed to squeeze into 
 a corner near the wall, and Bill asked his guest what 
 he fancied. 
 
 ' Dark brandy? ' said Mallock, with a wink. ' I've 
 the very thing for you, sir something real good. ' 
 
 ' Mine's a taste of gin,' said Bill. 
 
 Mallock, after a little delay, handed them the 
 bottles and Scott and Bill helped themselves. 
 
 'Well, here's luck,' said Bill, emptying his glass 
 at a draught. 
 
 ' Same to you, ' said Scott, following suit. 
 
 Bill looked regretfully at the empty tumbler. 
 ' I'm powerful dry to-day,' he said meaningly. 
 
 Scott smacked his lips like a connoisseur. He 
 was on fire from his mouth to the bottom of his 
 stomach, and yet he felt a craving for more. 
 
 ' My shout this time, ' he said, after leaning against 
 the wall a second to consider. ' By Gosh, I've a thirst 
 on me too ! ' 
 
 4 Same again? ' asked Mallock. 
 
 Bill and Scott nodded. 
 
 'I thought you'd like this stuff,' said Mallock, 
 sympathetically. ' I sized you up as a gent what 
 knew brandy from tobacco juice. ' 
 
 Bill grinned wickedly, and Scott, who seldom 
 drank spirits, felt flattered. ' Won't you join us, 
 Mr Mallock? ' he said. 
 
 ' Thank you, sir,' said Mallock, ' I'm sorry I can't 
 drink brandy. I 'ave to go in for something softer 
 myself. ' 
 
 Number two nobbier went down, and Scott leaned 
 more heavily against the wall. 
 
 ' I don't know the gentleman's name,' said Mal- 
 lock to Bill.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 1 7 
 
 ' Oh, beg pardon, this is Mr Scott what got that 
 block of land Mr Harlin 'ad 'is 'eart on.' 
 
 ' What ! You're the Mr Scott the land officer was 
 askin' after.' Mallock leaned over the counter and 
 shook Scott warmly by the hand. ' He went away 
 a moment before you came,' he continued, ' but he's 
 left a paper here for you to sign and leave with 
 me.' 
 
 ' I'll do it now,' said Scott, trying to raise himself, 
 though instinctively he felt it would not be safe to 
 leave the wall. 
 
 'Wait; you must have one more glass for luck,' 
 objected Mallock. ' I never drinks with a man with- 
 out he drinks with me.' 
 
 Scott hesitated, but it was too late. He had been 
 hocussed ; power and volition had gone. All he 
 knew was that his throat was parched, his brain reeled, 
 his knees shook and his stomach burned. 
 
 They raised their glasses and drank together. 
 
 ' Bill, show Mr Scott round to the parlour,' said Mal- 
 lock. Scott heard the voice somewhere far away and 
 started to go, leaning heavily on Bill, who dragged 
 him through the crowd. He lurched against a selector 
 also leaving the bar, who looked round with anger 
 that changed to surprise as he recognised the drunken 
 man in Bill's charge. They stumbled somehow along 
 the verandah and at last reached the parlour, which 
 Mallock entered at the same time by another door. 
 
 Bill dropped Scott into a chair, and with a wink 
 to Mallock left the room. 
 
 1 Here's the paper, Mr Scott,' said Mallock, placing 
 it on the table before him and handing him a pen. 
 ' And here's where you have to sign.' Scott looked 
 at him blankly as he took the pen and dropped it. 
 
 B
 
 1 8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Here's where the land officer said you have to 
 sign,' repeated Mallock, in an irritated tone. 
 
 ' Can't read'sh,' mumbled Scott, looking helplessly 
 at the paper. 
 
 ' What the blazes does that matter ? Mr Archer 
 said to sign here. I reckon you'd better hurry up.' 
 
 ' Give me 'nother drink.' 
 
 ' No ; not till you've signed it.' 
 
 'Sign n'other day too tired to-day han' shaky 
 to-day.' 
 
 ' Oh, it's all right, man ! and Mr Archer said if 
 you didn't sign to-day you'd lose the land.' 
 
 ' Wa'sh-you-say ? ' cried Scott, fiercely. 
 
 ' Sign, or you'll likely lose the land.' 
 
 'Gim'me th' pensh.' 
 
 Mallock gave it him again. With sdme difficulty 
 he got it fixed between his ringers and jtfie point was 
 on the paper when he looked up and said with a 
 feeble smile, ' What ish my name ? ' 
 
 ' Damn it ! ' said Mallock, whose eyes had grown 
 expectant, ' your name's Scott George Scott G. 
 Scott any blasted Scott ! ' 
 
 Scott again prepared himself, fortified by this 
 information, and resolved to accomplish the great 
 feat. He wrote the G slowly but fairly well. The S 
 was an even greater success, as its curly nature suited 
 his condition, and with infinite care the signature was 
 finished. He gazed at it for a moment with stupid 
 complacency, and then, stretching his arms out on 
 the table and laying his head upon them, he im- 
 mediately fell asleep. 
 
 ' That's all right, old chap,' said Mallock, soothingly. 
 He patted Scott on the head, and picking up the 
 document put it into his pocket with a sinister smile.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 19 
 
 ' Say, boss,' interrupted Bill, thrusting his head 
 through the doorway, ' you'd better hurry up. 
 Toland's in the bar asking for his mate. A chap told 
 him at the camp he was here drunk. What'll I say ? ' 
 'All right, Bill, I'm coming,' answered Mallock, 
 with an appropriate oath. He roughly shook Scott, 
 who raised his head and half opened his eyes, blurred 
 with drunkenness, which overcame him again im- 
 mediately. His head fell back on the table, and 
 Mallock, lifting him from his chair, laid him at full 
 length upon the floor before joining Bill on the 
 verandah. 
 
 As they reached the bar Toland came out with 
 a savage look on his face. ' Look here, you,' he said 
 roughly, ' can you tell me where my mate Scott is ? ' 
 ' I can 'that,' answered Mallock, virtuously in- 
 dignant ' The fool came down here, signed a paper 
 for Mr Archer, and then went on the drunk drank a 
 bottle of brandy right off, didn't 'e, Bill ? ' 
 
 ' He did,' replied Bill, shaking his head. ' I never 
 seen the likes of it.' 
 
 ' He's sleepin' it off in the parlour,' added Mallock ; 
 ' and if I was you I'd just let him be till he comes 
 round a bit.' 
 
 By way of reply Toland strode past them into the 
 parlour. The ghastly look on his mate's face, as he 
 lay with it upturned upon the floor, shocked him, and 
 but for the stertorous breathing he might have sup- 
 posed him dead. He knelt down, spoke to him and 
 tried to rouse him without effect. Then he lifted him 
 on to his shoulders, and, regaining his feet with an 
 effort, strode out of the shanty along the road to 
 their camp. Mallock and Bill stood on the verandah 
 watching him.
 
 20 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' That chap's got some muscle all right,' said 
 Mallock. 
 
 ' I reckon his mate'll lose some of his liquor if 'e 
 don't keep his 'ead up,' grinned Bill. ' But I say, 
 boss, I was goin' to tell you I seen those girls take a 
 couple of cheques in the bar, an' it might be as well if 
 you got in and looked after things. They're gettin' 
 a bit sudden, I tell you.' 
 
 Mallock was immediately roused to a sense of duty, 
 and hurrying into the bar possessed himself of the 
 cheques. It was a red-letter day in his career. He 
 had laid himself out to make a big haul, and when 
 Harlin instructed him to procure dummies he took 
 care to get men who might be trusted not to carry 
 their cheques away from the shanty ; and considering 
 the presence of lovely woman essential to human happi- 
 ness, he engaged two houris from a drinking den in 
 Tongalong to do the honours of his establishment on 
 this great occasion. Consequently, now that the time 
 had come, everything went with a verve entirely to his 
 satisfaction. The bar that had at first been merely a 
 babel gradually became, as night wore on, a scene of 
 horrible debauchery, over which Mallock worthily pre- 
 sided, growing more and more elated as cheque after 
 cheque found its way into his pocket. Soon, however, 
 he noticed that some of the men still kept their heads 
 and their cheques, and in order to stir their sluggish 
 veins he had the parlour cleared of its scanty 
 furniture and told Bill to start a dance to the music 
 of his fiddle. The women left the bar to attend the 
 revel, which gained immediate popularity notwith- 
 standing that the atmosphere was stifling unwashed 
 humanity, bad spirits and flaring tallow dips each 
 contributing a quota.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 21 
 
 Most of the men danced together. The two 
 women, who only favoured the more sober of the crew, 
 danced with them till their brains whirled, when they 
 led them to the bar, drank with them, ogled and 
 kissed them, and finally filched away their money. 
 Soon all were drunk and the foul air was full of fouler 
 ravings, and when the fighting over the women 
 began the shanty became a perfect pandemonium. 
 
 By midnight Mallock had about fifty ten-pound 
 cheques in his possession, but pleasure at the success 
 of his venture was tinctured with alarm, for matters 
 were getting far beyond his control. As time wore on 
 and the mad devilry of the men increased, the sense of 
 personal danger completely took possession of him. 
 Consequently, when the coach stopped after midnight 
 for a change of horses, he called the driver aside. 
 ' Look here, Alick,' he said, ' I want you to take 
 word to the police-station at Tongalong as soon as 
 you get in. Tell them I want the troopers sent out 
 as I have a lot of fellows here smashing up the 
 place and putting me in fear of my life.' 
 
 ' All right ; it looks as if you had a rough time 
 ahead,' replied the driver, consolingly, as he turned 
 away. Passing the bar he caught sight of a young 
 fellow he knew and warned him that Mallock was 
 sending for the police. As the coach rumbled off 
 the meaning of the driver's words appealed to the 
 man, and after some unsuccessful attempts he 
 clambered on to the counter. ' I say, mates,' he 
 shouted from this point of vantage, ' Mallock has 
 sent for the traps ! ' 
 
 There was a volley of more or less coherent oaths, 
 and at this inauspicious moment Mallock appeared 
 behind the bar.
 
 22 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Alick's confidant turned on him savagely. ' Why 
 have you sent for the traps, you hound?' he cried. 
 
 Mallock winced. ' Who said I had ? ' he replied 
 evasively. 
 
 ' You have, you cur ! Alick told me.' 
 
 'You'd better be civil,' retorted Mallock, fiercely, 
 ' or I'll have you marched off pretty quick when they 
 do come.' 
 
 'Will you you damned thief! Then I'll break 
 your neck first and get our cheques back.' 
 
 He leapt from the bar counter, but Mallock drew 
 back, and snatching up an empty bottle struck his 
 assailant a blow on the head that stretched him on 
 the floor. 
 
 Immediately a dozen men scrambled upon the 
 counter, but before they were over it Mallock rushed 
 out through a door opening into the yard behind, 
 pursued by a frenzied mob, who poured out of the 
 dancing-saloon to join the chase. Dodging his 
 pursuers round the stable he was making for the bush 
 when he saw a saddled horse hitched by his bridle to 
 the road fence. His pursuers, yelling with drunken 
 fury, were close upon him when he grabbed the reins. 
 There was no time to deal with buckles. He 
 snapped the reins with a wrench from the rail, and 
 springing into the saddle galloped away from the eager 
 hands outstretched to seize him. For some hundred 
 yards he rode at breakneck speed, after which his 
 panic subsided and he pulled up to consider the 
 position. Nothing could be gained by going back, so 
 he determined to reach Tongalong as soon as 
 possible, to make his money safe and return with the 
 police. One by one Mallock's pursuers straggled in, 
 baffled and cursing, but his absence was not for long
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 23 
 
 a check upon their merriment. More willing hands 
 than his behind the bar distributed the liquor gratis, 
 and the scene soon became indescribable, while 
 nothing could be heard but foul oaths and blasphemy, 
 the screaming of women and drunken shouting and 
 laughter of men. 
 
 So the revels continued for a time; and then, in 
 response to a brilliant idea engendered in some 
 half-maddened brain, a horrible procession left the 
 shanty. The more sober pulled out the wholly 
 stupefied, after which all gathered in the road waiting 
 for something to happen. Presently a man ran out 
 laughing and hurrahing, and a thin curl of smoke 
 followed him through the door. This was greeted 
 with drunken cheers, renewed a few seconds later 
 when a dense cloud streaked with red rolled forth on 
 to the verandah, and soon there was a roar as the 
 spirits ignited and the fire shot up through the bark, 
 quickly wrapping the whole building in flames. In 
 a few minutes the rafters burned through and the 
 roof fell in, sending fountains of sparks into the sky, 
 and a quarter of an hour sufficed to reduce the 
 shanty to ashes. 
 
 When the fun was over and only a smoking mass 
 remained, the company began to disperse, thoroughly 
 satisfied with their night's entertainment. Some 
 staggered off to where they imagined their camps 
 to be, while others, more wisely, lay down on the 
 ground to sleep off the effects of their intoxication. 
 The two women found a camping-place for themselves 
 on the hay in the stable. 
 
 Next morning, when daylight and returning con- 
 sciousness enabled the men to see the result of their 
 evening's enjoyment, it was unanimously resolved to
 
 24 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 leave as soon as possible. Horses were hurriedly 
 saddled, swags strapped on, and when Mallock and 
 the troopers arrived at ten o'clock, Bill and the two 
 women alone remained to tell the tale. Mallock at 
 first was furious and swore to have the rascals who 
 had destroyed his property arrested, but on second 
 thoughts he decided to do nothing in the matter, for 
 he remembered that $oo in hand was worth many 
 shanties in the bush, and that it was just as well for 
 him that the rightful owners of the cheques should 
 be fleeing from the law. So, having instructed the 
 women to come on by coach, he rode away to pre- 
 pare for a fresh start in life.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 IT was nearly dark when the squatter's party left 
 the shanty en route for Kumbarra homestead. 
 
 Wise was in Harlin's single-seated buggy behind 
 a smart pair of horses, while Archer, driving a hired 
 vehicle from Tongalong stables, hung close on his 
 wheels, not relishing such a pace for night travelling 
 on a bush road with which he was not acquainted. 
 
 The men, tired after their day's work, puffed at 
 pipes or cigars in comparative silence, and the ten 
 miles to the station were soon covered. Harlin stood 
 waiting at the outer gate for his guests to come up. 
 
 'Thanks! That's very kind of; you,' said Archer 
 as he passed into a five-hundred-acre paddock, beyond 
 which the house lay by the river. ' I must con- 
 gratulate you on entering for the first time in your 
 life on to your own estate.' 
 
 'Thank you,' laughed Harlin; 'but I've been 
 driving over it for miles, chuckling to myself all the 
 time at the way we've done the blasted cockies. 
 Better let me take the lead again here. The track's 
 a bit puzzling on these gum flats.' 
 
 He got into his buggy, and soon, beyond another 
 gate, they passed the great woolshed, near the head 
 of a reedy lagoon, giving over their horses a few 
 minutes later to the men at the stables. 
 
 Mrs Harlin met them on the verandah of the 
 25
 
 26 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 rambling, commodious house, and glanced with a 
 shade of surprise at Archer and Watterson, whom 
 she had not seen before. 
 
 ' Well, Tom, did things go satisfactorily ? ' she 
 asked. 
 
 ' Splendidly, my dear. The landscape for miles 
 around won't be spoilt by cockies' huts. Let me 
 introduce Mr Archer, the land officer, and Mr 
 Watterson also in the Department. They want 
 rooms, of course. Mr Wise stays with us too, to- 
 night and we all want our dinner.' 
 
 The men bowed, and Archer expressed the hope 
 that their unceremonious arrival would cause no in- 
 convenience, wondering all the time how such a 
 rough diamond as Harlin had become possessed of 
 the beautiful girl, seeming, in black evening gown, 
 almost taller than her husband. 
 
 Their arrival gave no trouble of any kind, she 
 said. Their rooms would be ready in a minute or 
 two, and dinner in half an hour. 
 
 When the other men had gone to dress Harlin 
 remained in the dining-room for another drink, and 
 spent a few minutes in getting out wine from the 
 cellar ; consequently, when the gong sounded, he was 
 in his dressing-room, hurriedly slipping on a black 
 coat. It was too much of a bore to struggle into 
 dress clothes in his own house. 
 
 Mrs Harlin's eyebrows contracted slightly. She 
 would have liked to see her husband a little less red 
 in the face and as well groomed as the other men, but 
 it was not worth troubling about not in any case a 
 thing that one could mention and she showed her 
 guests their places at the table. 
 
 Archer sat on her right, with a slight, fair girl of
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 27 
 
 eighteen as his neighbour on the other side. From 
 Mrs Harlin he had only learnt when they were intro- 
 duced that her name was Macfarlane. 
 
 She seemed somewhat shy and wore a walking dress, 
 neatly made, but of some cheap material. From these 
 data Archer, who noticed such things and always 
 liked to know who people were in order to decide 
 if they were anybody, had decided Miss Macfarlane's 
 case in the negative, putting her down as a governess 
 until Harlin spoke to her. She had arrived from 
 Tongalong that morning with her father, she said, and 
 he would call for her to-morrow on his way home. 
 
 Mr Macfarlane, Harlin explained, as though 
 apologising for the girl's presence, was a Presbyterian 
 clergyman of the district, for whom the station was a 
 convenient halting-place on his rounds ; and, deter- 
 mined to take his cue from the squatter's tone, 
 Archer was presently somewhat staggered on noticing 
 that Miss Macfarlane addressed Mrs Harlin by her 
 Christian name. 
 
 Incidents of the ballot formed the chief subject of 
 conversation, and the women, for some time taking 
 little part in it, listened with interest. 
 
 When the dessert came in, the land officer, in atone 
 suggesting that the freehold was a gift conferred by 
 him, congratulated Harlin again upon becoming the 
 owner of such a magnificent property. 
 
 ' And you too, Mrs Harlin,' he said, raising a glass 
 of wine to his lips 'will you allow me to felicitate 
 you both and to drink success to the future of 
 Kumbarra Station one of the finest trophies of the 
 Duffy Land Act?' 
 
 Mrs Harlin bowed rather coldly. 
 
 ' You don't look altogether pleased, Mrs Harlin,'
 
 28 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 said Wise, glancing across the table. 'You don't 
 entirely share Mr Archer's enthusiasm for the legisla- 
 tion he takes such an able part in administering.' 
 
 ' I hardly know/ she said with a thoughtful frown. 
 ' Of course I am glad the place is ours it has always 
 seemed that it should be. But I don't feel particularly 
 proud of the way we have obtained it.' 
 
 'What nonsense, my dear! Everyone has done 
 the same thing,' said Harlin, contemptuously. 
 
 'Done what?' asked Miss Macfarlane, interest in 
 the subject triumphing over her shyness. ' I'm afraid 
 I'm very stupid, but I haven't quite understood what 
 you were talking about.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin laughed. ' Neither have I, Ruth,' she 
 said, ' beyond that there has been some smart piece 
 of trickery part of a general scheme for saving the 
 country which it behoves us all to be very proud of 
 and thankful for. Your confession has emboldened 
 me to admit it, and perhaps Mr Archer will explain.' 
 
 Archer shrugged his shoulders. 'Trickery is a 
 nasty word,' he said ; ' your husband has only made 
 good use of a bad law.' 
 
 'Out of which you draw a handsome salary by 
 assisting to subvert it,' put in Wise, pleasantly. 
 
 Harlin laughed. Watterson permitted himself a 
 smile, and Archer flushed slightly. 
 
 'That remark is scarcely in good taste, or fair, 
 Wise,' he said. You twit me with subverting the 
 law, which is not strictly true, while you and your 
 profession have used all your ingenuity in doing so.' 
 
 ' Granted, my dear fellow ! But that's what we are 
 paid for ; and you are paid for precisely the reverse.' 
 
 Archer showed decided symptoms of annoyance. 
 
 Mrs Harlin interposed. ' You are still both talking
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 29 
 
 in riddles,' she said, smiling. ' I wish you would 
 really explain the facts for Miss Macfarlane and me, 
 and let us assess the praise or blame where it is due.' 
 
 'Very well, Mrs Harlin,' said Wise, 'if your 
 husband doesn't object to my taking a brief on the 
 other side.' 
 
 ' I have the land, you guarantee I have the law, so I 
 don't care what you say about the ethics/ laughed 
 Harlin. 'But it's like the cheek of you lawyers to 
 turn upon the squatters, who have put thousands into 
 your pockets.' 
 
 ' I wonder what fraction of one per cent it would 
 amount to on the thousands we have put into yours ? ' 
 queried Wise, blandly. ' However, we will let that 
 pass. You want to know what the Duffy Act was 
 designed for, Mrs Harlin, and what it is being used 
 for ? ' he continued, turning to her with some anima- 
 tion warming his cold, intellectual face. 
 
 Mrs Harlin nodded. 
 
 ' It was meant to parcel out about four million acres 
 of the most fertile lands of this colony, leased hereto- 
 fore by the squatters, among agriculturists, who would 
 convert them into farms and homes. And it is being 
 used to put those millions of acres of land securely 
 into the absolute ownership of the squatters for all 
 time.' 
 
 ' And a jolly good thing too ! ' commented Harlin, 
 pouring himself out another glass of port. 
 
 ' Don't interrupt, Tom. Let us hear how it is done.' 
 
 ' Very simply. A squatter's run is thrown open for 
 selection in blocks of various sizes. Applicants for 
 land register their names. A ballot is held, whereat 
 the first person chosen by lot has first pick of the 
 blocks, and so on in order. The squatter who wishes
 
 30 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 to buy his land, or any part of it, at the price of a 
 pound an acre, gets a number of men to apply, 
 nominally on their own behalf, but really on his, as 
 his agents slang term "dummies." He procures a 
 sufficient number of these estimable people to reason- 
 ably ensure that they shall swamp the genuine 
 applicants, and that the greater number of blocks, by 
 the laws of chance not to mention an occasional 
 manipulation of the ballot box shall go to them 
 that is, to their employer, the squatter.' 
 
 ' That seems clear enough,' said Mrs Harlin. ' And 
 what do the dummies get out of it?' 
 
 ' That will be clear enough too, my dear,' said 
 Harlin, with a rueful smile, ' if you consult my bank- 
 book in a day or two.' 
 
 ' Mr Harlin has been unfortunate,' said Wise. ' The 
 dummies about here are low people and a mercenary 
 tribe ; but in many cases notably where a large 
 station was recently thrown open for selection near 
 Sale the good people so dearly loved a lord that 
 they tumbled over each other in their anxiety to 
 dummy, gratis and gratefully, for the nearest approach 
 to it a big landlord near the town.' 
 
 4 That simply means,' said Archer, who had listened 
 with supercilious resignation, ' when it is shorn of 
 your cheap sarcasm, that decent people were willing 
 to give a decent man a hand against the depredations 
 of a lot of riff-raff upon his estate.' 
 
 ' I am flattered by your detection of the sarcasm,' 
 replied Wise. ' I know it is a shibboleth of our class, 
 shall I say ? that the large landowner is necessarily 
 a decent man, and the man with aspirations to be- 
 come a small landowner, ipso facto, a scoundrel but 
 I do not subscribe to it.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 31 
 
 ' You have hidden your philanthropic light under a 
 bushel of fees, I presume,' sneered Archer. 
 
 ' I lay claim to no light but that of common sense. 
 But does it never occur to you that it may be a 
 mistake for you, in a semi-judicial position, to 
 cynically strip the liberal disguise from the Act that 
 employs you on behalf of the people, by showing 
 yourself so ardently a squatters' champion ? ' 
 
 Reddening with anger under Wise's persistent 
 attacks, Archer snorted indignantly, unable to 
 become effectively articulate in the presence of ladies. 
 Harlin enjoyed the situation, too pleased with the 
 day's success to find much personal sting in the 
 lawyer's words. Besides, he liked anything in the 
 nature of a fight; and a suspicion that Archer was 
 inclined to patronise made it seem good that he 
 should be taken down a peg or two in a duel with 
 Wise. 
 
 ' These lawyers are too smart for us stupid fellows, 
 Archer,' he said, with a wink at the other men. 
 ' Help yourself and pass the bottle while you think 
 of something to say.' 
 
 ' Won't you cease lashing us poor squatters and our 
 allies and tell us what we have really done ? ' inter- 
 posed Mrs Harlin, smiling. 
 
 ' Have I not told you ? reaped salvation from a 
 law which was meant for your destruction.' 
 
 ' And do you blame us ? ' 
 
 Wise shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 ' I am not a moralist. But you must admit that 
 there is humour in the position. And, as a philo- 
 sopher, I find it amusing that the most wealthy and 
 honourable men in the country should subscribe a 
 huge fund to bribe the less wealthy and honourable
 
 32 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 men of the Legislature for the honourable men's 
 advantage.' 
 
 ' I think we've had enough of this, Wise,' said 
 Harlin, with a not altogether pleased laugh, and 
 Archer muttered something about execrable taste. 
 
 ' But can that be true ? What do you mean ? ' 
 asked Miss Macfarlane, with wide-open, troubled 
 eyes. 
 
 Wise met her glance with a slight smile. ' I must 
 ask Mrs Harlin's permission before I can explain.' 
 
 ' Go on,' she said somewhat coldly. 
 
 ' I mean simply this that an association, called 
 "The Victorian Association," was formed by the 
 squatters. Its object was to prevent the breaking up 
 of large estates. Huge sums of money passed through 
 its hands, and it is believed that thousands were 
 paid to obtain the insertion in the Duffy Act of one 
 little word " assigns." It's a lawyer's word, meaning, 
 perhaps, not much to you, but in its place in the^ Act 
 it means that dummying is legal, that the genuine 
 selector is burdened with obligations to fence and 
 clear his land from which the squatter to whom the 
 dummy has assigned is free means, in fact, the wreck 
 of the Duffy Act as a measure for settling people 
 instead of sheep upon the land. And, as I say, the 
 most honourable Pharisees of the country paid 
 thousands for that little word, to prevent the] riff- 
 raff, of whom Mr Archer was speaking, from obtain- 
 ing the selections which his employers pay him for 
 pretending to sell them.' 
 
 'Did you subscribe to this association, Tom?' 
 asked Mrs Harlin, after a pause. 
 
 'Only a hundred, my dear.' 
 
 ' I am sure you would not have Mr Harlin reap its
 
 THE WISDOM Of ESAU 33 
 
 advantages without paying something towards its 
 expenses,' said Wise, softly. ' May I trouble you to 
 pass me the almonds, Watterson ? ' 
 
 Mrs Harlin surveyed Wise with a displeased smile. 
 
 ' We have to thank you for a most eloquent ex- 
 planation. But do you know, I am almost inclined 
 to endorse Mr Archer's opinion that it was not in 
 the best possible taste.' 
 
 ' Mr Archer is as fortunate as I am the reverse.' 
 
 There was an awkward pause, and Harlin, finding 
 his signals ignored, suggested irritably that perhaps 
 the ladies would like to go to the drawing-room.' 
 
 ' Presently,' said Mrs Harlin. 
 
 Her eyebrows were knitted in unwelcome thought. 
 ' Mr Wise,' she exclaimed, turning to him again, 
 ' you have sneered to your satisfaction at the squatters 
 as Pharisees and dispensers of bribes, at the people 
 who take them, and at Mr Archer who dares to think 
 that the land should remain with the better classes. 
 Have you taken no part in assisting the squatters ? ' 
 
 'If he says he hasn't he shall return my fee,' 
 grumbled Harlin. 
 
 Wise received the interjection with a smile and 
 addressed himself to his hostess. 
 
 'You would not have me sneer at myself, Mrs 
 Harlin, when there are so many people ready to save 
 me the trouble. As to the part I have taken, it has 
 been a lawyer's part only. I have interpreted the 
 Act as the judges say it should be interpreted, and 
 done such things as follow therefrom. So far I have 
 helped the squatters, for only the dry bones of the 
 Act are liberal ; and the breath of life has been 
 breathed into it by the Victorian Association. But 
 I have had nothing to do with the making of a 
 
 C
 
 34 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 sham law, or with a sham administration of it. One 
 thing I should like to add,' he said, after taking 
 breath, ' is that I regret if I have over-stepped the 
 bounds of good taste in my criticism. Of course, my 
 words had no personal application, and I beg your 
 forgiveness for speaking so frankly.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin smiled. 
 
 ' The words have a personal application, for which 
 the facts are to blame. It is not palatable to be told 
 that one's acres are the trophy of bribery and fraud,' 
 she said bitterly. ' But I think your frankness must 
 be forgiven since I practically demanded it. Ruth, 
 shall we go to the drawing-room?' 
 
 ' Thank you,' said Wise, bowing and holding the 
 door open as she swept gracefully from the room with 
 Miss Macfarlane. ' I shall be more careful in future.' , 
 
 ' You'd better,' laughed Harlin with annoyance when 
 Wise had closed the door. ' What made you such an 
 infernal firebrand ? It's all very well among men, but 
 you ought to keep your mouth shut about bribery and 
 nonsense of that kind before ladies. It worries them, 
 you know and the worst of it is my wife thinks.' 
 
 ' Does she ? ' said Wise. ' I am sorry ; and I vote 
 we drop the subject now, at anyrate.' 
 
 He put his pipe into his mouth to hide a sarcastic 
 smile that would come unbidden, and remained almost 
 as silent as Watterson, contributing to the conversa- 
 tion only smoke clouds and a word here and there. 
 
 His ideals were not high. He was quite willing, as 
 a matter of business, to assist the squatters, but the 
 smug complacency of the Archers who toadied them 
 was annoying to him. Therefore he felt the rebuff 
 from Mrs Harlin cheaply purchased by the seizure of 
 his opportunity to tell unpleasant truths. Mrs Harlin
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 35 
 
 thought ! He had guessed she' did, and that the other 
 girl was also inclined to that unfeminine habit, or he 
 would not have wasted breath upon his sarcasms. 
 Wise was scarcely aware, however, how deeply Mrs 
 Harlin took his words to heart. 
 
 'It's galling to one's pride, isn't it?' she asked, 
 sitting by the drawing-room window. 
 
 ' What ? ' asked Ruth Macfarlane. 
 
 ' To think that we are only thieves of all these 
 miles of country.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin knelt on the bow window-seat, and 
 leaning her elbows on the sill gazed over the moon- 
 lit flats. ' That we have paid all the scum of the dis- 
 trict to rob poor men of their chance of a living and, 
 I think worst of all, that we have laid ourselves open 
 to be patronised by such men as Mr Archer and 
 sneered at by such as Mr Wise.' 
 
 She spoke with a bitterness Ruth had never heard 
 before, and leaving some work on her chair beneath 
 the lamp she went over to the window. 
 
 ' It is foolish to speak in that way, Margaret,' she 
 said gently. ' You have done nothing to be ashamed 
 of. And men don't look at these things as women do.' 
 
 ' My husband and his friends don't certainly,' she 
 laughed. ' I wonder how those men what were their 
 names ? that we were making fun of to-night look 
 upon us and our schemes.' 
 
 ' Scott and Toland,' said Ruth, pensively. 
 
 She remembered the names, for her sympathies had 
 been secretly with them when, at the dinner-table, 
 Archer was making a good story of their boorish 
 insolence. 
 
 ' Yes ; I can picture how they feel. One of them 
 told my husband it was a pity he was not more
 
 36 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 honest, didn't he? I wonder if it is. If we were 
 more honest I don't quite see what we'd do.' 
 
 ' Don't be morbid,' laughed Ruth, placing her hand 
 on Mrs Harlin's shoulder. ' Come and give me some 
 coffee before it gets cold.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin left the window and Ruth took up her 
 work again. ' It is puzzling,' she said presently. 
 4 My sympathies are with the selectors. My father 
 and I really belong more to their class, and I see 
 most of poor people ; and yet I believe they are no 
 better than the rich and would do just what the 
 squatters have done if they had the chance.' 
 
 ' I suppose so,' said Mrs Harlin, wearily. ' Perhaps 
 you will marry a selector some day and be able to 
 tell me if they are really so wicked as my husband 
 thinks. Will you have cream in your coffee ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, please. I am not thinking of marrying any- 
 one at present,' said Ruth, laughing. ' But if a 
 selector should be my fate I promise to tell you 
 exactly how wicked he is. However, I should like 
 someone, with more money. I am tired of being poor.' 
 
 ' Never mind the money ; marry someone with 
 brains and strength of will and character, or ah, 
 here they come from the dining-room.' 
 
 The seriousness faded from Mrs Harlin's face and 
 the note of earnestness disappeared from her tone as 
 she greeted the men with some pleasant words of 
 welcome ; but a frown came for a second and 
 vanished again when Harlin entered behind the 
 others, with face flushed and a step studiously steady. 
 Then she took a seat beside him on the sofa. 
 
 ' Poor old fellow, you are tired,' she whispered. 
 ' You must not sit up late. Don't be cross with me for 
 my excursion into politics. I won't make any more.'
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE collie raised his head from the hearth, to the 
 discomfort of a yellow cat pillowed against him, and 
 growled in a half interrogative, half assertive manner. 
 
 ' Lie down, Toss, you old fool ! It's nothing but a 
 possum on the roof,' muttered Toland, who sat before 
 the kitchen fire, with a candle on the table behind 
 him and a well-thumbed volume of Scott's poems 
 on his knee. He had left his clearing in the new 
 cultivation patch only when it grew too dark to dis- 
 tinguish pick from shovel ; and now, while he waited 
 for the potatoes to boil, he snatched a few minutes 
 with his favourite among the few authors that he 
 knew. 
 
 Toss sank his head on his paws again and wagged 
 his tail dutifully when his master spoke, but the 
 possum theory evidently failed to satisfy, for he 
 presently rose leisurely, sniffed at the door, and then 
 barked his conviction that strangers were approach- 
 ing. Wondering who it might be, Toland opened 
 the door and followed Toss, who scampered out, 
 barking furiously, and soon he heard the sound of 
 voices, one of them, he fancied, a woman's. Un- 
 certainty changed into astonishment when two riders 
 emerged from the narrow track through the wattles. 
 One was Mr Macfarlane, the Presbyterian minister 
 whom he had met at the township, and whom, even 
 in the dim light, he recognised ; the other, a woman 
 
 37
 
 38 THE WISDOM OF ESAU- 
 
 with a girlish and graceful figure, whom he had never 
 set eyes on before. Macfarlane's greeting soon ex- 
 plained matters. 
 
 ' Well, Mr Toland, you see I've kept my promise 
 to descend upon you,' he said, 'and I have to ask 
 you to be better than yours which you'll remember 
 was to give a night's lodging to the old man for 
 I've for reasons which I will explain brought my 
 daughter with me. Ruth, my dear, let me make you 
 acquainted with Mr Toland.' 
 
 With embarrassed pleasure Toland acknowledged 
 the introduction and welcomed father and daughter 
 to his home. At his suggestion they went to the 
 kitchen fire while he let their horses go in the little 
 paddock, and it was not till his return that he had 
 a chance of studying his lady visitor. Then, when 
 she looked up from the book he had left open, he 
 saw that her large eyes were soft and blue, her com- 
 plexion fair, and the foot peeping out from beneath 
 a dark riding skirt seemed to him ridiculously small. 
 
 Macfarlane half turned on his chair, still holding 
 his hands to the blaze, and explained to Toland the 
 cause of his late arrival. He and his daughter, he 
 said, had intended to put up at Mallock's new shanty, 
 but the presence of some drunken bullock-drivers 
 made it an undesirable stopping-place, and he had 
 therefore taken the liberty of bringing his daughter 
 on with him to seek Toland's hospitality. Toland 
 expressed his pleasure at their arrival, only, he said, 
 with a rueful glance at the shapeless piece of much- 
 hacked corned beef on the table, he regretted that 
 he had to offer such rough faring and lodging to a 
 lady. 
 
 Ruth laughed pleasantly, declaring herself entirely
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 39 
 
 comfortable. She accepted a jug of hot water which 
 Toland filled from the kettle on a hook above the 
 fire, and went to the empty room which he told her 
 was soon to be his sister's. 
 
 When she returned to the kitchen, with some 
 appreciative remark about the house on her lips, 
 Toland had respread the whole table with a coarse 
 cloth, made the tea, and was dishing the potatoes, 
 while Mr Macfarlane looked on. 
 
 ' What a shame ! ' she exclaimed. ' You should 
 have let me help you lay the table, Mr Toland.' 
 
 'If you are as hungry as I am you'll help him to 
 clear it, my dear,' said the minister, laughing. ' The 
 ride from Kumbarra has given me quite an appetite.' 
 
 The friendly manner of his visitors, and the justice 
 they did to his simple fare, soon put Toland at his 
 ease, and he felt a pleased pride in entertaining guests 
 for the first time beneath his own roof. Mr Macfar- 
 lane was communicative, and from him Toland learnt 
 much of the trials and hardships of a bush minister's 
 life, spent in travelling large tracts of wild, sparsely- 
 populated country 'meeting sometimes with but 
 surly welcome; sometimes forced to sleep under 
 the sky with no other shelter than a gum tree. 
 Ruth Macfarlane often accompanied her father, 
 who had lost his wife some years before, and 
 Toland conceived a wondering admiration for the 
 delicate-looking girl who made light of journeys 
 and hardships, from which, in less robust, self- 
 reliant communities, many a man might shrink. 
 With her mother's delicacy of feature, and a girlish 
 education which had been her mother's chief care 
 and pleasure in life, Ruth Macfarlane possessed her 
 father's philosophical disposition, cheerfully disposed
 
 40 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 to make the best of everything ; and she had early 
 persuaded the minister to let her accompany him 
 in his wanderings whenever it was possible. 
 
 Much of this Toland learnt when the frugal meal 
 was over, and Macfarlane, swaying dangerously on his 
 chair, with the Scotch accent broadening and the 
 pulpit emphasis more marked, launched out upon the 
 history of his church in Victoria bound up so closely 
 with his own. Toland was interested, and by skilful 
 comment and question drew Mr Macfarlane on, while 
 Ruth, scarcely hearing the familiar facts and phrases, 
 watched her host, interested in the lines of character 
 in his face. This was the man Mr Archer had made 
 such fun of at Kumbarra, but she fancied that he 
 would scarcely care to indulge his humour in Toland's 
 presence. A powerful, obstinate chin, she thought, if 
 his eyes and mouth told the truth, must be hidden by 
 the brown beard. There was something calling for 
 sympathy in the mixture of eagerness and melan- 
 choly in his expression, and she noted with undefined 
 satisfaction that his hands, though brown and scarred, 
 were clean, as was also the striped flannel shirt show- 
 ing beneath the unbuttoned coat of home-spun, with 
 its low-cut collar, which emphasised the strength of a 
 neck set well into a chest both deep and broad. To 
 physical view and mental conjecture Ruth found him 
 satisfying, and she pursued her own thoughts, heed- 
 less of what her father was saying, till Toland slowly 
 turned his head, and as his scrutinising eyes met hers 
 she realised that she had taken advantage of her host's 
 apparent absorption to stare at him inexcusably. 
 Macfarlane had waxed warm : ' and though I say it 
 who shouldn't, my dear little girl here has been the 
 best, the bravest '
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 41 
 
 ' Please stop, father ! Consider my feelings, if not 
 Mr Toland's,' she cried, blushing and laughing. ' I 
 don't know how long you have been talking about 
 yourself and me.' 
 
 The minister stopped suddenly, looked taken 
 aback, then laughed, and pulled out his watch. 
 
 ' I'm afraid you are right, my dear,' he said. ' It has 
 been a twenty minutes' discourse at the very least; 
 and I ask our friend's pardon for inflicting such a 
 thing unprofessionally upon him.' 
 
 ' I've not been so interested before,' replied Toland, 
 convincingly. ' England can give us no such life as 
 you have told me of, that wants pluck and endurance 
 and gives freedom and I'm glad I've come here to 
 share it. I have my own land that not a lifetime of 
 work could win for me in the old country. Here I can 
 use my brain and muscle for myself, and need call no 
 man master as good as any man the equal of any 
 man that I deserve to be ! ' Toland's voice had 
 grown louder, his eyes flashed and he brought his fist 
 heavily down upon the table, making the crockery 
 dance, and he all at once became aware of the eyes 
 of father and daughter turned upon him. Hers were 
 suggestive of mingled interest and amusement that 
 brought a faint flush to his cheek. 
 
 ' I beg your pardon,' he said with an apologetic 
 laugh. ' I must have thought I was talking to the 
 village folk at home again. I get a bit silly when my 
 thoughts run on the starvation and slavery I've seen 
 and the freedom and plenty there might be. Won't 
 you take a seat by the fire ? I'll see to the rooms if 
 you'll excuse me.' 
 
 He left the kitchen and his guests drew their chairs 
 to the welcome blaze beneath the great rough chimney
 
 42 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 fashioned of slabs lined with stone, bedded in pipe- 
 clay from the creek. Macfarlane glanced after 
 Toland's retreating figure and shook his head. 
 
 ' He's a thoughtful man, Ruth, a remarkable young 
 man, conseederably above folks in his own walk of 
 life in ideas and intelligence. But human nature's 
 much the same, old world or new, and I fear that Mr 
 Toland is destined to many a disillusion.' The 
 minister sighed placidly for unregenerate mankind. 
 ' You should not have laughed at him, Ruth. It was 
 not kind, my dear.' 
 
 ' It was only surprise, father. I wasn't expecting 
 him to break out from his quiet seriousness like that. 
 He is the man that told Mr Harlin ' 
 
 Toland's return checked Ruth in the middle of her 
 sentence. 
 
 ' I'll be lighting my pipe, Mr Toland, just to assure 
 you that my daughter won't object if you do like- 
 wise,' said Macfarlane, producing a well-seasoned 
 briar from the tail pocket of his long black coat 
 
 Ruth got up and went to the table, which Toland 
 was regarding doubtfully. ' Smoke, of course,' she 
 said. ' And please let me help you with the washing 
 up. I can see that's what you are thinking about.' 
 
 With some scruples Toland consented, and smiled 
 at Ruth's chatter as she wiped dry the tea things he 
 handed from the tin of hot water between them, 
 while Macfarlane, from the chimney corner, threw in 
 an occasional remark. Then Toland was persuaded 
 to smoke too, and when the little party was comfort- 
 ably settled round the fire the minister questioned 
 him upon his history and plans. 
 
 Silent and reserved in the society that was his as a 
 rule, Toland was ready enough to speak of himself
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 43 
 
 and his aspirations when he felt assured of intelligent 
 sympathy, and he talked freely of his life in England. 
 
 Ever since he was a boy he had hoarded every 
 penny he earned with the view steadily before him of 
 acquiring a home in some new country when he 
 should have capital to make a start and his old father, 
 whom he was loath to leave, should have need of him 
 no more. His original idea had been to go to the 
 States, but when his father died, a little more than a 
 year ago, the disturbances in America had settled his 
 determination towards Australia. His own savings 
 and the sale of stock and implements on the farm, 
 which his people had held for generations, gave him 
 a little more than 500, and with this he had pro- 
 ceeded to realise his dream. It was now in part 
 accomplished, and his first act, he told them, on enter- 
 ing into possession of his virgin acres, was to write to 
 his sister Bess, his only relative, to come over with all 
 speed she could and join him in the new home. 
 
 Ruth was interested in the sister of whom Toland 
 spoke with much affection. 
 
 1 I'm afraid I'm a poor hand at a woman's portrait,' 
 he laughed, ' but she's a good lass, fair to see and 
 brave to do. She can brew and bake, sing like a 
 bird and for the rest she's a fine lump of a girl, 
 with colour in her cheeks and bonny blue eyes 
 much like your own, Miss Macfarlane.' 
 
 Ruth coloured a little and laughed, and Mr Mac- 
 farlane commented judicially. ' It's a very pleasing 
 picture you have drawn, and I hope we'll be, soon 
 welcoming your sister among us. And may I ask 
 what you're now doing on your farm, Mr Toland ? ' 
 
 ' Clearing, sir, on a twenty-acre patch that I hope 
 to begin ploughing by September.'
 
 44 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' And what will you put in it then ? ' 
 
 ' Maize. I know nothing of it, but they tell me it's 
 the thing for a first crop hereabouts.' 
 
 ' Ay ! you'll be doing right there,' nodded Mac- 
 farlane, approvingly. ' You should raise fine corn on 
 those flats ; and if you'll take my advice you'll plant 
 some pumpkins in the rows.' 
 
 From farming the talk drifted to books, and Mac- 
 farlane found that Toland was, like himself, a keen 
 student of Scott, while neither of them having quite 
 the impartiality of their author, an argument provoked 
 by Marmion and Flodden Field grew in warmth till 
 Ruth, with the average woman's inclination to identify 
 keen debate with quarrel, stepped in to part the 
 border champions. She was tired after the ride, 
 she said, and declared that her father, too, should 
 go to bed, if not for his own sake to let Mr Toland 
 get a good rest for his hard work next day. The old 
 man, who was quite ready for another pipe and further 
 argument, reluctantly consented. He had said grace 
 over the meal uninvited, but Toland, determined not 
 to be again found wanting, made a diffident sugges- 
 tion about prayers, in response to which Macfarlane 
 read a few verses from a pocket Bible and offered 
 a commendably short extempore prayer, asking a 
 special blessing on all subduers of the wilderness and 
 tillers of the soil. Then Toland lighted his guests to 
 their rooms. Macfarlane occupied his, and Ruth that 
 which was to be his sister's, while he made a shake- 
 down for himself before the kitchen fire, where he 
 soon fell asleep, not hearing the rain which began 
 after midnight and was descending in torrents when 
 the dawn broke dull and late. 
 
 A glance showed him that work was out of the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 45 
 
 question for a time so also, he reflected with satisfac- 
 tion, was the departure of his guests. He had slept 
 late. The clock on the mantelpiece struck seven 
 before he had dressed and stowed away his blankets, 
 while the fire was only just lighted and the kettle 
 filled from the creek, when there was a tap at the 
 door and Ruth entered, to find him slicing rashers 
 from a side of bacon. 
 
 ' I hope I'm not in the way,' she said. ' Isn't it wet 
 and cold ? ' She stood in the fireplace holding her 
 hands to the blaze, and looked round at him, smiling. 
 
 ' Yes ; I doubt you won't be able to go on to-day 
 which I'm only too glad of if you're not sorry,' he 
 added shyly. 
 
 ' Oh, I should be quite content to rest a little, but my 
 father is in a hurry to reach Black Dog Creek. I wonder 
 he hasn't been up for hours studying the weather.' 
 
 She refused the chair which Toland brought to the 
 fire. ' No, I'm not going to sit down,' she said. ' You 
 go on with your work and show me where the flour is. 
 I'll make you some scones if you will let me.' 
 
 Toland's first impulse was to object, but she insisted, 
 laughingly accusing him of grudging the flour and 
 soda, and in the end he felt it very pleasant to see 
 her, with her sleeves rolled up, mixing the dough 
 while they talked. When the scones were in the 
 camp-oven he called Mr Macfarlane and got out a 
 tin of jam and some potted butter from his store to 
 do honour to the occasion. 
 
 There was a break in the clouds after breakfast. 
 Patches of blue sky showed in the north, and white 
 mists gathered in fleecy masses against the hills. 
 Between the showers the minister took a walk with 
 Toland to see that the horses were all right, and to
 
 46 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 inspect the clearing, where he was taking out the 
 smaller trees, leaving in each acre some twenty ring- 
 barked monsters between which the plough was to 
 find its way. Then they returned and Toland 
 showed his visitors the house. 
 
 It was a four-roomed cottage with a detached 
 kitchen, built by Toland himself with the help of 
 his handy man, Mick M'Larty, beside a rapid 
 pebbly creek, with a gentle slope rising beyond a 
 dip in the ground on the one bank, and on the other 
 a small, rich flat flanked by a range of hills. The 
 cottage was innocent as yet of floors other than 
 beaten earth. Boards would not be available till 
 a promised saw-mill set up in the vicinity. The 
 little window-sashes had been carted ready-made 
 from Melbourne. Sheets of bark served for doors, 
 and the bark walls were lined only with hessian ; 
 but the rooms were large, with a potentiality of 
 comfort when papered and furnished. 
 
 Ruth complimented Toland on his work, and 
 offered several hints ; apologised for interfering with 
 what would be his sister's domain, then excused 
 herself again by the fact that Miss Toland would be 
 ignorant of Melbourne shops and prices, and Toland, 
 quite agreeing, wrote down addresses of cheap places 
 and treasured many other of her suggestions in his 
 memory. The minister, too, was interested in Toland's 
 schemes, but kept his eye constantly on the weather, 
 and as it cleared towards mid-day Toland regretfully 
 brought in the horses. He begged his guests to 
 come again soon when his sister would be with him, 
 and they assured him that they would do so. Then 
 they set out on their rough track, and Toland, after 
 watching them disappear among the trees, went back, 
 with a new sense of loneliness, to his interrupted work.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 BESS TOLAND sat knitting on the verandah waiting 
 for her brother's return as the dusk of Christmas Eve 
 drew on, and her busy fingers moved with automatic 
 skill, only stopping when she paused to listen for the 
 sound of approaching hoofs. Her brother had ridden 
 to the post-office at Mallock's shanty for the weekly 
 mail, which seldom brought anything but the 
 Melbourne paper at long intervals a letter from 
 the old country and Bess was wondering if any of 
 the friends left behind would time their Christmas 
 greetings to reach her at the season which had no 
 reality in this land of topsy-turvydom. There were 
 no home letters, however only a line from Scott 
 saying that he would take a holiday and spend his 
 Christmas with them, so Toland informed his sister 
 as he cantered up to the garden gate, and flinging 
 the paper on to the verandah, rode away to take the 
 saddle off his horse. That Scott was coming pleased 
 Bess, for besides being a link with the old country, he 
 was cheery and pleasant and seemed to find her 
 society agreeable. The paper she seldom took the 
 trouble to look at, and without undoing the wrapper 
 she sat a little longer on the verandah before going 
 inside to make the tea. 
 
 A few minutes later, when they were seated at their 
 meal in the skillion room, she discovered that her 
 brother's good spirits were not solely owing to Scott's 
 promised visit, 
 
 47
 
 48 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' We'll have quite a gay week, Bess,' he said, stirring 
 his tea. ' I have a bit of a note from Mr Macfarlane 
 to say he and his daughter will likely be here a day 
 or t\vo after Christmas.' 
 
 Bess glanced keenly at her brother, suspecting his 
 tone of studied unconcern. 'That is fine now,' she 
 said. 'Those will be the old gentleman and the 
 pretty lass that visited you before I came out ? ' 
 
 ' The very same and I was thinking, Bess, if you 
 were to ask Miss Macfarlane to spend a week here 
 it would be a bit of company for you not to say/ 
 he added with a smile, 'but what it would be a 
 pleasure to me too.' 
 
 ' And it's small difference it would make if you 
 didn't say it,' she replied drily. ' I'm very willing for 
 my own sake and yours. But what will the minister 
 do without her?' 
 
 ' He has to go on yonder to Black Dog Creek,' 
 said Toland, nodding vaguely towards the hills at 
 the head of the valley ; ' but in a fortnight's time he 
 will be along through here again. Don't you think 
 you might persuade him to leave his daughter with 
 us between whiles?' 
 
 'It's a fortnight now,' said Bess, laughing ; ' but a 
 month or six months it would be all one to me. I'd 
 like to have the girl, and I'll do my best to make the 
 minister leave her here.' 
 
 Toland was satisfied. The bush began to seem 
 quite homelike now that Bess was with him, adorning 
 the house with curtains and cushions and frillings, 
 while outside she had gathered round her the fowls 
 and farmyard animals that gladdened her heart. 
 
 ' If it wasn't that any moment as like as not you'd 
 find a snake in the calf-pen, or a possum sitting
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 49 
 
 grunting on the hen-roost, there were times,' she 
 said, ' when you'd almost forget you were in this 
 outlandish country, and imagine yourself in a real 
 decent farmyard.' 
 
 With the house growing homelike, crops flourishing, 
 and the prospect of a visit from his friends, Toland's 
 spirits rose. He complimented Bess on her mince- 
 pies and laughed at her sad tale of the wombat she 
 had glimpsed that evening in the scrub and pursued, 
 at imminent risk of garment and limb, under a 
 momentary impression that their big pig was 
 making a wild dash for the bush. Australian 
 animals aroused in Bess an almost indignant con- 
 tempt. ' It was bad enough,' she said, ' to have 
 creatures with ducks' bills and fishes' fins that didn't 
 rightly know whether they were beast or bird not 
 to mention that some of them, with their pouches and 
 things, didn't even seem sure from one minute to the 
 next whether there was two or one of them.' 
 
 Since she had seen a kangaroo pursued by the 
 dogs calmly disencumber itself of a 'joey,' which 
 leapt from the pouch and hopped along beside its 
 mother, Bess had become imbued with a profound 
 distrust for all the marsupial tribe. 
 
 Toland read her scraps of news from the paper 
 after tea, while he smoked and she knitted socks for 
 him. She paused now and then to figure out cal- 
 culations on the market prices of pigs or eggs and 
 poultry, and sighed forth an occasional ' Dear ! dear ! ' 
 of less interest than disgust, by way of comment on 
 her brother's sonorously-read descriptions of scenes 
 in the great drama of the American Civil War. She 
 did not hold with late hours, and Toland still sat on 
 reading and smoking long after she was in bed. 
 
 D
 
 So THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 Indulging in holiday lateness, brother and sister 
 were sitting down to an eight-o'clock breakfast on 
 the following morning when Scott appeared in the 
 doorway, his ruddy face wreathed in smiles. 
 
 ' It's a snug little cot you're making this, Miss 
 Toland,' he said, taking the place promptly laid for 
 him, after Christmas greetings had been exchanged. 
 ' Jack here's a lucky chap to have such a sister.' 
 
 ' Do you hear that, John ? Isn't that what I'm 
 always telling you ? ' laughed Bess, not displeased. 
 
 ' And am I ever disputing it with either of you ? 
 I'm glad you've come to make a day of it, George.' 
 
 ' You bet,' answered Scott, with his mouth full of 
 eggs and bacon. ' What mortal thing is there to do 
 below? Sports and drink in Tongalong drink 
 without the sports, barrin' maybe a fight or two, at 
 Mallock's shanty. Give me a good ride and a good 
 breakfast not to mention the best of good company 
 at the end of it.' 
 
 ' Well, we're right glad to see you any ways. Take 
 some more tea, Mr Scott,' said Bess, avoiding the 
 meaning glance which specialised the good company. 
 Toland was no less aware than she of Scott's liking, 
 which grew more evident with each of the Sunday 
 visits good evidence in themselves, since they had 
 occurred only since Bess's arrival, and thenceforward 
 with unfailing regularity. It was in the nature of 
 things that he should lose his sister some day, and 
 Toland contentedly watched events which made it 
 probable that she would go not far and into good 
 hands. He took himself off after breakfast. The 
 pigs must be fed, and a bit of wood and water got in 
 though it was a holiday. Then they could have a 
 pipe and ' look round.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 51 
 
 Toland felt some slight surprise that Scott's horse 
 was not with his own in the little house paddock, 
 when, from behind a clump of wattles by the creek, 
 he noticed the flick of an unfamiliar tail, and walked 
 down to investigate. The owner of the tail proved 
 to be a well-set-up, iron-grey pony, caparisoned in a 
 bran new side saddle, gay with stitching and leather 
 work, a scarlet saddle-cloth embroidered with yellow, 
 and a double-reined bridle with blue forehead band, 
 tassels and rosettes. Beside the pony stood Scott's 
 own bay, and as Toland remembered a self-satisfied 
 mystery in Scott's manner at breakfast, the situation 
 explained itself. Things had gone further than he 
 thought ; for Scott, he reflected without ill-nature, 
 was not a man to give anything for nothing, and this 
 handsome present was either evidence of success 
 with his sister, or a bold bid for it. Not wishing to 
 spoil the secret, Toland crossed the creek for a stroll 
 among the maize, and on his return, Scott and Bess, 
 galloping over the paddock, nearly rode him down 
 at the kitchen door. Bess was radiant with pleasure. 
 Her bright hair fell in picturesque confusion about 
 her cheeks, and in the hatless, daringly skirtless con- 
 dition induced by impatience to mount her new 
 property, there was no trace of her usual housewifely 
 staidness. 
 
 ' Did you ever see such a Christmas box ? ' she 
 cried. 'Mr Scott brought him saddle and bridle 
 and all: for my very own ! And I've been too 
 excited to half thank him yet' 
 
 Toland manifested due surprise, thanked Scott and 
 congratulated his sister, concluding drily, ' And a habit 
 skirt, my dear, you'd find more comfortable, not to 
 say becoming.'
 
 52 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Gracious goodness ! I'd no notion,' she laughed, 
 suddenly aware of much well-filled stocking, and glad 
 that Scott rode upon the other side. ' Lift me down, 
 Jack.' 
 
 Reluctantly consenting to postpone the ride she 
 longed for till the horses were spelled, Bess accom- 
 panied the men in a walk of inspection till the cares 
 of dinner called her home again. However, in a half- 
 hour's gallop through the timber, behind an old man 
 kangaroo and Scott's dogs, in the afternoon, she 
 covered more ground and acquired more stiffness than 
 in her longest ride on the old roan cob that had 
 ambled with her down the north country lanes, almost 
 as far back as she could remember. She rode fear- 
 lessly and awkwardly, keeping her brother in constant 
 anxiety, and thoroughly enjoying herself. 
 
 They reached home without accident, bringing with 
 them a kangaroo tail for soup ; and after an evening 
 spent in talk, Bess went off tired to bed, wonderingly 
 conscious that this queer Christmas Day had been one 
 of the happiest she had ever spent. 
 
 Scott took his departure at six o'clock next morning, 
 and the Tolands started again on their daily routine 
 of farm work. John's first task was to scare predatory 
 cockatoos from his maize, on which the young cobs 
 were just forming. Then he hunted up the cows, 
 usually from the furthest corner of his two-hundred- 
 acre paddock, chopped wood and filled the water 
 barrel for the day, while Bess attended to housework 
 and breakfast. After that he went out to ring the 
 green timber that kept the sunlight from sweetening 
 the grass, and his sister, in times free of bread and 
 butter making, and other household duties, tended 
 the garden Toland had enclosed near the house, hoe-
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 53 
 
 ing or digging, and bringing buckets of water from 
 the creek for the tomatoes, melons and cucumbers 
 that were her especial care. 
 
 On New Year's Eve the Macfarlanes arrived, and 
 Toland noticed with pleasure the well-stuffed valise 
 hung by Ruth's saddle, which promised that want of 
 clothes, at least, would not prevent her remaining for 
 a time at the farm. 
 
 Mr Macfarlane won Bess's heart at once by saying 
 that he had heard so much of her from her brother 
 that he felt they were quite old friends already. 
 Towards Ruth Macfarlane her attitude was more 
 guarded. She was as yet imbued with the half 
 hostile, reconnoitring spirit which actuates women's 
 conduct towards new acquaintances who they think it 
 possible may become the wives of sons or brothers. 
 Accordingly, though polite, she was not effusive. She 
 studied Ruth carefully, slightly set on edge by certain 
 little refinements in dress and manner which rendered 
 her suddenly conscious of deficiencies in her own ; 
 while Ruth wondered to herself how it came about 
 that Toland seemed so far removed from his sister in 
 the nature and scope of his ideas. 
 
 Ruth's sweet disposition, however, soon imposed its 
 charm on the older woman. Bess half reluctantly 
 admitted to herself that Ruth ' put on no side.' Un- 
 willingness to disappoint John induced her to be 
 gracious ; and gradually, as constraint wore off, the 
 essential kindliness and common sense of both girls 
 led them into mutual liking, so that, before the 
 minister read evening prayers, it was a genuinely- 
 pressing invitation that Bess gave to Ruth to remain 
 at the farm while Mr Macfarlane went on to Black 
 Dog Creek.
 
 54 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' I should like it very much,' answered Ruth, ' if 
 my father can do without me till he comes back.' 
 
 The minister turned the leaves of his Bible in 
 search of the chapter for the day, and said he would 
 consider the matter. Apparently he had been con- 
 sidering it during prayers, for at their close he said 
 he would persuade himself to part with his little girl 
 for a time, feeling sure that he was leaving her in 
 good hands. So the matter was settled and Bess 
 took Ruth off to her room, which they were to share, 
 while Toland and the minister remained to discuss 
 the crops and the war over a final pipe and bottle of 
 whisky, produced by Toland with hesitation which 
 proved quite needless. 
 
 The dawn broke in a cloudless sky with promise of 
 January heat. Scott had made an early start, as on 
 the Christmas Day visit, and it was quite a large party 
 that sat down to breakfast on New Year's morning. 
 A picnic to explore the creek and gather fern roots 
 for Bess's garden occupied most of the day. The 
 minister had decided that he need not push on to 
 Black Dog Creek till the morrow a blessing which 
 scarcely inspired George Scott with due thankfulness, 
 for Mr Macfarlane was an enthusiast about ferns and 
 dilated to Bess upon the different varieties maiden 
 hair, stag horn, coral fern, etc. and their old country 
 prototypes. He found time also to display much 
 intelligent interest in Scott's farm, and gave him 
 many valuable hints, for which Scott thanked him 
 in words with envious eyes all the time on Toland 
 and Ruth, who wandered ahead or lagged behind, 
 talking, he fancied, of things more interesting than 
 botany. 
 
 The sun was hot, and with due respect for the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 55 
 
 thermometer at ninety in the shade, the party chose 
 for their walk the creek bed, where sparkling water 
 flowed in a narrow stream through an arching thicket 
 of musk and hazel. Here and there were deep pools 
 to skirt, but for the greater part of the way the 
 channel that ran full in winter formed a pathway, 
 and they wandered contentedly along it. Toland shot 
 a tiger snake sunning himself on a gravel bed in 
 the open ; also a couple of Wanga pigeons that 
 Macfarlane excitedly pointed out in a tall wattle; 
 and these, with a basket of fern roots, were material 
 trophies of the expedition. 
 
 Sitting long after their luncheon on a grassy bank, 
 they discussed experience and prospects of life in 
 Australia and Europe a subject on which Ruth 
 was a silent listener, feeling herself strongly in sym- 
 pathy with Toland's vigorous theories of manhood's 
 destiny and claims, to which her father gave a 
 qualified assent while the other two laughed at him 
 as a dreamer. 
 
 ' If a few more in the world would dream as I do, 
 it's fewer men with hands and brains would fret their 
 hearts away looking for a job to do while their little 
 ones were starving, or worse in the workhouse,' re- 
 torted Toland. 
 
 ' I think so too,' ventured Ruth, timidly. ' Surely it's 
 a noble dream to make the world a little happier for 
 everybody; and I think it must come true some day.' 
 
 Toland looked up gratefully, and Scott chimed in 
 with a laugh, ' Well, Jack, old man, I wish you joy of 
 it. Things are a bit wrong in the old country, I 
 know, because the blessed place is overcrowded 
 and they say Free Trade is ruining the farmers. 
 But here, what have you got to complain about?
 
 5 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 There's lots of good land, and the man with pluck 
 and go gets hold of it.' 
 
 'Have you more pluck and go than me?' asked 
 Toland, drily. 
 
 Scott laughed in deprecation. ' Hang it, don't get 
 riled, man ! I had a bit of luck of course, but ' 
 
 ' And has Harlin and that scoundrel Mallock 
 more pluck and go than either of us? No I'm sick 
 of this cant, that you are picking up like the rest, 
 about pluck, and energy, and foresight, when it's 
 money and roguery that's parcelling out the land ! 
 This is a grand country, no doubt. You and I, 
 luckier than some poor devils, have got a foot 
 planted in it, more or less, but mark my words 
 if they go on the way they've been doing, with 
 their dummying and bribery, there'll be men as 
 good as you and me tramping the roads in rags 
 before many years are out. And it's a crying sin. 
 By God it is!' 
 
 'John, I'm ashamed of you!' interposed Bess, 
 severely. ' I thought you'd give up that ranting, 
 outrageous talk when you'd got the bit of land 
 you'd set your heart on so bad and before the 
 minister, too ! ' 
 
 ' Stow it, old man ! ' laughed Scott, with a little 
 annoyance. ' This ain't a debatin' society, you know. 
 What are you growling at now on your own land 
 by the tinkling brook, all among the pretty birds 
 and flowers?' 
 
 'Not to mention snakes! I'm sure I heard one 
 of the slimy beasts near me,' added Bess, gathering 
 her skirts closer and peering suspiciously into a 
 neighbouring clump of bracken. 
 
 ' There's much in what our friend's been saying,'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 57 
 
 summed up the minister, rising ; ' and again, there's 
 much on the other side. You'll be in danger of 
 forgetting, Mr Toland, there's a leemit to human 
 effort. " For the poor ye have always with you." 
 We have our Lord's word for that ; and I'm thinkin' 
 that word'll aye stand against all man's contriving.' 
 He shook his head in sorrowful acquiescence with 
 the word, and seeing question and dissent in Toland's 
 eyes, playfully tapped him on the shoulder. 'But 
 it's ill work to be disputing on the first day of the 
 year, in this lovely spot, with God's handiwork all 
 around us.' 
 
 Toland shrugged his shoulders and was silent. 
 How useless it seemed to argue against the in- 
 justice of the world when on one side he found 
 complacent acquiescence, on the other feeble resigna- 
 tion. His heart went out yearningly to Ruth 
 Macfarlane, for he guessed from her eyes that she 
 sympathised and understood ignorant she might 
 be, but she could feel with him that a man need 
 not be blind to justice because he had been forced 
 to snatch what crumbs he might in the pitiful, sordid 
 scramble ; and she could understand that the clamour- 
 ing voice of robbed humanity could not be forever 
 silenced by the dreary iteration of a misquoted text. 
 Tempers had been ruffled by the breeze which spoilt 
 the pleasure of idling longer by the creek, and it 
 was no use saying any more. With some constraint 
 the party gathered up its properties and started on 
 the homewaro! way, Toland again escaping from the 
 others with Ruth, glad that she seemed naturally 
 to find her place at his side, and aware with grim 
 satisfaction that Scott was inwardly cursing the old 
 gentleman who found his society so congenial.
 
 58 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Dad and you would not get on,' said Ruth, 
 musingly, after a long silence. 
 
 'Wouldn't we?' he asked. 'Why not?' 
 
 ' Oh,' she said with a laugh, ' you are too I don't 
 know exactly how to express it decided, strenuous 
 you go to extremes, you know.' 
 
 ' If you think a thing it's not much good to half 
 think it, is it ? ' he asked, smiling. 
 
 ' No,' she sighed, ' but dad thinks there is much to 
 be said on both sides moderation in everything 
 except religion. You are Church of England, I 
 suppose ? ' 
 
 1 1 suppose so.' 
 
 She looked at him with raised eyebrows. ' If that 
 is your view of it, you and he would certainly not get 
 on,' she said seriously. 
 
 ' I'm sorry,' he answered, half wishing that he were 
 a good Presbyterian, and vaguely wondering if Ruth 
 could realise of what importance friendly relations 
 with her father might mean to him. Apparently 
 not. Her manner suggested that she regarded the 
 subject as of quite impersonal interest, and presently 
 she changed it, telling him incidents of her ride, 
 and sketching portraits of some of the parishioners 
 at Black Dog Creek. Soon they reached the cottage 
 door. The others were not far behind, and Toland 
 went after his cows, which regarded not high day 
 or holiday. 
 
 Toland was silent during the evening, letting the 
 minister do most of the talking, and the old man 
 made an early start in the morning, departing in 
 high good humour with everybody. Scott was de- 
 voutly thankful to see his back, and immediately 
 announced his intention of remaining over Sunday.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 59 
 
 It only meant the loss of a broken day's work, and 
 no doubt he could be of use to Toland in more 
 ways than one. Toland, smiling to himself, agreed, 
 and Scott did shoulder an axe and spent the morn- 
 ing with him ringing the grazing paddock, but in 
 the afternoon discovered that there was a hard patch 
 to dig in the garden which was beyond Miss Toland's 
 power. 
 
 In the evening the seats on the verandah seemed 
 automatically to arrange themselves in pairs, and 
 there were late hours in the house that night since 
 the following day would be Sunday. When it came 
 the four of them rode round the boundary fence, and 
 Ruth's conscience sometimes raised the point whether 
 her father would approve of the two-and-two arrange- 
 ment of the party, or indeed of a Sunday ride at all 
 for such a worldly purpose as inspecting cattle. But 
 she enjoyed it, and she might fairly have dismissed 
 the business aspect of the expedition from her mind, 
 for when Toland did chance upon a few head of his 
 scattered mob his thoughts seemed otherwhere, and 
 he scarcely took the trouble to look at them.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WITH each day of her visit Ruth Macfarlane grew 
 more at home at Grimsby Farm, she and Bess 
 discovering that they had much in common, and 
 that though their ideas parted company when they 
 soared beyond the practical, there was in everyday 
 matters of house and garden an ample field for 
 congenial intercourse. Toland read to them some- 
 times, which rather bored Bess; but she could see 
 that Ruth liked it, and it was easy to doze or let her 
 thoughts drift to more interesting people than the 
 Lady of the Lake or Marmion. In fact, the living, 
 commonplace Scott not far away was more often in 
 her mind at such times than any of his great name- 
 sake's creations. 
 
 In the day-time Toland saw little of the women, 
 for he stuck conscientiously to his work, to which new 
 hopes gave an added zest and spur, for he knew, 
 before Ruth had been at the farm a week, that his 
 early admiration and liking had grown into a love, 
 the strength of which could not be measured, while 
 there was nothing to arrest its even course. And 
 wherever he was upon his farm, hilling up the 
 potatoes, cutting suckers from the maize, or working 
 at his clearing, all his thoughts were of Ruth, or at 
 least only radiated from her to other things to which 
 her existence gave a newly vast importance. 
 
 His financial position and prospects especially 
 60
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 61 
 
 called for much consideration, for he guessed they 
 would weigh heavily with the minister. Of the 
 money with which he had sailed from England over 
 100 remained to his credit in the bank at Tongalong. 
 The rest had gone in various ways personal outfit 
 and passage money ; nearly 100 in the fees and 
 first of the annual payments for his land ; another 50 
 in the house and scrap of furniture ; the balance in 
 living expenses, wages, stock and implements. 
 
 He lived economically and spent nothing in wages 
 during the summer months, for while the ground lay 
 baked like a brick it would be waste of money to 
 keep men at the clearing, with which he was so 
 anxious to proceed. However, he did a little himself; 
 and as each hardly-conquered tree came crashing 
 down, Toland wiped the sweat from his brow with a 
 sigh, trying to picture the time when the wilderness 
 of straight boles, throwing not even a shadow, save 
 where the sunlight beat in speckled patches through 
 the overspreading boughs, should have vanished and 
 given place to waving fields of corn. To take down 
 one tree when there were so many left seemed hardly 
 worth the labour, and the echo of its fall sounded 
 like a mocking laugh from the thousand trunks 
 surrounding. Then, with a smile at such coward 
 fancies, he would shovel back the earth into the hole 
 he had dug, and swing his pick about the roots of 
 the next tree that was to follow. 
 
 There was encouragement in the thought that 
 after next winter's rains he might afford to put on a 
 couple of men at the grubbing, and that in the 
 softened ground one man could do more than twice 
 his present daily work six times as much he might 
 count on altogether as he was doing then. Even
 
 62 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 that did not amount to very much ; and besides, there 
 would be ploughing and fencing to attend to, rainy 
 days when they could do no work at all, and after 
 the grubbing all the timber must be burnt before the 
 ground would be clear. 
 
 So, almost against his will, he pursued the inter- 
 minable calculation that never would bring out a 
 large enough result, until at the close of a day of 
 muscular toil he found himself quite brain weary. 
 Sometimes he would direct his mental arithmetic upon 
 simpler problems the profit on his young cattle if 
 he sold them next month at so much per head or 
 kept them for another year to put so much more 
 beef on them; the return from his maize at four 
 shillings a bushel and forty bushels to the acre, as 
 against more bushels of varying numbers and prices 
 less by a penny, twopence, and so on until his 
 mind was stored like a ready reckoner with all 
 possible and impossible pecuniary results of his 
 maize crop. 
 
 The maize, with its rich, green leaves and swelling 
 cobs, was dear to him, not only as an evidence of work 
 done and more to follow, but because amongst its 
 stately rows were passed some of his happiest hours. 
 Ruth would sometimes accompany him when he was 
 hilling up the plants, soothingly appreciative of the 
 skill with which he and his draught horse manoeuvred 
 the Hornsby plough in the narrow track, throwing a 
 straight black furrow on either side the stems to feed 
 the over-ground rootlets. Sometimes she would run 
 forward to lift a straying pumpkin vine out of danger. 
 Once she laughingly declared that Charlie, the horse, 
 went straight of his own accord, and insisted upon 
 taking the plough handles. Charlie might have gone
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 63 
 
 straight but that she tripped, pulled the off rein and 
 let the handle go, with the result that, before Toland 
 could put her on her feet again, half a chain of the 
 row was broken down or uprooted ; and, concluding 
 that all was not as it should be, Charlie had stopped 
 to consider the position and munch a fat, green cob 
 temptingly near his nose. Ruth did not plough any 
 more, but, useful or a hindrance, Toland found her 
 company equally delightful, and in his eyes there was 
 no picture so charming as Ruth waiting to meet him 
 in the leafy alley, the pinks and whites of her frock 
 and sun-bonnet contrasting with the rich black of 
 the soil and the green of the maize as, with out- 
 stretched hands grasping a stem on either side, 
 she laughingly pretended to bar his way. 
 
 It was an idyllic life, and mingled with his hopes of 
 prosperous independence in times to come, Toland 
 felt that no material success could bring more happi- 
 ness than these too fleeting days when youth and 
 energy were at their height, and all his brightest 
 dreams before him, unrealised, but full of potential 
 reality. 
 
 Neither had Ruth ever experienced anything quite 
 like these weeks in restfulness and simplicity. Hers 
 was not usually a life of ease, burdened as it was 
 with church and household tasks in Tongalong, or 
 travelling through the district with her father. 
 Sometimes she spent a few days at Kumbarra 
 Station, where she enjoyed the comfort of wealth 
 and the society of Mrs Harlin, who was only two 
 or three years older than herself, and practically her 
 only friend ; but even at Kumbarra she was not 
 entirely at her ease, for she was aware that Mr 
 Harlin, whom she did not like, only tolerated her,
 
 64 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 and when Melbourne visitors were there she felt 
 snubbed and out of it in a dozen little ways, as 
 belonging to a different world. It was an entirely 
 new and gratifying experience to be the important 
 person in a civilised household to be petted and yet 
 deferred to by Bess, who recognised, in a way that 
 flattered harmless pride, her socially superior stand- 
 ing and education. She found a girlish pleasure and 
 excitement, too, in Toland's evident devotion. ' If a 
 selector should be her fate ! ' With a kind of nervous 
 feeling that the words might have been prophetic 
 she remembered laughing at the idea of such a 
 contingency with Mrs Harlin. Toland, at anyrate, 
 was entirely different from any picture that either of 
 them had formed of selectors. Quaint provincial 
 turns of expression, that at first had amused her or 
 jarred upon her, she had almost ceased to notice. 
 The man himself, large and strong, ideally as well 
 as physically, imposed himself upon her thoughts, 
 and she admired him. There were no elegancies 
 about him, but no littlenesses, and none of the 
 vulgarity, of which she could not entirely acquit 
 Bess, to hurt her fastidiousness and blind her to 
 his essential manliness. 
 
 Thus it was with regret almost equal to that of her 
 new friends that, one evening, Ruth opened a letter 
 from her father, who wrote that he had returned to 
 Tongalong and hoped to call at Grimsby Farm on 
 the morrow to take her home. When the morning 
 came Toland could think of nothing but that this 
 was the last day of Ruth's visit, the happiest time 
 he had ever spent, and he found it hard to tear 
 himself away from the house to work at his clear- 
 ing, half a mile distant, on the flat.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 65 
 
 A big peppermint gum had resisted all his attacks 
 since dinner-time, and at half-past four was still 
 standing, with a deep trench exposing severed roots 
 all around it. 'Why don't you come, you brute?' 
 muttered Toland, throwing all his weight against 
 the undermined tree. For answer it swayed just 
 enough to rustle the spreading leaves, and showed 
 to his experienced eye a tiny crack in the bottom 
 of the trench near his feet. Pick and shovel soon 
 laid bare another root. His axe rang resonantly 
 on the straining wood, and as the last tough fibre 
 was severed Toland stepped back from the tree. 
 With the creaking and snapping of a hundred 
 rootlets it relinquished its grip of the soil, stood 
 tottering for an instant, and then with a swish of 
 spreading branches fell headlong over the bank 
 of earth before it, flinging its great butt into the 
 air. 
 
 ' At last ! ' muttered Toland, aloud. ' You made a 
 tough fight, but you've gone and the rest are 
 going.' 
 
 He turned, hearing a laugh behind him, and saw 
 Ruth standing there with a basket and a billy in her 
 hands. ' I have been watching you for the last ten 
 minutes,' she said. ' Do you always look so fierce 
 and taunt your fallen enemies like that ? ' 
 
 ' I think I only talk to the toughest out loud, at 
 least. Have you come to help me ? ' 
 
 Ruth smiled. ' If you like, to encourage you. 
 Bess was making a cake she couldn't leave and 
 asked me to take out your tea. I've brought my 
 own too.' 
 
 Toland picked up his coat and watched her, half 
 blessing and yet fearing the accident that had kept 
 
 E
 
 66 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Bess at home, while Ruth sat down on the fallen 
 trunk and opened her basket. 
 
 ' Here's your pannikin,' she said, glancing up. 
 ' You look worried ; is anything troubling you ? ' 
 
 ' No I was only thinking the same old thing 
 what a lifetime it takes to make a home.' He sat 
 down on the log by her side and looked at the great 
 forest before him. ' If I get rid of five trees a day 
 and there are a hundred to the acre, how long will it 
 take me to clear three hundred and twenty acres ? ' 
 
 Ruth dipped her cup into the billy and pondered, 
 with eyebrows knitted for the difficult calculation. 
 
 ' One hundred and fifty seven years, five months, 
 four weeks and two days, or thereabouts,' she said 
 presently, laughing. ' It seems a longish time, doesn't 
 it?' 
 
 ' Yes ; and your answer might just as well be right 
 for all the difference it would make. There's only 
 one thing would make the time seem short.' He 
 checked himself and turned away his eyes from her 
 face as hers met them in inquiry. 
 
 ' What is that ? ' she asked, looking down at the 
 ground and drawing patterns with her foot. 
 
 ' You will learn some other day ; I cannot tell you 
 now.' 
 
 ' But I want to know,' she persisted. 
 
 Toland hesitated, but the overwhelming impulse to 
 tell his love and ask for hers proved stronger than his 
 determination to say nothing till he should have her 
 father's consent. Ruth could feel herself colouring 
 beneath his gaze as he half turned towards her. 
 
 ' I almost think that you must know already,' he 
 said slowly. ' From the first hour I saw you I believe 
 that I have loved you you have filled my thoughts
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 67 
 
 and my dreams ever since. Every day it's been 
 harder not to tell you. I meant to speak to your 
 father first, but I could not wait not even till to- 
 night and now I have told you, Ruth. I love you 
 with all my heart and soul, I always shall. With 
 you beside me if it was for you all the toil in the 
 world would seem just a bit of play.' 
 
 Blushing and smiling, Ruth raised her eyes again 
 to Toland's face. Aglow with the ardour of hope 
 and love it magnetised her strongly, and the quiet 
 tones vibrating with sincerity and feeling made these 
 first words of love that she had ever heard sound 
 strangely musical and sweet. 
 
 She did not speak at first, and Toland rose and 
 stood before her. ' Can you ever care for me, Ruth ? ' 
 he asked appealingly. ' I feel you must have known 
 that I loved you, and whatever's the answer that you 
 give, you'll be always the only woman in the world 
 for me.' 
 
 Rising almost unknowingly to her feet she held 
 out both her hands and leaned away from him when 
 he caught them. 
 
 ' I might have guessed a little,' she said timidly. 
 ' And I am proud and glad.' Toland's clasp of her 
 hands tightened and she went on, smiling, ' I think I'm 
 glad, too, that you spoke to me first after all. I 
 wouldn't like anyone else to be told all that, you 
 know before me.' 
 
 ' And what are you going to answer to it ? I know 
 I'm not good enough for you but then, who is?' 
 
 Her eyes met his for an instant, saying all that her 
 lips refused to say. ' I mustn't give any answer yet,' 
 she replied softly. ' When you have told my father ! 
 and now,' pulling her hands away from him with a
 
 68 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 laugh, 'drink your tea before it gets cold. I must 
 run home to help Bess with ever so many things in 
 a minute.' 
 
 Toland mechanically did as he was bidden, and for 
 the few minutes that Ruth remained with him he 
 spoke scarcely a word, since none had any present 
 meaning, but repetitions of, and variations on, the 
 forbidden phrase ' I love you.' Instead of speaking, 
 he gazed at her ; and while he thought he had never 
 seen her eyes so bright, or such colour in her cheeks, 
 it did not occur to him that his words had anything 
 to do with the matter. When she went away singing 
 to herself he picked up his tools again, but he often 
 paused to think, with his foot on the shovel, looking 
 vaguely towards the house ; and when the evening 
 shadows told him it was time to return, the ground 
 was scarcely broken round the next tree condemned 
 to fall. 
 
 Mr Macfarlane met him on the track near the 
 creek crossing. The minister had arrived some time 
 before, and a word from Ruth had made him not 
 quite unprepared for the confession into which 
 Toland impetuously plunged. He listened gravely 
 and patiently, walked back with Toland towards the 
 bush, and the conversation that followed was a long 
 one. Toland had to go exhaustively into his money 
 affairs and prospects. The minister shook his head 
 when he heard how little cash was left, but he thought 
 well of Toland's abilities and of the place ; while Ruth 
 had little in the way of worldly wealth to enjoy by 
 remaining with her father. He thought nothing of 
 social differences, but he would have been better 
 pleased, he confessed, if Ruth's affections had fallen 
 on a wealthier man of his own denomination and less
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 69 
 
 radical views. However, the world was moving, and 
 he would not stand in the way of his daughter's 
 happiness. Therefore, if she returned his sentiments, 
 he would give his consent and Toland might trust 
 him that what he did at all he did cordially and 
 with his whole heart. 
 
 So Toland's fears were set at rest, and he felt some 
 compunction for his hasty judgment of the old man, 
 which had overlooked the kindliness softening the 
 sharp lines of thought engendered by a narrow age 
 and education. 
 
 At Poland's request nothing was said to Bess that 
 night, and he and Ruth got no chance for a word, 
 but their eyes signalled each other that all obstacles 
 were removed, and in the morning, before she and the 
 minister departed, he strolled with her down the 
 track by the creek. 
 
 There, seated on an old log beneath the black- 
 woods, he told his story once more, and she was free 
 to answer as she chose, making Toland the happiest 
 of men.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THOUGH Bess was naturally blessed with a cheerful 
 disposition, nevertheless she often found the hours 
 pass but slowly, and had fits of deep depression. 
 The novelty of her surroundings was wearing off, and 
 the effect that the solitude of the bush has upon all 
 but the native born was making itself felt. 
 
 One afternoon, about a month after Ruth's visit, 
 more homesick and lonely than usual, Bess tried to 
 occupy her thoughts with needlework, but they 
 wandered away to scenes of her girlhood, and tears 
 stole into her eyes. Then she began to sing an old 
 ballad :- 
 
 ' A north countrie maid up to London had strayed, 
 Although with her nature it did not agree ; 
 She wept and she sighed, and she bitterly cried, 
 " I wish once again in the north I could be. 
 Oh ! the oak and the ash and the bonnie ivy tree 
 They flourish at home in my own countrie."' 
 
 ' Yes, they're a deal better than these great wither- 
 ing old gum trees that only make a body sad,' com- 
 mented Bess, pausing in her song and looking out of 
 the window at the sapless giants that surrounded the 
 cottage. Then she continued singing : 
 
 ' " While sadly I roam, I regret my dear home, 
 Where lads and young lasses are making the hay, 
 The merry bells ring and the birds sweetly sing, 
 And maidens and meadows are pleasant and gay. 
 Oh ! the oak and the ash," etc.' 
 70
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 71 
 
 ' It'll be many a day before merry bells ring in this 
 outlandish place,' she sighed, and then she sang 
 again : 
 
 ' " No doubt did I please, I could marry with ease 
 Where maidens are fair many lovers will come, 
 But he whom I wed must be north country bred, 
 And carry me back to my north country home." 
 
 Bess laughed as she finished. 
 
 ' Yes, what a lot of lovers I might have. There's 
 old Mick, and ' 
 
 Before she could add to the possibilities there came 
 a knock at the door. Bess sprang to her feet and 
 with one swift motion of her right hand performed 
 simultaneously a dozen functions pressed in a hair- 
 pin, secured a stray lock, straightened out her apron, 
 and altogether prepared herself for any eventuality. 
 Then she said, ' Come in.' 
 
 The door opened and Scott appeared, resplendent 
 in costume and countenance, self-important, self-con- 
 scious, and with his intentions writ large all over him. 
 
 ' Oh, it's you, Mr Scott/ said Bess, with a becoming 
 blush. ' Won't you come inside ? ' 
 
 ' Thank you,' said Scott, shaking hands. 
 
 ' Take a chair, Mr Scott' 
 
 ' Thank you, Miss Bess. I heard you singing, and 
 bein' afraid of stoppin' you, I stepped up quietly and 
 listened.' 
 
 ' I'm afraid you've missed John,' said Bess, to gain 
 time, as she guessed well what was coming. 
 
 ' Did I say I had come to see him ? ' asked Scott 
 with a knowing look, and with what was intended 
 as an insinuating tone in his voice. 
 
 ' No, you did not, but I supposed you had,' replied 
 Bess with modest untruthfulness.
 
 72 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' But s'pose I had come to see you, Miss Bessie.' 
 
 ' Is there anything I can do for you ? ' she asked. 
 
 Scott hesitated a minute, was nearly lost, and then 
 plunged in bravely. 
 
 ' Yes, Bess, you can promise to be my wife.' 
 
 Bess laughed as Scott drew close to her. 
 
 ' And what would be the good of that, now ? ' 
 
 Scott looked taken aback, and for a moment his 
 self-assurance deserted him, only to return on the 
 full tide. 
 
 ' Well, if you married me you wouldn't sit and sing 
 and cry by yourself, but you'd have someone to sit by 
 you, an' comfort you, an' kiss you like this ' 
 
 ' Go along now ! ' cried Bess, blushing. ' Who said 
 you might?' 
 
 ' You did.' 
 
 ' Oh, I never ! ' 
 
 ' You looked it, then.' 
 
 ' Well, I never ! ' 
 
 She looked it again, so Scott kissed her again. 
 
 ' You'd better have a care John doesn't return,' said 
 Bess, laughing. ' He nearly killed Squire Jackson's 
 son for once doing that to me at a merry-making, 
 not meaning any harm.' 
 
 Scott cast an anxious glance at the door and for 
 a moment felt his amorous ardour chilled ; but he 
 quickly recovered, and by way of comment repeated 
 the offence 
 
 ' So you'll marry me, Bess ? ' he said. 
 
 ' I will.' 
 
 ' But you won't want me to take you back home 
 and leave the best farm in the district ? ' 
 
 ' No, lad. It seems a wee bit different now.' 
 
 So they sat down together, and although the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 73 
 
 shadows were falling and the gloom of night ap- 
 proaching, for a considerable length of time Bess 
 felt neither lonely nor unhappy. 
 
 'John's home late to-night/ Bess said to herself 
 as, after Scott's departure, she stood in the doorway 
 watching for her brother. She felt impatient to 
 break the news to him, for she knew he liked her 
 lover and would consent to anything that would 
 increase her happiness. Soon she faintly caught 
 the sound of hoof-beats, and a few minutes later 
 Toland rode into the clearing. He let his horse 
 go and came up to the cottage. Bess saw at a 
 glance that he had a moody look, and divined with 
 a woman's instinct that now was not the time. 
 
 ' Better give him something to eat first,' she 
 thought to herself. 
 
 ' Been lonely, little woman ? ' he asked as he put 
 his hand on her shoulder and walked with her into 
 the kitchen. 
 
 ' Not very,' she replied with an unperceived blush, 
 ' but I'm glad to have you back. Hurry up, like a 
 good old fellow, for supper is all ready.' 
 
 During the meal Toland was absorbed in his own 
 reflections, and to break the silence Bess asked him 
 what he had been doing. 
 
 ' I've been riding after some steers most of the day 
 that had broken through the fence. I got them mak- 
 ing back towards the station. By the way, I passed 
 Mallock's shanty and saw that old fool Mick 
 knocking down his cheque. There was a horrible 
 row going on. Harlin has just paid off a lot of 
 men and they're pretty well all there, more or less 
 drunk. Like a fool I tried to get Mick away 
 and got into a row. A rough brute of a fellow
 
 74 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 called me a sanctimonious cockie, so I tossed him 
 on his head and left them trying to bring him round. 
 Altogether I've had a beastly day.' 
 
 'There must be something else, John, for that's 
 the sort of thing that generally cheers you up.' 
 
 ' Well, now, you're right, Bess. It wasn't altogether 
 that that was worrying me. It was pretty well all 
 about you.' 
 
 ' About me, John ? There's no need for that.' 
 
 ' I was thinking,' he continued, ' I haven't acted 
 fair by you, lassie. I got you out from the old 
 country to keep house for me in this wilderness, 
 and now I'm going to marry and bring a mistress 
 to the place. I'm afraid it may make you feel out 
 of things, though Ruth and I want it to be the 
 same to you as ever.' 
 
 'But supposing I married too, John, how would 
 it be then?' 
 
 ' There's few good enough for you, Bess,' replied 
 her brother, smiling, ' and I'm afraid this is a lonely 
 part for lovers to come courting.' 
 
 ' But there was one here to-day,' said Bess, boldly. 
 
 'Who?' 
 
 ' George Scott He asked me to marry him, and I 
 said "yes." And you have to say "yes" too, John, 
 dear.' 
 
 John said nothing but lifted his sister off her feet 
 and kissed her heartily. 
 
 A month later the marriages took place in the 
 little weatherboard church at Tongalong. There 
 were no bridesmaids or wedding guests. Neither 
 did the fact that two cockies from up the Tonga 
 were being married cause any sensation in the town- 
 ship. Yet notwithstanding the simplicity of the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 75 
 
 ceremony, Toland felt a sensation akin to awe as he 
 stood by Ruth's side and listened to the words that 
 made them one forever. For a moment the glamour 
 of love lifted, the roseate hues faded, and a tremor 
 of guiltiness ran through him as he thought of the 
 sacrifice she was making, of the burden she was 
 taking up for him. Then swiftly the fibres of body 
 and mind strengthened and his heart swelled to 
 suffocation with joy. Scott, on the other hand, had 
 no misgivings. He beamed on Bess and she on him, 
 his only care being how not to let his delight derogate 
 from the importance of the occasion. 
 
 After the ceremony was over the little party sat 
 down to a merry meal, and then the two men went 
 to get their buggies and their wives to prepare for 
 the long journey. 
 
 When Toland returned, and whilst he was stowing 
 the baggage, Ruth had to face the ordeal of parting 
 from her father, whom she was leaving to travel 
 alone the road they had trod so long together in 
 happy comradeship. Consequently there were tears 
 in her eyes and some remorse in her heart as she 
 waved a farewell to the solitary figure on the 
 verandah, whose smiles belied his feelings. 
 
 During the first part of the drive neither Toland 
 nor Ruth said much, their hearts being too full of 
 unwonted feelings for topics of conversation to 
 suggest themselves ; but Ruth's eyes showed the 
 love-lit path along which her thought travelled, and 
 the exalted yet almost stern look on Toland's face 
 spoke of joy, sobered by the recognition of responsi- 
 bilities incurred. The afternoon was hot, dust clouds 
 rose in the wake of the buggy ; the hoof-beats fell 
 softly, the skirr of the locusts, a whispered word from
 
 76 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Ruth, with a guttural answer from Toland, alone broke 
 the silence. Then later on they talked together and 
 built such air-castles as only lovers can. The sun 
 had set when they reached the gap on the hills over 
 which the road runs to the Upper Valley of the 
 Tonga, and Toland was glad to have some day- 
 light left to show him the dangers of the track, the 
 descent being a sharp grade on a narrow side cutting, 
 with the hill to the right and a sheer drop to the 
 left. They reached the bottom in safety as the 
 gloom of night was deepening, with ten miles of a 
 bush track through heavy timber between them and 
 home. Soon, however, they caught a glimpse of the 
 moon rising blood-red amongst the trees, and before 
 long her rays began to throw bands of light and 
 dark shadows across the track. Toland had to drive 
 even more carefully now, for the multitudinous lights 
 and shades made everything appear mystic and 
 unreal. Time passed, and the miles that separated 
 them from their journey's end the resting-place that 
 was to be theirs for life. The moon had risen ; the 
 everyday world had disappeared, shut out by the 
 trees that arched themselves overhead in a lofty 
 awning on which the dew sparkled like diamonds 
 when the night winds rustled the leaves. In front 
 the road looked like a dark tunnel, pierced here 
 and there with shafts of light that turned to giant 
 ghosts the white gums that rose on either side. 
 Here and there glimpses could be obtained of 
 distant ranges rising to the sky huge rugged barriers 
 against the outer world, mute, impenetrable, ever- 
 lasting. The gullies that they crossed looked like 
 fairy dells, the fronds of the fern trees sparkled 
 like jewelled plumes, the trickling water seemed
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 77 
 
 the hushed laughter of elves. No sound of life 
 broke the silence ; the spell of some enchantment 
 seemed to lie upon the forest. 
 
 Then Ruth, herself becoming unstrung, pressed 
 closer to her husband, and the pressure of her body 
 broke the spell for him. He bent and kissed her, 
 and with that kiss fled the ghosts and the spectres. 
 What was the wilderness now to him but the scene 
 of conquests to come? The gaunt trees were his 
 foes and he was to lay them low. He lived, and they 
 must die so that his children should inherit the 
 ground that they encumbered. 
 
 He began to sing a song of northern lands; he 
 called to his horses and cracked the whip over their 
 backs ; he laughed low to himself, and he kissed his 
 wife again. 
 
 'We'll soon be there,' he said presently, as they 
 reached ringed timber and the boundary fence of his 
 selection. ' It's a miserable home to bring you to, 
 Ruth, on your wedding-day, without fire or light, but 
 it couldn't be helped.' 
 
 Ruth smiled and pressed his arm. 
 
 ' Never mind that, dear. It won't be very difficult to 
 light a fire, and it will be so nice being by ourselves.' 
 
 Toland urged on his horses, and they soon were in 
 the home paddock, and on the crest of the rise that 
 overlooked the cottage. There it lay, softened and 
 picturesque in the moonlight, but what riveted 
 Toland's and Ruth's attention was the smoke that rose 
 from the kitchen chimney, and the light that shone 
 from the window. 
 
 ' Hang it ! ' exclaimed Toland, angrily. ' Whoever 
 can have had the impudence to camp there whilst I 
 was away ? '
 
 78 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Ruth felt almost afraid as they rattled down to the 
 enclosure fence, and disgusted at the idea of an 
 intruder. 
 
 Toland jumped out when he reached the little 
 garden gate, lifted Ruth down, and, followed closely 
 by her, strode up to the kitchen door and flung it 
 open. No one was there, but a fire was burning 
 cheerily, a kettle boiling, a pot of potatoes stood on 
 the hearth, the table was set for two. 
 
 Toland looked round in astonishment ' Someone 
 must have done this for us,' he said at length. ' I 
 wonder who was so kind ? Well, you had better fix 
 things up, Ruth, whilst I go and take out the horses.' 
 He kissed his wife a welcome to home, and at the 
 same time a tall figure unhitched a horse from amidst 
 a clump of wattles not far distant and rode away, 
 muttering to himself, 
 
 ' I've always been saying, " this is no place for a 
 woman body." '
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE first autumn and winter of Toland's marriage 
 were happy and busy seasons. Mick M'Larty, again 
 in occupation of his hut, helped to build the maize 
 bins in which were heaped piles of splendid cobs, all 
 picked and carted in before the end of May. Ruth 
 assisted in the work, delighting in the rich harvest as 
 she stripped the husks from the golden core; and 
 later, on days of pouring rain, when the maize sheller 
 rattled in the shed from daylight till dark, she often 
 made her husband dismiss Mick to other indoor tasks 
 while she fed the hoppers and his untiring arms spun 
 the handle of the machine. 
 
 Deep ruts, worn by the heavy six-horse waggons 
 carting away his crops, marked the track to Toland's 
 farm, for there were hundreds of bags to take, and his 
 own horses were kept busy at ploughing and hauling 
 the logs together for fires in the new clearing. 
 Therefore, jealously grudging the heavy tax which 
 distance from market imposed on him, Toland paid 
 carriage on the maize and potatoes and stuck close 
 to work at home. 
 
 In spite of all drawbacks the future looked bright 
 enough, judged by the standard of his first year's 
 progress ; and it was a proud day for Toland when 
 he opened a letter from his agents in Tongalong and 
 drew out a cheque for 120, with the account sales 
 of his first crop on Grimsby Farm. 
 
 79
 
 8o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' We'll be quite rich people soon, dear,' said Ruth, 
 her eyes growing wide with pleasure and surprise. 
 ' If you make all that from twenty acres, how much 
 will you make from the whole farm? I'm almost 
 afraid to think of it' 
 
 Toland laughed. 'You needn't be afraid, little 
 woman. We will easily find a use for all we get.' 
 
 He did not discourage her by saying that there 
 was very little of the rich creek flat, that bad seasons 
 and low prices would come, and that even that great 
 cheque would be swallowed in paying his instalment 
 on the land, wages owing and the storekeeper's bill. 
 But she saw that he looked thoughtful, and kissed 
 him affectionately. 
 
 ' After all, John, while we have each other and the 
 home, it doesn't matter one scrap whether we are 
 rich or not,' she said. 
 
 He agreed that it did not, though money was a 
 good thing all the same, he said, and he intended to 
 work all he knew to get it. 
 
 The time slipped by like magic, each day, from 
 dawn till dark, filled with work that seemed neither 
 monotonous nor hard, since every stroke of the axe, 
 and every new furrow turned, gave fuller meaning to 
 that wonderful word ' home ' ; and as Ruth followed 
 the plough and dropped the maize seed at intervals 
 in the new land that he was breaking up, Toland 
 could scarcely believe that a year had gone since 
 Mick gave him his first lesson in maize sowing on 
 the green patch beside him, where the wheat stood 
 two feet high. 
 
 Such occasional light tasks were all that Toland 
 would permit his wife to do. He was not going to 
 have her face grow weather-scarred and wrinkled, her
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 81 
 
 back bent, and her chest flattened, to make her look 
 like other women down the river, who, scarcely older 
 than she, had lost all the softness and charm of 
 womanhood in their dreary round of toil. Ruth 
 laughed and said that she couldn't dig potatoes or 
 chop firewood if she tried, which she certainly was 
 not going to do, and Toland felt that he had in her 
 an incentive to success that should put such sordid 
 needs beyond all possibility. 
 
 The neighbours thought the Tolands a little ' stand- 
 offish' and proud a different sort altogether from 
 the Scotts down below, that didn't give themselves 
 half the airs though they must have twice the money. 
 Toland accepted the position philosophically. He 
 gave himself no airs, and was very sure that Ruth 
 did not either, but he was too careless of what others 
 thought to go out of his way to please anybody. 
 With men from the other farms he was on friendly 
 terms, and sometimes exchanged visits, but Ruth and 
 the women did not often meet, except when they 
 needed the advice or help which it was tacitly 
 recognised her better education enabled her to give, 
 and which she gave ungrudgingly. Thus, though a 
 dozen settlers had taken up land between himself 
 and Scott, and three or four still further afield in the 
 creek valleys, and towards the head of the river where 
 it came down from the ranges, the Tolands seldom 
 set foot in a social way in any other house but the 
 Scotts'. 
 
 Things were going well with them, and Bess, still 
 cheerfully scornful of Australian animals and ways, 
 adapted herself readily to the latter, and got on 
 famously with her husband and his friends. In her 
 house, as in Ruth's, was a sitting-room, but the chairs 
 
 F
 
 82 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 with their snowy antimacassars were seldom disturbed 
 or sat on, and the oleographs in leather frames scarcely 
 needed their green muslin coverings protecting them 
 from flies, since it was only on rare occasions that the 
 blinds were pulled up and light let in to give the 
 room a housewifely airing. Bess's heart was in the 
 kitchen ; and Ruth and John, declining to be treated 
 as visitors, always refused to leave it for the stiff 
 discomfort of the parlour. 
 
 ' You're a born bushwoman, Bess,' her brother said 
 one day as he smoked with George and watched her 
 busy herself about the tea. ' It's a different kitchen 
 to old Grimsby, but you've got it comfortable and no 
 mistake.' 
 
 ' And small credit to me if I hadn't ! ' she replied. 
 ' At least a body can get wood for a fire here that 
 would make people open their eyes in the old 
 country.' 
 
 The fireplace was built in reliance on this fact, 
 accommodating itself to logs of six feet or more, and 
 constructed on the usual district plan of slabs lined 
 with stone and pipeclay. From a blackened sapling 
 crossing it in the middle hung chains for water- 
 fountain, kettle and camp-oven ; and a little stool on 
 the hearth was useful to anyone desirous of sitting in 
 the chimney to dry damp clothes or superintend the 
 cooking. The rough mantelpiece, whereon a mild- 
 eyed pair of china dogs flanked a big Dutch clock, 
 was bordered with a fringe of pinked leather over a 
 deeper fringe of coloured paper. Hams, bladders of 
 lard, a bag of onions, and bunched heads of amber- 
 cane drying for seed, were suspended from the tie- 
 beams of the rafters. A shot-gun and Lancaster rifle 
 hung, with shot-belt and powder-flask, on one wall
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 83 
 
 beside an oleograph in a smoke blackened moss 
 frame. Pictures from the Illustrated London News 
 covered other areas of bark. Three-cornered brackets 
 carried the small library a Bible, prayer-books, 
 Pilgrim's Progress, Book of the Horse, implement 
 catalogues, and a few yellow - backed novels. A 
 straw basket held the Melbourne papers for a week ; 
 on a nail hung a torn coat of Scott's, in suggestive 
 proximity to Bess's work-bag. A concertina, a flute, 
 a penny whistle and a Jews'-harp, not far away, 
 evidenced Scott's musical taste, and the length of 
 one wall, devoted entirely to the useful, was occupied 
 by the dresser and shelves for pots and crockery. 
 Pigeons, in perfect amity with two large cats, strutted 
 about the floor, indented by heavy-nailed boots, and 
 showing between the boards interstices filled with 
 hard, much-swept earth. Altogether the kitchen, 
 with its white deal table, bright crockery and multi- 
 tudinous trifles, was a comfortable living-room, satisfy- 
 ing all the needs of the Scotts, who looked with 
 friendly contempt on Ruth's tasteful little parlour. 
 
 The sisters-in-law liked one another and met when 
 they could, which was a gratification to Toland, who 
 feared the effect of loneliness on his young wife's 
 spirits. Only this fear had induced him to give a re- 
 luctant consent to her spending a week at Kumbarra 
 on Mrs Harlin's invitation, when her husband was 
 absent from home looking after interests in New 
 South Wales. 
 
 Over this invitation had arisen the nearest approach 
 to a quarrel between Toland and his wife. With 
 glistening eyes, but without a word, Ruth handed him 
 Mrs Harlin's letter. He read it frowning, and said 
 bitter things of Harlin and his class, finally declaring
 
 84 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 that he would not let Ruth go to satisfy the patronis- 
 ing curiosity of the people who had done their best 
 to ruin him. Ruth with difficulty kept back her 
 tears, and the very meekness of her acquiescence 
 roused in him an anger of which he felt ashamed. 
 She ventured no further than to remind him that Mrs 
 Harlin had always been her friend, that she and Mr 
 Macfarlane had often been guests at Kumbarra be- 
 fore her marriage, and very probably she should meet 
 there her father, whom she had not seen for some 
 time. She did not say that she longed for a change 
 and the society of Mrs Harlin, which satisfied her 
 as that of good-hearted Bess could never do. He 
 felt these things, however ; and rebellious and sore 
 as he was at the idea that Ruth should owe any 
 pleasure in life to people who looked down on him, 
 and whom he regarded as a curse to the country, he 
 was too fond of her to stand in the way, and finally 
 Ruth went to Kumbarra. 
 
 Mrs Harlin received her affectionately, questioned 
 her with sympathetic interest on her farm life, and 
 pressed her to come again when, at the end of a 
 week, she left for Grimsby Farm. 
 
 But Ruth had found that her relations with Mrs 
 Harlin were subtly changed. There was a feeling of 
 constraint. Her husband was seldom mentioned 
 by either of them, but she felt that his people 
 had become her people, and proud of him as she 
 was, and better off in worldly goods by her 
 marriage, she recognised nevertheless that she had 
 lost caste in Mrs Harlin's eyes, and that only as 
 an exception, by no means to be made in favour of 
 her relatives, was she allowed the privileges of a 
 friend. The thought embittered her, and caused a
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 85 
 
 little scornful amusement too as she proudly com- 
 pared John with Mr Harlin. It was a relief to be 
 back again in her own little house with her husband. 
 She felt that in future only his friends could be really 
 hers, and understood better than she did his diatribes 
 against social injustice and inequality. 
 
 Mr Macfarlane never failed to call at Grimsby 
 Farm when his rounds brought him anywhere into 
 the neighbourhood ; and when it was possible he 
 spent a day or two after his own heart, inspecting the 
 latest improvements, discussing plans with his son-in- 
 law, and sometimes even substituting for his clerical 
 clothes an old suit he kept at the farm, and putting 
 in a day's work at the clearing or in the harvest field. 
 
 Toland cut his first year's wheat with a scythe and 
 carted it all to Scott's, to be thrashed with his brother- 
 in-law's larger crop, since the thrashing-machine 
 would not, for any sum that he could afford to pay, 
 tackle the rough roads and creek crossings on the 
 way to Grimsby Farm. Thus his distance from 
 market handicapped him once more to the extent 
 of sixpence a bushel on his wheat, he reckoned, as 
 compared with Scott's but the crop on the creek 
 flat yielded well, and again his farming operations 
 showed a fair profit. 
 
 After a year of married life, during which two 
 crops had been harvested and much building, fencing 
 and clearing done, his hundred pounds reserve was 
 still intact in the bank, and, happy in his home life, 
 with things promising fair, Toland was more content 
 and hopeful than he had been since his first attempt 
 to find land for himself in Australia. He had made 
 few friends or enemies. Harlin, whom he disliked 
 as much as a type as an individual, he very seldom
 
 86 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 saw, and when he did, for his wife's sake he con- 
 strained himself to speak civilly. 
 
 Nicholas Mallock was the one man in the settle- 
 ment who roused in him a violent antipathy which 
 he took little pains to conceal. He had hated him 
 from the day of the ballot, and discovered nothing 
 since to modify his opinion. 
 
 Mallock was far too keen-sighted a man not to 
 recognise how the land lay, and too cautious to give 
 the least sign that he did so ; but ever since he had 
 visited Grimsby Farm, anxious to make advances to 
 a man with such a tidy little wife, and Toland, re- 
 strained only by the instinct of hospitality from active 
 rudeness, had taken care that Ruth did not appear, 
 Mallock had treasured a grudge against him which 
 lost nothing by keeping. In the meantime there 
 was no reason to lose Toland's custom at the store 
 adjoining the more substantial public-house which 
 the dummies' cheques had reared on the ruins of the 
 shanty. 
 
 Mallock's fortunes were thriving. Forty per cent, 
 profits at the store brought in a growing income, and 
 already he had advanced a few loans at ten per cent, in 
 addition to overdue accounts for goods supplied, on the 
 security of some of the embryo farms that most took 
 his fancy. One selector, whose land joined his own, he 
 had bought out cheap before a plough had been put 
 in the ground, and already he owned over a thousand 
 acres as the nucleus of an estate. He was also 
 friendly with the member of Parliament for his 
 district, and hoped shortly to be made a Justice of 
 the Peace. 
 
 Toland had not expected that his wife would ever 
 go to Kumbarra again. She corresponded occasion-
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 87 
 
 ally with Mrs Harlin, but he never asked to see the 
 letters, and Ruth, knowing something of his feelings, 
 never offered to show them. He was astonished 
 therefore when, on a summer evening some fifteen 
 months after his marriage, he found at the post-office 
 a note in Mrs Harlin's handwriting addressed to him. 
 He thought at first that it must be for Ruth, but on 
 glancing over the few lines found that they asked 
 him to do the writer the favour of calling on her at 
 Kumbarra on the first occasion that he happened to 
 be going into Tongalong. 
 
 He puzzled over it during the ride home. ' Ruth,' 
 he said gently, noticing how frail she looked, 'can 
 you tell me the meaning of this ? ' 
 
 She coloured as she read the note. ' I think I can 
 if you want me to,' she said appealingly, 'but won't 
 you go and see Mrs Harlin ? ' 
 
 He looked at her in puzzled silence, kissed her, 
 and went earlier than business actually demanded to 
 Tongalong, calling at Kumbarra on his way home. 
 Mr Harlin was again absent and would be so for 
 another three months. Would Ruth come to stay 
 with her, the squatter's wife asked Toland, for at least 
 a portion of that time ? 
 
 Toland hesitated. He need explain nothing, Mrs 
 Harlin continued quietly. She knew all the circum- 
 stances from Ruth. They had been real friends, she 
 added, and she was sure that Toland's pride was not 
 of the kind that would sacrifice Ruth's well-being 
 perhaps her very safety to its gratification. 
 
 Toland was troubled. He felt she spoke the truth, 
 and yet it was bitter that he and his should be 
 tempted to accept so much at these people's hands. 
 Sullen and hesitating, he said something about being
 
 88 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 grateful for her kindness, but there was self-respect 
 to be consulted no need to accept charity and 
 after all he could get lodgings for his wife in 
 Tongalong. 
 
 He would of course do as he wished, she answered, 
 with a smile, and in tones not free from sarcasm ; but 
 she thought it would be more manly to put his wife 
 first and his own feelings second. He need not 
 suppose that she had any desire to force a favour 
 upon him, but it was a little hard on Ruth that, 
 because she had married a man in not quite the same 
 social sphere, she should be cut off from the com- 
 panionship and help of an old friend at a time when 
 she needed it most. If she could forget that Toland 
 had insulted her husband, surely he could forgive 
 him for being better off or at least not carry his 
 resentment to the length of sacrificing his wife on 
 the altar of class pride. 
 
 Her words were haughty, not altogether just, and 
 they rankled. Still there was truth in what she said, 
 which, allied with her strong personal magnetism, 
 conquered Toland in the end. 
 
 Ruth's pleasure when she heard that he had ac- 
 cepted an invitation on her behalf, and that in a 
 week's time she was to go to Kumbarra, almost 
 reconciled him to the sacrifice of his pride ; and yet 
 it roused a galling sense of inferiority to think that 
 his wife rejoiced in the prospect of leaving him at 
 a critical time to enjoy other companionship and a 
 hundred comforts he could not afford to give her in 
 a house which he could never expect to enter as a 
 guest. 
 
 Thus it happened that Toland's eldest child was 
 born at Kumbarra, and the first time he set eyes on
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 89 
 
 it was in the arms of Mrs Harlin, who softly brought 
 it out from the room where the mother was asleep. 
 He looked at the child in silence. Were these cursed 
 squatters going to rob him not only of land that 
 should be his, but even of sole property in his own 
 flesh and blood ? 
 
 It seemed as if his wife had conspired with them 
 against the independence by which he set so much 
 store. 
 
 These jaundiced thoughts came crowding into his 
 brain, and only in a dazed way at first he saw Mrs 
 Harlin with the baby girl in her arms, and her boy, 
 a sturdy little fellow three years old, at her side, 
 staring up at him with solemn, disapproving eyes. 
 
 Toland did not see his wife that day. They told 
 him it would excite her, and he rode back to his 
 lonely house full of bitter reflections glad, after all, 
 that the child was a girl. It would have been worse 
 if a son of his had been born at Kumbarra. 
 
 But when Ruth returned to him happy and well, 
 delighted with her baby and constantly sounding the 
 praises of Margaret and her kindness, he said 
 nothing of past ill feeling, which gradually dissipated 
 under the influence of wife and child. He had not 
 even the heart to refuse when Ruth asked if she 
 might choose Mrs Harlin as one of the godmothers 
 Bess was to be the other for she could never quite 
 understand how he felt about these things, and he 
 could not bear to disappoint his little wife. Thus 
 Mabel Toland, so named after Ruth's mother, began 
 life with yet another tie binding her to the mansion 
 as well as to the cottage. 
 
 Harlin thought it a mistake on his wife's part to 
 take so much interest in people of that class, and
 
 9 o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 rebuked her for officiousness in terms which pro- 
 voked from her curt advice not to meddle with 
 affairs he did not understand. 
 
 Children had come to complicate the domestic 
 economy of Scott's establishment as well as Grimsby 
 Farm, for three months before the birth of Mabel, 
 Bess's daughter had been born ; and the two women 
 visited each other when they could, comparing babies 
 and offering each other, from the depths of their 
 ignorance, much wonderful and interesting advice. 
 
 Thus, with the patter of baby feet and sound of 
 children's laughter enlivening their homes, the young 
 pioneers worked on, seeing each year new faces in 
 the district, new huts nestling amid ringed trees in 
 the clearings, creek crossings cut and swampy 
 bottoms 'corduroyed' by the Road Board, modest 
 headstones commencing to cluster in the graveyard 
 reserve near Mallock's shanty everywhere around, 
 on their own farms and elsewhere, the signs of 
 civilisation and progress and decay.
 
 BOOK II 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TOM JOHNSON, a neighbour of the Tolands, was hoeing 
 in his maize crop one day when his twelve-year-old 
 boy rode up with the mail. 
 
 ' Got any letters, Bill ? ' asked his father. 
 
 ' No, dad, only the paper.' 
 
 ' That's good. I thought I might have had another 
 letter from that lawyer chap. Chuck me the paper, 
 and I'll see how oats are selling.' 
 
 The boy handed him the Tongalong Banner, the 
 new sheet circulating in the district. 
 
 When he opened it his glance fell on the ad- 
 vertisement column, and something he saw made 
 him stagger. 
 
 ' My God ! he's done it,' he muttered hoarsely, 
 and dropping his hoe walked off rapidly towards his 
 hut on the rising ground close by. 
 
 Bill followed silently, wondering what had 
 happened. 
 
 Mrs Johnson was putting a piece of salt beef 
 on to boil at the open fire behind the hut when 
 her husband approached. A number of barefooted 
 children, apparently about the same age, surrounded 
 her. 
 
 ' Read that, missis,' he said, opening the paper in 
 front of her ; ' read that ! ' ^ 
 
 9*
 
 92 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' I'm a bit out of practice, Tom,' she said. ' Read 
 it out to me.' 
 
 In a husky voice he read, 
 
 'SALE, 
 'Bv ORDER OF THE MORTGAGEE. 
 
 'Messrs SALAMAN & CROUCH, acting under in- 
 structions from the mortgagee, will offer for sale, by 
 public auction, at their rooms, Tongalong, on the 
 3rd inst, at 3 p.m., the farm known as Tom 
 Johnson's, situated about 8 miles from the Kum- 
 barra P.O. For titles, terms, etc., apply J. MAC- 
 NAMARA, Solicitor, Tongalong.' 
 
 'What does it all mean?' asked the woman, with 
 a dazed look on her careworn face. 
 
 ' It means that that scoundrel Mallock is going 
 to sell the place over our heads. Curse him ! curse 
 him ! God Almighty blast him ! ' 
 
 He shouted his imprecations so fiercely that the 
 terrified children slunk away round the humpy. 
 
 ' Oh, Tom ! ' wailed the woman, miserably, the 
 truth beginning to dawn upon her. ' He isn't going 
 to take our bit of farm from us ? He can't, can he ? ' 
 
 ' He's going to sell it, the paper says, because I 
 couldn't pay up the money, and we'll have to tramp 
 the roads.' 
 
 ' There must be a law agin it/ said the little 
 woman, trying hard not to sob. ' It ain't nat'ral, 
 after your workin' so hard and making a decent 
 place of it, another should get it.' 
 
 ' And you changed from a girl to an old woman 
 in the twelve years working of it,' added the man. 
 'You oughter curse me, missus, for being such a
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 93 
 
 fool. Mallock must have had me drunk when I 
 signed that paper.' 
 
 ' It's not your fault, Tom,' said the wife, trying 
 to comfort him in spite of her fears and her misery. 
 ' We had to get things at the store or we'd have 
 starved. We tried hard to live on kangaroo, but 
 couldn't manage it, and there was no way of making 
 money then, with all the clearing to be done. But 
 God help us, what shall we do ? ' 
 
 ' I don't know at all, but I was thinking that I'd 
 ride over to see John Toland, who's a straight 
 man, and have a talk with him.' 
 
 ' Oh, isn't it dreadful ! ' sobbed the wife, ' the 
 neighbours all knowing about it. It's more than 
 I can bear.' 
 
 ' They'll know all about it from the paper, and 
 I'm not the only man about here Nick Mallock 
 has his hand on, and Toland might see a way out 
 of the fix. Bring me that horse you're on, Bill. 
 I'll go at once.' 
 
 ' Have a bite before you go ; it's near dinner- 
 time,' said the wife. 
 
 ' I couldn't touch it,' he replied, as he lengthened 
 the stirrup leathers. 
 
 ' Come back to me soon, Tom, I feel kinder 
 afeared,' she said beseechingly. 
 
 ' All right, missis, I'll be back soon and keep 
 up your spirits.' 
 
 Johnson rode away and his wife went into the 
 little cabin, bare and comfortless, but still a home, 
 and sitting down, cried from grief and loneliness, 
 whilst the children stole away and played with the 
 kangaroo dogs in the bush. 
 
 Johnson found Toland hauling logs in his culti-
 
 94 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 vation paddock, and, with Mick's assistance, stack- 
 ing them in huge piles. 
 
 ' Good-day, Mr Toland,' he said as he rode up. 
 ' Doin' a bit of clearing?' 
 
 ' Yes ; I'm getting ready for a burn as soon as 
 the grass is safe. How is that maize crop of yours 
 getting on I hear so much about ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, something splendid. It's about twelve foot 
 all over. It'll be the best crop I've had yet.' 
 
 'It's a good piece of land on that creek flat,' 
 said Toland. 
 
 ' It is that, but it was a tough job clearing it 
 single-handed. There were trees eight feet through 
 on it, besides scrub you couldn't walk in.' 
 
 ' Well, you have your reward now,' said Toland. 
 ' Yes, I suppose so,' said Johnson, doubtfully, as he 
 remembered with a pang who would gather the 
 harvest when the grain was golden in the cobs. 
 
 Then they talked on various matters, Johnson all 
 the time anxious to come to the point, but thinking 
 it scarcely neighbourly or polite to rush into business. 
 At last, however, when many topics had been ex- 
 hausted, he said, 
 
 'Did you see that advertisement in the last 
 Banner ? ' 
 
 ' No,' said Toland. ' I haven't got my mail yet. 
 What was it about?' 
 
 ' It was about my place. It's up for sale in a week.' 
 ' I never heard you were selling out,' said Toland 
 in surprise. 
 
 ' I'm not selling out. I'm being sold up.' 
 
 ' By Mallock ? ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' Damn him ! ' said Toland.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 95 
 
 ' To hell,' added Johnson. 
 
 ' I'm real sorry,' said Toland, sympathetically. ' But 
 can't anything be done ? ' 
 
 ' I've just come over to have a yarn with you, 
 thinking you might see a way out of this fix. When 
 I try to think about it my head all gets muddled up 
 and I feel kinder sick and dizzy like, and don't know 
 what to do.' 
 
 ' Well, I'm no hand at such matters myself,' said 
 Toland. ' I suppose you ought to see a lawyer.' 
 
 ' Not me,' said Johnson, decisively. ' They're all as 
 great rogues as Mallock himself, and the only one in 
 Tongalong, that chap Macnamara, has worked this 
 swindle for him.' 
 
 ' How much do you owe him ? ' 
 
 ' Three hundred pounds.' 
 
 ' I suppose you haven't been able to pay the 
 interest ? ' 
 
 ' No, it isn't that. I paid him fifteen pounds for the 
 six months only a short time ago. He wants the lot 
 that's what it is.' 
 
 ' Oh, I see, the mortgage is due. By Jove, he has 
 the whip hand over you, then. What are you going 
 to do ? ' 
 
 ' I tell you I just don't know. There's one thing 
 the place is worth a lot more than three hundred pounds, 
 and I suppose I'll get what's over when it's sold.' 
 
 'Don't trust to that anyhow,' said Toland. 'If 
 Mallock wants the place he'll fix it so there isn't a 
 bid that will do you any good.' 
 
 ' Well, I want to stick to it if there's a way, for it's 
 cruel hard to be chucked out, and the missis have 
 got kinder fond of the place. Most of the kids have 
 been born there and we've made it a bit better every
 
 96 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 year, and it's tough luck to be done out of it now, by 
 heaven it is ! ' 
 
 1 Couldn't you go and see Mallock and find out if 
 he'd take anything to give you an extension of the 
 mortgage, so that you'd have time to try and raise 
 the money to pay him off?' 
 
 ' I'm afeared it won't be no use,' replied Johnson. 
 ' I'm thinkin' he just wants to collar the farm now 
 with the maize crop on it. But it's worth trying 
 though I don't like going near the scoundrel.' 
 
 ' I'll go with you if you like,' said Toland. ' They 
 say " Two heads are better than one." ' 
 
 ' I'd be right glad if you would,' said Johnson, in a 
 relieved tone, ' and I'm thinking that if you wouldn't 
 mind I'd be just as well away, as I know I'd just 
 fire up and spoil things ; besides, I'd like to get home 
 to the missis, as she'll be taking on bad about it 
 whilst I'm not there.' 
 
 ' All right, just as you like, and I'll gladly see if I 
 can fix up anything for you ; but, as I said before, I'm 
 no hand at this sort of business and you mustn't 
 expect much. All I can do is to try and get Mallock 
 to put off the sale to give you a chance. I'm afraid 
 it's a blue lookout, as his one idea seems to be to get 
 hold of land by fair means or foul, and he'll likely get 
 a dummy to bid to the amount of the mortgage and 
 get the land that way.' 
 
 ' Have a try anyhow, Mr Toland, and you'll have 
 the thanks of a poor devil. You don't know how 
 bad I feel on it. It's worse than when our eldest 
 boy died and I had just to carry him out and bury 
 him in the bush myself like a dog, and being summer 
 time and the grave that shallow I had to drag logs 
 over it for fear the dingoes would scratch it up. It'll
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 97 
 
 be worse though, I say, to see the missis and kids 
 turned out on the road to starve. It makes a fellow 
 wish there was a poorhouse in this blasted country.' 
 
 ' Don't be afraid of that, man,' said Toland, en- 
 couragingly. ' If the worst comes to the worst, there 
 are plenty of folk round here will look after them till 
 you get work. You get home to your wife and tell 
 her Mrs Toland will be over to see her soon, and I'll 
 go to Mallock this afternoon, and if I can't do any- 
 thing else I might break his neck for you.' 
 
 ' That's what I'd wish, only I'd like to do it myself,' 
 said Johnson. ' I'll be over again to-night to find 
 out how you got on. Good-day, and thanks to you.' 
 
 Johnson rode off, and Toland, having instructed 
 Mick to go on hauling light stuff that he could get 
 into piles himself, walked up to the cottage, catching 
 his horse on the way. 
 
 Ruth was deeply sympathetic when she heard the 
 news and wanted to go and comfort the family at 
 once, but Toland persuaded her to postpone her visit 
 until after his interview with Mallock. She did not 
 altogether like the idea of her husband's visit to the 
 ' Morning Star,' for she argued, from the stern ex- 
 pression on his face, that it would not be of an 
 amicable nature. 
 
 ' Don't get into a row with that horrid man,' she 
 said pleadingly as Toland was leaving the cottage. 
 c You know it can do no good, and I do hate the 
 thought of it' 
 
 ' Don't be afraid, little mother,' he said, laughing at 
 her tone of alarm. ' Mallock won't hurt me. I'm too 
 big and ugly for that.' He lifted her off her feet like 
 a child and kissed her, and then rode away on his 
 mission. 
 
 G
 
 98 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 On his way to the township Toland had plenty of 
 time for reflection. After deciding what course he 
 would pursue with Mallock he turned to a considera- 
 tion of the wider aspects of the case, and the more he 
 dwelt upon them the more distressed he felt. Now 
 for the first time in the new world he was face to face 
 with conditions that had crazed his mind in the old 
 and sent him forth as a wanderer in search of land 
 where it was boasted that independence waited on 
 toil. For the first time beneath Southern skies he 
 had found man framing a supplication unto man for 
 leave to enjoy the fruits of his labour for a brief 
 respite wherein to avert calamity. All this came the 
 more as a shock to him because the life sounds that 
 had vibrated in his being of late years had been the 
 sweet music of hope and joyous contentment ; but now 
 a harsh, discordant note had been struck, and he felt 
 as one who, from a dream of happiness, is awakened 
 by a cry of pain. In his simple faith, toil in the 
 fields, veritably in the sight of God, appeared as 
 almost the only truly honest lifework for a man ; and 
 that those who sowed should not reap seemed to him 
 an injustice before which all others paled. This senti- 
 ment had increased ever since his arrival in Australia, 
 as a conception gathers strength in the process of 
 realisation. On his farm he owned no master; emblem 
 of constituted authority there was none ; evidences of 
 superior advantages conferred by birth, education or 
 wealth were almost absent in a community where it 
 was man to man and all together as soldiers of the 
 same rank in an advance of the Anglo-Saxon world 
 army marching to the conquest of Nature and the 
 making of a nation. His individuality had devel- 
 oped under the conducive conditions of his free and
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 99 
 
 independent life. The disavowal of any master of 
 obedience even to conventionality had increased his 
 stature, made him know himself, and had bred a 
 fierce determination to resent anything even sugges- 
 tive of dependence. Such independence he thought 
 to be the inviolable prerogative of every man who 
 bent his back in honest toil, earning his charter of 
 freedom by the sweat of his brow. Yet now it all 
 seemed a mockery. He found himself on an errand 
 of mercy, sent by a slave to his master with a prayer 
 for leave to enjoy the fruits of his labour. And such 
 a master ! Toland clenched his fists as he thought of 
 it, and muttered to himself, ' Give me the landlords 
 of the old country if such are to be those of the new.' 
 Never had the great forest seemed so dark and 
 gloomy, and for the first time the thought occurred to 
 Toland that victory might in the end be with the 
 giant trees, and that the tide of man's conquest might 
 be rolled back after having inflicted a few wounds here 
 and there, quickly to be healed and hidden from view. 
 This feeling of depression brought a revelation to 
 him. He marvelled how the aspect of all things 
 might change, and repeated to himself again and 
 again, ' Without hope a man would go mad in this 
 wilderness.' 
 
 Thus he was led on to put himself in Johnson's 
 place, and, with his heart-strings wrung, and full of 
 pity and bitterness, ne rode on through the silent 
 forest.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 WHEN Toland reached the 'Morning Star' two 
 bullock-teams were drawn up in the road outside. 
 The dull, patient-looking brutes were panting in the 
 hot sun with their heads almost in the dust, whilst the 
 drivers, two big, uncouth-looking fellows, were drink- 
 ing and talking in the bar with Mallock. . Toland 
 tied up his horse in the shade of a wattle and 
 entered the bar. 
 
 'Good-day, Mr Toland,' said Mallock, without in 
 any way showing the surprise he must have felt at 
 seeing so unusual a visitor. 
 
 ' Good-day,' replied Toland, somewhat curtly. 
 
 ' It's my b shout,' said one of the bullock-drivers, 
 
 throwing half a sovereign on to the counter. ' Will 
 you join us, mate ? ' 
 
 Toland acquiesced in order not to give offence, 
 and when a round of drinks had been disposed of he 
 shouted in accordance with recognised etiquette. 
 
 Then he turned to Mallock. 
 
 ' I want to have a word with you,' he said. 
 
 Mallock called a woman to take his place. 
 
 ' Come this way, then,' he said, going into the 
 parlour opening off the bar. Toland followed him. 
 ' Take a seat,' said Mallock, indicating a chair with 
 his foot and sitting down himself. 
 
 Toland sat down. 
 
 ' I've come to see you about a morgtage,' he began. 
 
 ' Aha ! ' broke in Mallock. ' I thought so. Why,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 101 
 
 damn it, when a cocky comes into the bar nowadays 
 I never know whether to say, " What'll you have ? " or 
 " How much'll you have ? " Well, what's yours ? ' 
 
 ' I'm sorry to disappoint you,' replied Toland, ' but I 
 never said it was my own business I had come about.' 
 
 ' No, you didn't/ said Mallock, sullenly, ' but I 
 thought you were the sort of chap that knew enough 
 to mind his own business and let other people mind 
 theirs. That's my rule.' 
 
 ' Well, it's my rule,' said Toland, hotly, ' when I see 
 a man being swindled, to make his business my 
 business, and that's why I am here.' 
 
 ' Then if you want to do any good I reckon you'd 
 better be a bit more civil.' 
 
 Toland felt conscious that there was some truth in 
 the remark, and not wishing to fail in the advocacy of 
 his friend's cause, he adopted a more conciliatory tone. 
 
 ' I suppose it's no use coming to blows,' he said, 
 ' before we know whether it is necessary or not. I'm 
 here because Mr Johnson asked me to come over and 
 see you about the difficulty he's in with you over his 
 mortgage.' 
 
 ' Did he happen to send the money by you ? ' asked 
 Mallock, with a sneer. 
 
 ' No, but he asked me to come and see if you'd put 
 off the sale for a bit, to give him a chance to raise it' 
 
 ' Not much,' replied Mallock, decisively. ' I've 
 heard that yarn before, and ain't green enough to 
 be had by it.' 
 
 ' You don't mean to say that you will sell a man's 
 home over him without giving him a chance ? ' 
 
 ' I mean what I say just that and nothing else. I 
 gave Johnson notice months ago I'd come down on 
 him. I'm a man of my word. The place is up for
 
 102 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 sale in a week, and sold it will be as sure as my 
 name is Nicholas Mallock.' 
 
 ' Well, what'll you take to put off the sale and give 
 the man an extension? I suppose you'll do it for 
 gold if you won't do it for anything else ? ' 
 
 ' I won't take what all the scurvy cockies in the 
 place could raise to give me. I've made up my mind 
 on that. I want my money and I've got to get it.' 
 
 ' But you won't get it at the sale. You know very 
 well there'll most likely be no bid.' 
 
 ' That's so ; and Johnson will just have to pack up 
 his traps and scoot out, and I'll perhaps try a little 
 farming myself.' 
 
 ' Then you mean to say that I am to tell Johnson 
 that you intend to ruin him and seize his farm/ said 
 Toland, angrily. 
 
 ' You can tell him what you dam' well please,' re- 
 plied Mallock, coolly, ' but that's about the length of 
 it. Tell him, too, I'd advise him to look after his own 
 business, and if he wants to stay on after the place is 
 mine he'd better come and see me and I might rent 
 it to him.' 
 
 'By God, you can tell him that yourself!' said 
 Toland, springing to his feet. ' I'd sooner be dead 
 than work for a low hound like you.' 
 
 Mallock rose with the grunt of a fierce boar and 
 faced Toland, both waiting for the next word to 
 spring at each other's throats. There was a silence 
 for a few seconds, broken only by the passionate 
 breathing of the two men. 
 
 Then of a sudden an uproar arose in the bar, easily 
 heard through the hessian wall. 
 
 ' You won't drink with me, won't you, you b 
 
 toff!' shouted one of the bullock-drivers.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 103 
 
 ' No, thank you, I'd sooner drink with a pig.' 
 Toland's attention was riveted by the uncon- 
 cerned manner in which the words were uttered. 
 
 ' I'll knock the b head off yer,' was the retort. 
 
 ' There's going to be a row,' said Mallock, moving 
 towards the bar. ' It's that damned fool of a teacher 
 come for his letters, and Bullocky Bill's a bit on.' 
 
 Toland followed him, forgetting his own affair in 
 the fresh excitement. 
 
 In the centre of the bar floor two men were squar- 
 ing up at one another. One was Bullocky Bill a 
 powerful-looking brute and the other a tall, thin- 
 featured man, Conyngham by name. 
 
 ' What's this about ? Drop it, Bill ! ' said Mallock, 
 approaching the combatants. 
 
 ' Leave him alone,' said his mate ; ' he's got to take 
 
 down this b toff, who's too fine to drink with a 
 
 workin' man.' 
 
 ' Come on, you ! ' cried Bill, making afierce lunge. 
 
 Conyngham stepped back and the blow fell short. 
 Again the attempt was repeated, and again it failed. 
 Toland saw that Bullocky Bill had met a practised 
 boxer, and had no fear as to the result. Bill, too, re- 
 cognised that there was need for care and moved 
 round muttering curses. 
 
 ' Wire in, Bill ! He's only playing with you,' said 
 his mate, in an aggrieved tone. 
 
 Thus exhorted, Bill rushed in again, hammer and 
 tongs, right and left, but never a blow got home, for 
 Conyngham was only playing with him and not even 
 deigning to strike in return, while the quiet, sarcastic 
 smile never left his face. 
 
 Bill's mate groaned in wrathful shame while Toland 
 and Mallock looked on fascinated. Bill was rapidly
 
 104 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 getting pumped out by his furious and ineffectual 
 onslaughts and, recognising the fact, he nerved him- 
 self for a supreme effort. He rushed in with his head 
 down in an attempt to seize his opponent by the 
 waist and throw him. Then the end came. Conyng- 
 ham's eyes for the first time flashed, and he swung in 
 a vicious upper cut with his left that sent Bill stagger- 
 ing back with his guard down, and then, springing 
 forward, he struck him a fearful blow under the jaw 
 with his right, and Bill crashed down backwards on 
 to the floor, an unconscious and bloody mass. His 
 mate ran to pick him up and Conyngham turned to 
 Mallock. 
 
 ' Have you any letters for me, Mr Mallock ? ' he 
 said quietly, as he wiped a spot of blood off his 
 knuckles with his handkerchief. 
 
 ' My oath, you're a cool 'un ! ' said Mallock, 
 admiringly. 
 
 ' I asked you if you had any letters,' said Conyng- 
 ham, in a chilling tone. 
 
 ' I beg pardon, sir ; no, I haven't. Won't you 
 have a taste after it?' 
 
 ' Yes, I think I will. Give me some brandy, please.' 
 
 Mallock put a bottle and glass on the table, and 
 Conyngham tossed off over half a tumbler of raw 
 spirit. 
 
 'Chuck a bucket of water over him,' he said, in- 
 dicating his still prostrate adversary, and then walked 
 outside and unhitched his horse from the fence. 
 
 Toland followed him. 
 
 ' I know you're Mr Conyngham,' he said as he 
 approached. 'My name's John Toland, and I'd like 
 to shake hands with you for a man.' 
 
 Conyngham held out his hand with a smile. ' I'm
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 105 
 
 glad to meet you,' he said. ' I've heard about you 
 from Mrs Scott/ 
 
 Toland noticed to his surprise that Conyngham's 
 hand was quivering violently. 
 
 ' I wish you would come over and see us some- 
 times, sir. My wife and I would be pleased.' 
 
 Conyngham was boarding with the Scotts, and 
 their commentaries on the Tolands had made him 
 desire to become acquainted with them, and he 
 answered pleasantly that he would accept the in- 
 vitation on the first opportunity. 
 
 Both men then mounted their horses. 
 
 ' Don't our roads lie together for a while ? ' said 
 Conyngham. 
 
 ' Yes, they do,' said Toland, pleased at the idea of 
 his companionship. 
 
 So they rode off together, and Toland related, 
 much to Conyngham's amusement, how the latter 
 had caused a sudden cessation of hostilities between 
 him and Mallock. 
 
 ' I must apologise,' he said gaily, ' but I wouldn't 
 have missed that little excitement for worlds. It has 
 braced me up and done me a lot of good. It has re- 
 lieved me of the sense of the monotony of life. I'd 
 like to ride for hours now in the cool evening air.' 
 He took off his hat and Toland noticing how flushed 
 the pale features had suddenly become, put it down 
 to Mallock's brandy. 
 
 ' Might I then ask you,' he said, ' to ride on with me 
 and stay the night ? To-morrow's Saturday and you 
 will have nothing to do.' 
 
 ' I think I shall,' replied Conyngham, ' if you will 
 be so good as to have me. I seldom feel inclined to 
 go a mile out of my way, but now I feel as if I really
 
 io6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 lived and were a man of action. Come, let's have a 
 gallop. The ground is level.' 
 
 As Toland plunged along behind his companion 
 he wondered if the man were mad, or really the quiet, 
 saturnine scholar described to him by Bess, and con- 
 cluded that the excitement of the fight and the fire 
 of the ' Morning Star' brandy had wrought the change. 
 
 When they pulled up he asked Conyngham if he 
 felt the loneliness of the bush very much. 
 
 'Yes,' replied Conyngham, 'but I like it. "The 
 world forgetting, I wish to be by the world forgot," 
 and after all I find more companionship in these 
 mighty solitudes than I should on a human ant- 
 hill.' 
 
 'Well, it's a grand thing to have a contented 
 nature,' said Toland, wishing he could take this 
 philosophical view of life. 
 
 ' No, it's the worst,' said Conyngham, speaking ex- 
 citedly and as a man taken out of himself. ' Dis- 
 content is manly sometimes divine. It is an evi- 
 dence of desire to struggle up the ladder of existence 
 to the topmost height. The fool stands on the 
 bottom rung and grows fat and contented, but the 
 hero goes up and up, even though it be at the risk 
 of breaking his neck.' 
 
 ' Well, then, how is it that you are contented, for I 
 am sure you are not a fool ? ' 
 
 A smile hovered over Conyngham's flushed features 
 as he prepared to answer the question. 
 
 ' No, I trust I am not wholly a fool in the narrow 
 sense, however much in the larger. Let's see how it 
 comes that I am not now " wearying deaf heaven with 
 unavailing cries." Suppose we took a man and 
 threw him into the river, swollen with winter floods.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 107 
 
 He would struggle and struggle, shriek for aid across 
 the waters to his God and cast up his eyes in agonies 
 of despair, and battle till exhausted. Then he would 
 sink and rest in some still nook round which the 
 waters swirled. At first, before life departed, the 
 sensation would be one of perfect bliss. He would 
 see green fields and hear the songs of birds mingling 
 with the rippling of waters and feel how joyous it 
 was to rest after strife. He would feel content and 
 dream into death. So I suppose I feel content. The 
 turbid waters of life in which I once struggled do 
 not disturb the peace of this quiet spot in which I 
 n/ow dream away the hours, ingloriously perhaps, but 
 not unhappily.' 
 
 Conyngham concluded in a dreamy tone, speaking 
 to himself more than to Toland. The latter felt at- 
 tracted by the strange personality of the man, and 
 for a while they rode on in silence, broken only by 
 the dull soft beat of hoofs on the dusty road and by 
 the champing of the horses at their bits. 
 
 Presently Conyngham pulled up and faced the 
 west. 
 
 ' Look there,' he said, pointing to the sunset. 
 ' Who would live in the murk and squalor of a city 
 and miss such sights as that? Do you see that black 
 range under the sunset? How splendid it looks 
 with the gloom of this earth upon it, while overhead 
 the glories of the heavens are unfolding! Those 
 clouds are like golden argosies floating across the 
 rose-tinted sea. That other to the right must be 
 the war-cloud we read of, saturated as it is with 
 blood.' 
 
 As he spoke the last words he gave a shudder 
 and rode on again with Toland, muttering to himself,
 
 io8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 1 By Heaven ! Mallock's brandy must have iambic 
 properties.' 
 
 Presently he drew in his horse. 
 
 ' Mr Toland,' he said, ' if you will excuse me I 
 shall not go any further with you to-night, but shall 
 come and see you another day.' 
 
 ' Oh, don't go back now,' said Toland, disappointed 
 and surprised. 'We're only a few miles off. I hope 
 you're feeling all right,' he added with concern, as he 
 noticed the ashen hue that had displaced the flush 
 on Conyngham's face. 
 
 ' Oh, yes, I feel all right,' he said, ' only I'm a little 
 upset after that row. One time it would have been 
 different, but I am afraid my solitary life must be 
 upsetting my nerves. The blood-red sky suggested 
 that beastly sight in the bar, and I feel as if I 
 wouldn't care to shake hands to-night with a refined 
 woman like your wife. 1 
 
 'Oh, don't let that stop you,' said Toland. 'If 
 Ruth doesn't like a man to take care of himself I 
 don't know why she married me, though I must say 
 her last words to me this afternoon were not to get 
 into a row. But we won't say anything about it. I 
 want your advice on a matter and so would like 
 you to come on.' 
 
 ' If I can be of any use to you, of course I'll come,' 
 said Conyngham, as he spurred his horse. 
 
 Toland related the history of Johnson's misfortune 
 and found a sympathiser, though Conyngham could 
 not suggest any way out of the difficulty. 
 
 ' I suppose,' he said, ' Johnson had better take 
 Mallock's offer and rent the place from him.' 
 
 ' Well, I say he had better go and shoot himself 
 than be slave to such a brute,' replied Toland.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 109 
 
 ' That,' said Conyngham, ' would be a very excellent 
 way of getting himself out of the difficulty, but it 
 would not benefit his family much ; and, after all, it 
 matters very little whether a man be tenant to the lord 
 or the shanty-keeper, for in any case the uttermost 
 farthing has to be paid. The injustice, if any there 
 be, is not in relation to individuals but the system 
 which causes one man to be at the disposal of 
 another.' 
 
 ' That's it,' said Toland, delighted to at least find 
 someone of his own way of thinking, ' and that's why 
 I am here instead of in the old country.' 
 
 ' Do you think, then/ said Conyngham, ' there is any 
 essential difference between the system here and 
 there, or did you not rather come out here to per- 
 petuate a wrong with the hope, however, of bene- 
 fiting from it?' 
 
 ' I scarcely understand,' replied Toland. ' We stop 
 here. These are the slip-rails.' As he pulled up a 
 man rode towards them out of the darkness. ' Hullo, 
 Johnson, is that you ? ' asked Toland. 
 
 ' Right, it's me ! I couldn't wait down at the 
 house, so I rode up to meet you. How did you 
 get on?' 
 
 Toland told him the result of the interview and 
 advised him to see Mallock himself. 
 
 ' I'm much obliged to you, Mr Toland,' said 
 Johnson, ' much obliged. I didn't expect no better. 
 I'll just get back now and talk it over with the 
 missis. Good-night to you ! ' 
 
 ' Good-night, and better luck,' said Toland. 
 
 ' Poor devil ! ' muttered Conyngham. 
 
 That night at Grimsby Farm was a pleasant one 
 for the Tolands, who were delighted with their new
 
 no THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 friend. At first he was reserved, though courteous, 
 having shrunk back into himself after a fit of un- 
 natural self-abandonment, and Toland could scarcely 
 believe that he was the man whose unguarded flow 
 of language had attracted him on their ride. 
 
 Gradually, however, he thawed under the soften- 
 ing influence of Ruth's gentle nature and sym- 
 pathetic kindliness, though he seemed unable, under 
 any circumstances, to restrain a tendency towards 
 pessimism tinged with sardonic humour. Amongst 
 other subjects they discussed the difficulties of Mab's 
 education. 
 
 ' It is too far to send her to school,' said Toland, 
 'and the wife hasn't much time.' 
 
 ' Don't send her,' said Conyngham, looking at the 
 pretty child ; ' let her mother teach her. And if Mrs 
 Toland will let me I will help her as much as I 
 can.' 
 
 ' I would indeed be glad,' said Ruth. 
 ' Yes,' said Conyngham, smiling, ' we'll do our best. 
 We'll educate her so that she will grow up to despise 
 us all and be able to feed the pigs en grande maniere, 
 Won't we, Mab ? ' 
 
 ' I hate pigs,' replied the child. ' Joe can feed 
 them he likes them.' 
 
 ' No, I don't,' retorted brother Joe, indignantly. ' I 
 only like dogs and horses.' 
 
 'It's time you were in bed, children,' said their 
 father. 
 
 Joe marched off at once, grumbling to himself. 
 Mab kissed her father and mother, and then Conyng- 
 ham, who she supposed was some sort of uncle. 
 
 Conyngham wondered how many years it was 
 since he had been kissed, and thought perhaps he
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU in 
 
 was not so hard-hearted as he had believed himself 
 to be. 
 
 The elders sat up talking until the air was cool 
 enough to render sleep a possibility, and then also 
 went to bed. Conyngham did not undress, but 
 waited until there was no sound to be heard but the 
 heavy breathing of the sleepers and then opened the 
 window and stole out. He walked a short distance 
 from the cottage, and having lit his pipe, flung him- 
 self down on the grass with his face to the stars and 
 thought for hours the thoughts of a lonely man who, 
 having failed in life, had drifted into the back-blocks 
 of the Australian Bush.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 ' I SUPPOSE you'd not care to let Mabel go to the 
 Marlins for a day or two, John ? ' 
 
 Toland took his pipe out of his mouth and looked 
 at his wife. He detected a tremble in her tone of 
 assumed indifference, and his conscience smote him. 
 There were threads of grey in her hair, lines too deep 
 for her years beneath her eyes, and how different was 
 this deprecatory appeal, with averted face, to the old, 
 half-laughing, half-imperious commands she had been 
 wont to lay upon him, looking into his eyes and 
 crushing all power of resistance by the pressure of a 
 little hand on his. 
 
 And once more he had to refuse the request that 
 Ruth's words implied. ' No, dear.' 
 
 She sighed ; her eyes grew suddenly dim, her 
 hands dropped on her lap, and she looked through a 
 mist of unshed tears into the past, whence she and 
 John had seen these then distant years, full of hope- 
 ful mystery with golden faith-lit lights, shining out of 
 the purple haze of the unknown. The mists of the 
 future were greyer now. They hung over mountains 
 of possibility, mere petty ranges close at hand, com- 
 pared with the gorgeous distant heights that the eyes 
 of youth look so confidently to explore, while the 
 lights were paler and seldom pierced the clouds. 
 
 Then Ruth felt the touch of lips upon her hair ; 
 looking up, she saw her husband bending over her, 
 
 112
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 113 
 
 and future, past disappointments, fears, all vanished 
 before the magic of the present and the wonder of 
 love. 
 
 Toland flung the pipe and newspaper off his chair 
 and brought it close to hers before the fire, where he 
 might draw her head down upon his shoulder. ' Are 
 you ever sorry you married me, Ruth, little woman ? ' 
 
 There was a soft laugh ; her head nestled closer 
 against his coat, her hand, in which he noticed with 
 a shock how blue the veins showed, tightened its grip 
 of his fingers. 
 
 ' I sometimes am,' he continued. ' How can I help 
 seeing that this lonely bush life is wearing you that 
 you are growing old before your time ? ' 
 
 He felt the slightest little petulant shrug, and with 
 a sudden realisation of woman and his own tactless- 
 ness curving his lips in a momentary smile, he went 
 on, ' You have not lost your beauty, Ruth. For me 
 you never will, for I shall love each grey hair and 
 wrinkle as long as I have eyes to see.' 
 
 ' And yet you are sorry ? ' 
 
 ' Not for myself, God knows,' he said with a grip 
 of her hand that almost made her cry aloud. ' Ruth, 
 if I were to lose you that would be the end of me. 
 When I met you first my soul was in a ferment of 
 disappointment at finding injustice here worse than I 
 had left behind rage at being swindled of my rights 
 hatred of the blackguards that did it longing for 
 a home, for success, revenge a dozen good and bad 
 impulses but if I had not met you the bad would 
 have got me under.' 
 
 Ruth smiled proudly. ' But you did meet me and 
 you have got them under.' 
 
 ' Have I ? I am not so sure. I thought when I 
 
 H
 
 i, 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 married you that I could succeed make your life 
 bright and happy and the black moods come back 
 when I see I haven't done it.' 
 
 He shook his head at her gesture of protest, and 
 lifting hers from his shoulder, stood looking at her. 
 ' No, clear, I haven't, but Heaven knows I've worked 
 hard enough.' 
 
 His expression grew so fierce that Ruth was afraid 
 to face him as he moved restlessly about the room. 
 
 ' No man has worked harder, but it's that cursed, 
 cursed blight that rests on labour. Where do they 
 shove me out to do it? Into a wilderness where 
 there's not a man or woman within ten miles of us 
 for you to make a friend of! Independence in the 
 bush or slavery in the towns and such independence 
 too! Haven't we seen one miserable devil after 
 another go down all around us to feed the blasted 
 land sharks? And even I'm mortgaged now.' 
 
 Ruth looked at him anxiously. 
 
 ' Oh, don't fret about that' But in a gentler tone, 
 ' What is there in it, Ruth, dear ? A bare pleasure- 
 less life for you ; for the children a few lean, unlicked 
 cubs to play with. No amusements but a tea-meeting 
 once a year, or those bush races that Joe is getting 
 much too fond of.' 
 
 ' The children are happy enough,' she said thought- 
 fully. 
 
 'Now, perhaps; but what is their future? Joe 
 hates the land already that I've treasured so for his, 
 and small blame to him. He'll be a wage slave to 
 somebody, you'll see. What will Mabel be? And 
 our little baby that died wasn't it murdered, like a 
 thousand others, by the rogues in power that crowd 
 honest men in slums, or drive them into the back-
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 115 
 
 woods, where the mothers toil and fret their infants' 
 lives away ? ' 
 
 ' John, John, dear ! Hush ! You are talking 
 wildly.' 
 
 She was standing beside him, her gentle arms 
 around his neck and her cheek pressed to his. 
 
 ' It's hard, dear, but you have me, and I have you, 
 and Mabel, if only you could persuade yourself to 
 let her' 
 
 ' No,' he interrupted almost roughly. ' Don't ask 
 me that again. It pains me beyond everything to 
 pain you and deny the girl any pleasure. Wasn't 
 that what started me talking to-night? You 
 belonged to those people by birth and sympathy, 
 and sometimes I hate myself for taking you from 
 them. But can you wonder I hate them too, for 
 first robbing me, and then bringing the only cloud 
 there ever was between you and me ? ' 
 
 ' There is no cloud,' Ruth murmured with a sigh. 
 
 ' No, no, there is none ! ' he cried eagerly, ' and you 
 will confess, dear, that I am right, won't you ? Mabel 
 shall not go, because she is a pretty toy, to be petted 
 and patronised by that squatting crowd ! We are 
 right to keep our independence if we can't keep 
 anything else, aren't we, Ruth ? ' 
 
 With the only selfishness of an unselfish woman, 
 who will sacrfiice the rest of the world, together with 
 her own dearest good, whatever it be, to please the 
 man she loves, Ruth gave way and returned his kiss. 
 
 ' Yes, John, you are quite right,' she faltered, look- 
 ing into his eyes, with the voice of conscience 
 whispering all the time that he was wrong and she 
 a coward ; that she was wronging herself and 
 Margaret and Mabel because she loved her husband's
 
 , , 6 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 love too much to -fight his wishes and darken his 
 face with frowns. 
 
 Then she soothed him to hope and placidity again 
 by tactful, enthusiastic praise of their beautiful farm 
 and home the materialised expression of his manly 
 industry and courage. During their sixteen years of 
 married life Ruth had learnt her husband better 
 than he guessed. She knew what subjects it was 
 wise to avoid and how best to pour oil on troubled 
 waters. His arm was still round her waist and they 
 started guiltily, like young lovers, when a door was 
 opened before they had time to answer the knock. 
 
 Rising quickly, Ruth blushed and extended her 
 hand to welcome Conyngham, while with the other 
 she deftly twisted a straying lock of hair into place. 
 
 ' It's a long time since you've been near us,' she 
 said. 'Sit down here by the fire. What have you 
 done with my young people ? ' 
 
 Conyngham shook hands gravely with Ruth and 
 her husband, not a sign betraying the half-jealous 
 amusement of a lonely man at this lover-like old 
 couple. 
 
 ' Mabel and Joe are coming nome when the moon 
 rises, and they bid me tell you that they are bringing 
 their Cousin Bess with them. It is cold to-night,' he 
 continued. ' Winter has not quite sheathed his 
 claws, though there's a fresh in the river that shows 
 the snow in the hills is melting.' 
 
 Four years had passed since Conyngham had 
 paid his first visit to the Tolands, and often since, on 
 Saturday evenings, as now, he spent a few hours at 
 Grimsby Farm, when he was always welcome, though 
 the cynical theories of men and life which flowed so 
 placidly from his lips were sometimes fuel to Toland's
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 117 
 
 angry discontent. He had left his horse in the stable, 
 and having taken an early tea he said he wanted 
 nothing but a sight of the fire and leave to 
 smoke. 
 
 No debatable subject had been touched when 
 Conyngham startled Ruth from her composure by 
 the suggestion that a great drought was impending. 
 
 'Yes, I read something of it in the papers,' said 
 Toland, contemptuously, 'but I've never seen the 
 crops look better. And what do astronomers know 
 about it anyhow ? ' 
 
 ' Not half so much as farmers, of course,' answered 
 Conyngham. ' Have you got in much crop?' 
 
 ' More than I ever had before over two hundred 
 acres.' 
 
 ' Then for your sake I hope it will keep off a year, 
 though if not an ear of wheat filled this season it 
 would be a merciful providence to use a cant phrase 
 for many of our friends.' 
 
 ' Why ? ' asked Ruth. 
 
 ' Because they would have to go quicker and get 
 an early start clearing land for a new mortgagee ; 
 and they might have the luck to be sold up on the 
 second occasion by a more estimable man than 
 Mallock. He is a- horrid cad, to whom I should 
 really grudge handing over my land if I were un- 
 fortunate enough to possess any.' 
 
 'What a miserable view to take,' sighed Ruth. 
 
 Toland poked the fire viciously. ' But a true one,' 
 he said. ' It's Mallock and Harlin have ruined this 
 district.' 
 
 ' Mallock, I grant you with reservations,' said 
 Conyngham, flicking a spark off his knee, ' but why 
 Harlin?'
 
 , 1 8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' You were not at the ballot or you would not ask 
 that.' 
 
 Mrs Toland knitted on, resigning herself to one of 
 the outbursts which the memory of the ballot, only 
 graven deeper by years, usually provoked from her 
 husband. 
 
 ' I was not at the ballot,' said Conyngham, quietly, 
 ' but I know what happened there. And what does 
 it amount to after all ? That Harlin got back some 
 thousands of acres, which he is paying for and making 
 money out of, and prevented the land going to thirty 
 or forty poor beggars who would probably have been 
 sold up, before they had paid the Government, by 
 Mallock or someone of that breed. I prefer that it 
 should remain in the hands of a comparatively decent 
 man like Harlin.' 
 
 This view of the matter staggered Toland. ' Then 
 do you mean to say the whole thing wasn't a low 
 swindle?' he asked hotly. 
 
 Conyngham shrugged his shoulders. ' What does 
 it matter ? It has done no harm. Selectors who did 
 get a chance on those flats have gone more tempta- 
 tion to borrow. You who didn't are as flourishing as 
 almost any of them, here where you've had to work a 
 little harder.' 
 
 Ruth felt it almost a sacrilege on Conyngham's 
 part to thus belittle the grievance which her husband 
 had hugged so closely for all these years. Thoughts 
 like those expressed by the schoolmaster had some- 
 times occurred to her, but she had not dared utter 
 them. 
 
 1 Then you, who I thought a radical, are a defender 
 of land monopoly and fraud. We live and learn,' 
 sneered Toland.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 119 
 
 ' Pardon me, no, but I consider it a pity to waste 
 on an individual and an incident such healthily bitter 
 animosity which is due to society and a system.' 
 
 ' I hate Harlin,' persisted Toland, doggedly. ' Why 
 should he grow rich by a swindle, and, being rich, 
 sneer at us and look down on us as if he were a 
 better man?' 
 
 Conyngham paused to re-light his pipe and took a 
 few meditative whiffs. ' That speech, my friend,' he 
 said, ' is an example of what we call in logic the 
 fallacy of many questions. First, what you call a 
 swindle was according to law, which we all make 
 the best use of to our own ends. Second, I am 
 not aware that he does sneer at us and look down 
 on us. Third, the rich not only consider themselves 
 better, but actually are better than the poor.' 
 
 ' Do you really believe that ? ' asked Ruth, wonder- 
 ingly, as a picture of what Harlin really was flashed 
 before her. 
 
 ' He doesn't, Ruth. He only wants to stir up an 
 argument,' exclaimed Toland, rising impatiently. 
 ' Why don't those children come home, I wonder ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly I do, on the average, Mrs Toland,' 
 answered Conyngham, turning to her with a smile; 
 ' and if your good husband will only contain himself 
 I shall try to explain why.' 
 
 Toland flung himself into his chair again with a 
 grunt of disdain. 
 
 ' I should have thought you, Toland,' continued 
 Conyngham, with friendly sarcasm, ' were sufficiently 
 a philosopher to pity, rather than hate, people who 
 only thought themselves better than you. What 
 gravels me,' he added with more warmth, 'is that 
 they really are better, take it what way you will. I
 
 120 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 am what is called an educated man. Is not the man 
 with some thousands a year and my attainments, such 
 as they are, a better man than I ? Travel stores his 
 mind and trains his eye. Leisure gives him time for 
 thought. Books and pictures form his tastes. Wealth 
 gives him fearlessness, independence, good clothes, 
 good friends, good physique, power of usefulness to 
 others everything in fact that goes to make a man.' 
 
 ' Money gives means to do things,' assented Toland, 
 grudgingly. 
 
 ' And what can be done without the means ? You 
 are a good farmer. Will you tell me that with three 
 times the money you would not be a better one, besides 
 ridding your mind of much perilous stuff and storing 
 it with something more wholesome ? Are some of the 
 poor wretches about us here, that slave from daylight 
 to dark, men at all ? That's what I mean by saying 
 that the rich are better than the poor, and that they 
 and we are fools if we fail to recognise it.' 
 
 He paused for breath and Toland smoked on, sul- 
 len and thoughtful. 
 
 ' But what about morals, Mr Conyngham ? ' put in 
 Ruth, timidly. 
 
 ' They depend on physical well-being.' 
 
 ' The French nobles before the Revolution were 
 well enough fed and clothed, weren't they ? ' asked 
 Toland, 'and yet we don't read that they were exactly 
 angels.' 
 
 1 Well, my friend,' said Conyngham, smiling, c the 
 sans-culottes gave many of them every chance to 
 become so. But they bear out what I have said, for 
 everything is a matter of comparison. The noblesse 
 were callous to suffering and bloodshed ; the peasants 
 enjoyed it. The noblesse took it easy in the matter
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 121 
 
 of religion ; the peasants stamped religion out. 
 Morals were rather lax in some of the old houses 
 in many of the poor cottages they did not know 
 what morals meant. And to come nearer home, 
 do you know a harder task-master than the very 
 poor man who gets a poorer to do a job for him ? ' 
 
 ' But I thought you believed in the rights of man 
 and the nobility of labour ? ' said Toland, puzzled, but 
 unconvinced, and shelving the matter in dispute. 
 
 'So I do,' returned Conyngham. 'It's potential 
 nobility, when it becomes, under fair conditions, the 
 lot of everyone. I daresay I hate the common 
 labourer of to-day much more than your friend 
 Harlin, or any other of your pet tyrants, does. He 
 washes less than is desirable spits a great deal 
 more. He is weak in knowledge and in aims. In 
 fact, his language is the only strong thing about 
 him.' 
 
 ' What's the use of blackguarding him ? ' asked 
 Toland. ' Wouldn't it be better to do something to 
 help ? ' 
 
 ' What's the use of shutting my eyes to facts ? I 
 help in what ways I can, by never concealing from 
 him my opinion. And my opinion will be true till 
 farmers and working men wake up a little and make 
 use of the liberty they boast of. It's not Harlin not 
 even Mallock who are to blame for evictions here, 
 but the cowardly fools the rest of the people, includ- 
 ing ourselves who have allowed the Victorian land to 
 be parcelled out into private hands at all. The time 
 had not come for farming here, hundreds of miles 
 from the seaboard. Your grievance, that you are not 
 on better land, fifteen or twenty miles nearer to 
 Tongalong real enough in its way is a petty one
 
 122 
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 compared with the great one you placidly swallow 
 that the squatters have the land near Melbourne, 
 which should have been rented to them till it was 
 rented to men who wanted farms, when the sheep 
 would go further afield. Then we should have known 
 no evictions in the Tonga Valley. Harlin might 
 have been left in possession of his land, without the 
 temptation or the means to become the fraudulent 
 owner of it, until his time came years hence, 
 perhaps and you might have been driving your 
 plough on green hill sides near Melbourne, in sight 
 of the shipping in the bay.' 
 
 Toland and Ruth watched Conyngham in silence, 
 vaguely stirred by the fire in his eyes and the ring 
 in his tones as he sat up in his chair and waved 
 his pipe, with smoke curling from the bowl, over an 
 imaginary landscape dotted with smiling farms and 
 orchards. Ruth only half understood, but, like her 
 husband, she was carried back to days long ago, when 
 he too raised his voice, blindly, perhaps, but groping 
 after truth, against the gigantic robbery of men's 
 rights in the soil, before much dwelling on wrongs 
 personal to himself and neighbours had narrowed his 
 outlook, almost transmuting hatred of injustice and 
 longing for the general weal into hatred of more 
 prosperous men and a longing for revenge. It came 
 home to him that his ideals were vanishing and that 
 his aims of late years stood on a lower plane than 
 those of his hopeful youth. 
 
 'All that might be,' he said moodily, 'but what 
 good is it to us ? What can we do ? The land is 
 gone jobbed away to each other by your " better 
 classes," and we will never get it back again.' 
 
 Conyngham laughed. ' Of course not, my dear
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 123 
 
 fellow not till you and I are dead and fifty years 
 have gone at least. I am afraid I was almost guilty 
 of being in earnest just now, which was very weak 
 of me.' 
 
 Ruth was disappointed. ' Don't say that, Mr 
 Conyngham. Surely there is something to strive 
 and hope for even now.' 
 
 ' Yes ; I should advise your husband to strive all 
 he can to hold the land he has, and to hope for more 
 when the other cockies go under, so that he may 
 become a grazier and a well-thought-of man like 
 Mallock or Harlin in time. Talking of Harlin why 
 don't you let Mabel go sometimes to Kumbarra? 
 Mrs Harlin told me she had asked you.' 
 
 Ruth laughed nervously. ' Ask my husband,' she 
 said. 
 
 ' I dislike Harlin. We are in different spheres and 
 I don't choose her to go where she can't go as an 
 equal/ replied Toland, aggressively. 
 
 Conyngham raised his eyebrows. ' It's not my 
 business, of course,' he said, ' but if she were my 
 daughter I'd let her go. Not that I believe it would 
 make much difference after all,' he laughed, ' for Miss 
 Mabel has a will of her own and something of her 
 father's queer notions. I overheard a remark of hers 
 about squatters that terribly shocked her aunt.' 
 
 ' What was it ? ' asked Ruth, smiling, glad to 
 observe the soothing influence that the knowledge 
 of Mabel's sympathy had upon her husband. 
 
 ' I really think you'd better ask her, Mrs Toland. 
 It would not be fair for me to tell tales.' Conyng- 
 ham rose from his chair and looked at his watch. 
 ' Do you know it's nearly ten ? Time flies in dis- 
 cussion and I think I must go for my horse.'
 
 J24 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Let me get you some supper first, at least.' Mrs 
 Toland went to a cupboard by the wall, and her 
 husband opened the door, letting in a cold blast of 
 frost-laden air. 
 
 'Crisp and clear,' he said; 'a grand night for a 
 ride. Hullo! What's this in such a hurry? Joe 
 and Mabel don't ride like that' 
 
 Trembling from head to foot, Ruth put down the 
 plates with a clatter and rushed out to join her 
 husband on the verandah. 
 
 ' What is it, John ? What is it? ' she cried, clutch- 
 ing nervously at his arm. 
 
 Conyngham, who had also left the room when his 
 ear caught the ring of galloping hoofs, answered her 
 question. 
 
 ' Someone in a great haste,' he said, ' and alone.' 
 
 The little group on the verandah was silent. 
 There seemed a premonition of evil in that furious 
 gallop, for bad news travel fastest. Ruth clung to 
 her husband and prayed. Toland stood sullen and 
 dogged, awaiting a blow, ready to curse God if it 
 should fall. Conyngham was wrapped in foreboding 
 conjecture, and suddenly his thoughts flew to the 
 swollen river, making the night musical with its 
 murmur through the trees. 
 
 The horseman was further distant than he seemed. 
 For a few seconds the hoof-beats died away in a 
 hollow ; then they sounded loud again on the upland 
 and the listeners knew the rider was nearing the gate 
 half a mile from the house, 
 
 'Jumped it, by Heaven!' muttered Toland, 
 presently, realising that the time for the awaited 
 pause had gone by. ' He's on nothing from Grimsby 
 Farm.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 125 
 
 The suspense grew agonising. The gallop rang in 
 their ears, there was a loud, brief splash. That meant 
 the crossing at the muddy watercourse a quarter of 
 a mile away. The shoes rang again on the frosty 
 gravel, and then for the expectant trio sound lost its 
 import as they fastened their eyes on the figure show- 
 ing against the sky on the moonlit rise. 
 
 The schoolmaster recognised him first. ' It's 
 young Harlin,' he said. ' I know the mare's gait 
 and he was at Scott's to-night.' 
 
 Toland turned sharply. ' Damn him if he brings 
 me bad news ! Curse him ! ' he hissed. ' Am I 
 ever to have these people cross my path?' 
 
 ' Hush, man ! ' said Conyngham, sternly. ' Look 
 after your wife.' 
 
 Toland's arm went round Ruth where they stood 
 at the garden gate, and in three strides the school- 
 master stood beside young Harlin, with his hand 
 on the horse's foam - flecked bridle. Harlin was 
 dripping from head to foot and panting from the 
 stress of his furious ride. He gasped out a few 
 sentences, but in spite of Conyngham's injunction 
 to speak low, Ruth's straining ears had caught a 
 word. 
 
 'Drowned ! ' she cried. ' Oh, my darlings ! ' 
 
 'Not your children,' came Conyngham's sharp, 
 clear voice. ' It's young Bess Scott' 
 
 ' Thank God ! ' muttered Toland, and Ruth fainted 
 in his arms. 
 
 Conyngham gave one glance behind him. ' Human 
 nature,' he said to himself with a hard little laugh ; 
 aloud, ' Look here, my young friend ' addressing 
 Harlin 'next time you are privileged to be the 
 bearer of bad news don't be in quite such a hurry with
 
 i 2 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 it. Those unfortunate people have lived through half 
 a dozen deaths in that theatrical gallop of yours.' 
 
 ' Anyway, I saved their daughter's life in the river,' 
 said the boy, sulkily aggrieved. 
 
 1 You're a fine fellow, then ' Conyngham's hand- 
 grip made Harlin wince. ' It's a pity you didn't tell 
 us that first and come something under thirty miles 
 an hour to tell it Now, give me the details as I go 
 with you to the stable. Mr and Mrs Toland will be 
 best alone for a little while.' 
 
 They walked a few steps in silence. 
 
 ' Don't by chance mention you heard Mr Toland 
 thank God his sister's child was drowned instead of 
 his,' said Conyngham, lifting the wire from the 
 yard gate. 
 
 ' I expect he only meant thank God his own were 
 safe,' replied the boy. ' Anyway, he could say so.' 
 
 ' I can't swear what he meant but I expect he 
 wouldn't say so,' answered Conyngham, dryly. 'At 
 anyrate, don't give him the chance.'
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE river babbled joyously down the long reach 
 below the crossing where Bessie Scott had been 
 swept from her horse only a few hours before. Sand- 
 banks strewn with quartz pebbles washed bright by 
 the fresh water glistened in the sunlight. A golden 
 blaze of wattle bloom from the thickets that edged 
 
 O 
 
 the shore gave colour to all the sombre scrub and 
 filled the air with scent. The overhead sun forced 
 its rays even into the thick blackwoods, finding vivid 
 green traced with darker veins in the semi-trans- 
 parency of the young leaves. Everywhere in the 
 black, steaming soil, the uncurling bracken fronds, 
 the twitter of nesting birds breathed the spirit of life 
 and spring, while all the men folk of the Tonga 
 Valley were gathered to search for the body. 
 
 George Scott was there, dressed in his best suit of 
 black, a sense of importance overlying his grief as he 
 stood beside the police constable from Tongalong on 
 the right bank of the stream. A rope stretched over 
 the river was fastened to the nose of a flat-bottomed 
 boat, and a knot of men and boys, holding the cable 
 ends, paid out more line or hauled it taut as the 
 hands in the boat with the grappling-hooks signalled 
 their wish to explore this part or that of the deep, 
 swirling stream. 
 
 The search had begun with daylight and each hour 
 added to the crowd of the sympathetic and curious 
 
 127
 
 i28 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 who mustered from every farm to give time and 
 labour for the recovery of a dead body, not one 
 tithe of which would the joint community have 
 expended on the most urgent living appeal of the 
 best-regarded man or woman in the valley. 
 
 It had been a solemn, serious business at first. 
 Men in their best clothes, straggling down in twos 
 and threes, said some awkward words of sympathy 
 to Scott, longing for a pipe but not sure whether 
 smoking would be respectful in the presence of 
 death, which, till more should be known, imbued all 
 the river below the ford with stimulating mystery. 
 Then the boat arrived on a dray from a bridge that 
 was building miles down the river and work really 
 began. The constable came from Tongalong to 
 spread over the proceedings the aegis of constituted 
 authority, comforting in a vague way to Scott though 
 Constable Scanlan did nothing but loll at ease with 
 his helmet glinting officially in the sun, occasionally 
 giving a suggestion or order that few heard and none 
 heeded. 
 
 Soon a tobacco-loving casuist, reckoning that the 
 greatest stickler for etiquette could have no call to 
 complain if he went above the ford, for Bess's body 
 could by no possibility be there, squatted himself on 
 a moss-grown log and lit a pipe. The scent of black 
 Derby found its way to the nostrils of others, who 
 grasped the example set without its delicate limita- 
 tions, and all around blue clouds of smoke, mingling 
 their fragrance with the wattle blossom's, floated into 
 the still air. Tongues were loosened from the idling 
 groups ; human laughter now and then answered the 
 jackasses; advice, jocular as well as serious, was 
 bawled to the men in the boat ; rude chaff saluted the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 129 
 
 rope-holders when they came to grief in their scrambles 
 through the scrub to let the boat drift down the river, 
 and when the grappling-irons hooked something in a 
 dark pool by a sunken tree, and strong pairs of strain- 
 ing arms hauled the rope in hand over hand, only to 
 bring to the surface a slimy, water-logged branch, the 
 expectant silence reigning was broken by a loud 
 guffaw. 
 
 By two o'clock there were sixty or seventy men 
 and a sprinkling of women on the scene, which sug- 
 gested rather a picnic outing than preliminaries to a 
 funeral. Some of the smaller boys were playing at 
 drowning, and there were gallant rescues of floating 
 sticks in shallows where the river widened. 
 
 Rupert Harlin and Joe, as spectators of the 
 tragedy, were constantly appealed to for the story, 
 by the inquisitive and the helpful, till they grew 
 weary of the telling. 
 
 It had been always a nasty crossing, and but that 
 the moon was not high enough above the trees they 
 would have seen that the water coming down made 
 it unsafe to attempt. Harlin had led the way into 
 the ford, Mabel and Bess following him, and Joe 
 bringing up the rear. The younger boy had not left 
 the bank when he saw Harlin sink to his waist in a 
 great hole washed out by the force of the backed-up 
 current, where it swept round a tree stranded by the 
 flood above the crossing. For a confused second or 
 two the others sat their frightened horses. Harlin 
 called loudly to them to go back as he turned his 
 own horse's head to the shore. Bess lost control of 
 the nervous filly she rode. It stumbled, recovered 
 itself, and, flinging up its head, struck her on the fore- 
 head as she bent over its neck trying to keep her seat 
 
 I
 
 1 30 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Her hands released their grasp of reins and pommel, 
 and, as the moon shone clearer, little Joe, who made 
 a gallant attempt to reach his cousin, saw her head 
 fall on her chest. Her balance went and the unfor- 
 tunate girl fell backwards over the off flanks of her 
 mare into the stream that swept her past, almost 
 within reach of Joe's outstretched hand. Harlin saw 
 it too. Saw, too, in horror, that Mabel's horse was 
 plunging with her into the wash-out. Just in time to 
 save her by driving the spurs rowel deep, he dragged 
 the girl from her saddle across the pommel of his own, 
 and reached shallow water in safety. Then the two 
 boys ran scrambling through the scrub cooeying and 
 calling to Bess. But all in vain ; there came no an- 
 
 o ' 
 
 swering cry, only the roar of the river as it swept 
 relentlessly on its way. Abandoning the search, the 
 boys returned to the ford, and when the horses were 
 caught Mabel rode back, shivering and crying, with 
 Joe to break the news to her aunt, while Harlin faced 
 the river again and started on his gallop to Grimsby 
 Farm. 
 
 Mabel and Mrs Toland were now at Scott's doing 
 their best to comfort the bereaved mother and the 
 other children. The eldest boy was with his father, 
 feeling a dreadful interest in the proceedings, less 
 conscious of grief for his sister than of the melancholy 
 prominence he and his family had attained amongst 
 the neighbours. Then his eye fell on the dray, driven 
 slowly up and backed down to the river, with their 
 old draught horse in the shafts. He saw a straw 
 mattress with a great sheet folded upon it, and burst 
 into a torrent of boyish tears as he realised more 
 vividly the dreary result of success so complacently 
 looked for by the men scraping and prodding the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 131 
 
 river bed with the grappling-hooks and barb-headed 
 poles. 
 
 Toland had early left the crowd and made his way 
 down stream, forcing a path through the scrub, and 
 peering with expectant dread into holes where the 
 current eddied round logs and rotting heads of trees. 
 Looking once across the river, he saw on the other 
 bank the schoolmaster, with men from a neighbouring 
 farm, engaged on a similar quest. His thoughts went 
 back vividly to the arrival of the news on the previous 
 night, and he tried to realise what it would mean 
 were Mabel instead of Bess lying in those cold depths. 
 He could not bear it as Scott was doing, he felt sure. 
 He was almost angry with his brother-in-law for 
 accepting help from all these meddlesome, well- 
 meaning fools. He would not allow one of them 
 about him were Mabel in the river. He told himself 
 he would drive them all away, and she should stay 
 there until he could find her and bear her home in 
 his own arms ; and probably, but for Squatter 
 Harlin's son, there would she be, side by side with his 
 poor little niece. He remembered with shame his 
 snarling curse on the boy as the bearer of bad news. 
 The conversations with his wife and Conyngham 
 all the experiences of the past night came home to 
 him. They seemed psychological mile-stones mark- 
 ing stages on roads he must travel no further 
 crossing of his dear wife's wishes growing bitterness 
 towards his fellow-men and exaggeration of his own 
 small ills at their hands. The long-cherished grudge 
 against the Harlins had grown too strong to be 
 suddenly uprooted, but he could cease to think 
 bitterly of them by not thinking at all, and if he 
 told himself every day that he was grateful, perhaps
 
 1 3 2 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 in time he would become so. At least he would 
 cease to weary Ruth with his complaining ; he could 
 be more tender and forbearing. The look almost of 
 fear which he had surprised once or twice on her 
 face pained and shamed him, so that tears of pity 
 for her, and anger against himself, stood in his eyes. 
 He knew that with her dying breath she would 
 declare him the kindest and best of husbands ; and the 
 newly-awakened consciousness of how lamentably 
 short he had fallen in each day's possibilities, putting 
 quite aside his long-ago ideals, kept him company 
 all through his journey down the river bank. 
 
 When he began to retrace his steps early sunset 
 had left the dark pools more forbidding ; all light and 
 colour had receded to the inaccessible hilltops, and 
 to Toland's mood it seemed symbolic of life bright 
 things always in the distance and the sombre close at 
 hand. By the time he reached the crossing dusk was 
 drawing on and the river banks were deserted. An 
 hour before the body had been found, beneath a great 
 blackwood, which had caught the girl's hat in its 
 overhanging branches, where they dipped in the 
 swollen stream, and the searchers had dispersed to 
 their homes. Toland looked about him and con- 
 cluded that a cooey he had vaguely heard, while 
 still wending his way downwards, had been meant 
 to announce the sad news of success. He heaved a 
 sigh of pity for poor Bess, of gladness that he had not 
 been there to see, and then unbuckling the reins from 
 a sapling in the wattle grove, he mounted his horse 
 and rode across the river. Beached in a gravelly 
 nook he saw the boat, and it was still light enough 
 to distinguish wheel marks made by the dray on the 
 sandy track through the scrub. He followed them at
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 133 
 
 a walking pace, not wishing to overtake the pro- 
 cession with the ,body, and it was late when he 
 reached the outer gate of Scott's farm and saw the 
 twinkling lights of the homestead. There he realised 
 with wonder how little true sorrow he was feeling. 
 Had he become so self-centered that no disaster, 
 unless it touched him personally, could really stir 
 the emotions that responded fiercely to even a distant 
 echo from a stranger's defeat in the battle to make a 
 home? 
 
 There was something uncanny, almost prophetic, 
 in the ascendency which he now realised one theme 
 of thought and aspiration had insidiously gained over 
 all others in his consciousness. The conversation 
 with Conyngham had brought it home to him and 
 made it seem not quite so noble. His selfish in- 
 ability to feel real grief for this young life, snatched 
 senselessly from one to whom it was bright and dear, 
 made him angry and ashamed. He knew that the 
 John Toland of ten years back would have been 
 stirred to the depths of his nature by the pity 
 of it. 
 
 A light was burning in the great shed where Scott 
 kept his waggon, his binder and smaller farm imple- 
 ments. Toland looked in through the half-closed 
 door, unseen. At the carpenter's bench, in one 
 corner, Scott was at work. Several Murray-pine 
 boards stood beside him. He relit his pipe, sighed 
 heavily, and then with a tradesman's touch ran his 
 carpenter's pencil across the line, marking the length 
 of a head board for the coffin. 
 
 Toland changed his intention of entering and turned 
 away with a shiver of repulsion. But after all, why 
 not? Someone must do it. Scott was a carpenter
 
 1 3 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 by trade and he always liked to save money when 
 he could. A few moments later Toland knocked 
 softly at the kitchen door. There was no answer, but 
 he thought he heard a sob and entered the room. No 
 fire was on the hearth ; a single candle on the dresser 
 showed Bess seated at the bare table, her hair in 
 disorder, her still comely face buried in her hands, in 
 the utter abandonment of grief. She looked up at 
 her brother, years older, it appeared to him, than 
 yesterday. 
 
 ' Oh, John ! ' she whispered, 
 
 ' Poor Bess lass ! ' He held out his arms, and as she 
 sobbed on his shoulder his capacity for sorrow re- 
 turned to him. That he had a sister whom he dearly 
 loved, and that he was a man of flesh and blood apart 
 from any spot of earth he trod, were truths into which 
 old meanings came crowding that he had not known 
 for years. 
 
 Presently Bess put her hands on his shoulders and 
 pushed herself away from him. 
 
 'John,' she said in a dreamy voice, looking into his 
 eyes, ' I am glad it wasn't Mabel. I'm a woman and 
 can bear it, but you're only a man and you you'd 
 have gone mad.' 
 
 And this was the character he had looked down 
 upon with affectionate half contempt ! His ' Thank 
 God ! ' of the night before, when the news came that 
 one had been taken and the other left, echoed mock- 
 ingly in his ears. He almost fiercely forced her head 
 down to his shoulder that he might not see her eyes. 
 
 ' For pity's sake don't, Bess ! You will send me 
 mad now.' 
 
 Ruth heard the voices. She and Mabel were com- 
 forting the children in the antimacassared parlour,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 135 
 
 appropriated to the dignity of grief. She looked into 
 the kitchen with a wife's pang of jealousy at brother 
 and sister drawn so close together. It would be 
 sacrilege to disturb them, and, touching the corners 
 of her eyes with her apron, she withdrew as softly as 
 she came. She could not go back to face the crying 
 children. There was more peace and company in the 
 bedroom, where she went to snuff a guttering candle 
 beside the bed on which little Bessie lay.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 ' MAB, I want you to take the lunch to your father. 
 Here are some scones for him and a piece of plum 
 duff for Joe.' 
 
 Mab took the basket containing the 'lunch' a 
 bush term for any refreshment between meals and 
 made her way through the wheat crop to the latest 
 piece of clearing, where Toland and Joe were hard at 
 work trying to get the last of the maize sown before 
 night. Joe was dropping the seed into the furrows 
 ahead of his father, who was harrowing, and for some 
 time his glance had been frequently directed home- 
 wards, as, boylike, he looked forward to the break in 
 his monotonous work. 
 
 When Mab appeared round a clump of trees he 
 walked over to his father. 
 
 ' I'll take the horses, father, while you have your 
 lunch.' 
 
 ' All right, my boy, keep them going, and don't let 
 the harrows get foul.' 
 
 Joe took the reins and Toland joined Mab, who had 
 seated herself in the shade of a blackwood on the un- 
 ploughed headland. He spent but a few minutes in 
 having a cup of tea and rilling his pipe, and then Joe 
 took his place. 
 
 ' What have you got, Mab ? Anything worth eat- 
 ing ? ' he asked, throwing himself on the grass. 
 
 ' Oh, there are some scones for you.' 
 136
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 137 
 
 ' I say, what rot ! We always have scones. You 
 might make a chap some brownie sometimes. Hullo ! 
 what's that you're keeping in the basket for yourself? ' 
 
 ' Only some plum duff mother sent for you.' 
 
 ' By Jove ! mother's a good sort, isn't she, Mab ? ' 
 said Joe, helping himself to his favourite indigestible. 
 ' You wouldn't have thought of me like that.' 
 
 ' I don't suppose I would have thought you worth 
 bothering about,' said Mab, smiling good-naturedly. 
 
 ' Oh, no, of course you wouldn't ; but if Rupert 
 Harlin had been having lunch with me you would 
 have bothered all right like the day we went out 
 kangarooing together and I got such a doing from 
 the boss for not telling him. Why, the feed you put 
 up was worth the row, and Rupert Harlin said I was 
 lucky to have a sister like that and I said he might 
 have you for the asking.' 
 
 'Joe, I'll box your ears,' said Mab, blushing. 
 
 ' And we always have a tip-top spread when Mr 
 Conyngham's here, but when it's only me you don't 
 bother.' 
 
 ' I don't believe you care for anything but eating 
 and drinking, Joe,' said Mab. 
 
 ' Yes, I do.' 
 
 ' And what is it, then ? ' 
 
 ' Teasing you, Mab.' 
 
 ' Come on, Joe,' shouted his father. ' Are you going 
 to stay there yarning all day ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, I'm full of this,' said Joe, enigmatically, as he 
 yawned and went off to his work. When he had got 
 a short distance he turned round and called out, 
 ' I say, Mab, don't take on about what I've been 
 saying. You're not bad for a girl.' 
 
 Evidently much relieved in mind, Mab laughed,
 
 138 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 and, having packed up her basket, returned to the 
 cottage. 
 
 That evening Toland came up from work seem- 
 ingly in high spirits. 
 
 ' The last of the maize is in, missis,' he said as he 
 threw himself into a chair. ' There's a hundred and 
 eighty acres of wheat and oats, and twenty odd of 
 maize. We ought to make a fortune this year.' 
 
 ' I hope so, dear,' said Ruth, smiling. 
 
 'Do you know what I was thinking on the way 
 up ? ' continued Toland. 
 
 ' How to get rid of the rabbits ? ' asked Ruth. 
 
 ' No, hang the rabbits ! I was thinking that when 
 I got home I would find a little wife with a pale face 
 who has been married for eighteen years and has 
 never had a single jaunt away, and who has toiled 
 and slaved all that time without a murmur; and I 
 said to myself, " there's a few pounds in the bank, a 
 big harvest to be reaped in a couple of months' time 
 we'll have a trip to Melbourne to see the Cup run." 
 What do you say ? ' 
 
 ' I ought to say let us wait till the harvest is reaped 
 and our fortune made, but I just can't, John, dear, for 
 I should so like the change.' 
 
 Toland saw his wife's eyes were bright with antici- 
 pated pleasure and felt elated. 
 
 ' Then it is settled we go,' he said, getting up and 
 pacing the room. 'What shall we do with the 
 children ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, can't we take them too ? ' said Ruth, plead- 
 ingly; 'it would be such a treat and do them so 
 much good.' 
 
 ' Well, I suppose we might manage it,' said Toland, 
 beginning to get almost boyishly excited at the idea
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 139 
 
 of his first holiday. ' There will be cheap fares about 
 that time and we needn't stay away long, and I have 
 some bullocks that should be fit for market if we 
 spend too much. I wonder what they'll say.' 
 
 At supper-time the subject was broached to them. 
 
 ' Mother and I,' said Toland, ' are going for a trip 
 to Melbourne at Cup time. Would you like to 
 come with us, Mab?' 
 
 Mab beamed with delight and was about to 
 reply, when she caught a glimpse of Joe's face as 
 he held his knife and fork in mid-air and stared 
 at his father. 
 
 ' Will Joe be coming too ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' I don't suppose he would care to,' said Toland, 
 with pretended seriousness. 
 
 ' Oh, I say, dad, what are you giving us ? ' broke 
 in Joe. ' I'd just peg out if you left me behind. 
 Rupert Harlin says it's great. They went in a four- 
 in-hand, and the old man won a thousand on Blue- 
 bottle in the hurdles he carried thirteen stone and 
 won in a canter. You'll make dad take me, won't 
 you, mother ? ' 
 
 Ruth smiled at the boy's outburst and his want 
 of tact in mentioning the Harlins' method of at- 
 tending the great racing carnival. 
 
 ' Oh, I think,' she replied, ' after your working so 
 hard at that maize crop he'll have to take you.' 
 
 ' All right, Joe,' said his father, ' we'll take you 
 but it won't be in a four-in-hand.' 
 
 So it was arranged that Mick should be secured 
 to take charge of the farm and that a start should 
 be made in ten days' time. 
 
 Those were busy days for Ruth, who had to get the 
 family outfits ready. The aid of Bess was invoked
 
 r 4 o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 and willingly given, and Mrs Harlin, hearing of the 
 intended trip, sent a little present to her godchild. 
 
 Toland rode to Tongalong ostensibly to attend 
 the local stock market, but in reality acting under 
 instructions from Ruth, his destination being the 
 tailoring department of the store at which he dealt. 
 
 Such a hitherto unheard-of thing as a farmer 
 taking his family on a pleasure trip to Melbourne 
 created quite a stir in the district, and many heads 
 were shaken at the extravagance of it. Most of the 
 selectors were so used to the round of never-ending 
 toil and sordid hardships that they resented the idea 
 of one of their number setting out in pursuit of en- 
 joyment. 
 
 Scott was specially annoyed at the folly of it and 
 had not a good word to say for the Tolands whilst 
 preparations were being made for their departure. 
 He even begrudged his wife the time she spent 
 assisting Ruth, but this did not impede matters in 
 the least, as Bess was too warm-hearted to sympathise 
 with his churlishness, and paid no attention to his 
 grumbling. He was particularly indignant with his 
 brother-in-law for taking Joe, as he considered it was 
 not only harmful to the boy, but also setting a bad 
 example to Jimmy, who, instead of contentedly 
 sticking to his work, could do nothing but chatter 
 about trips to Melbourne. However, despite his 
 disapproval and prophecies of evil, the start was 
 made at last, Toland and Ruth feeling quite young 
 again under the influence of the wild excitement of 
 their children. As they drove through the cultiva- 
 tion paddocks Toland remarked to Ruth that he felt 
 anxious about the crops since there had been no rain 
 that month ; but, once on the main road, he forgot
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 141 
 
 everything in connection with the farm. He whipped 
 up the horses and started singing to the accompani- 
 ment of the rattle of the trap. The children joined 
 in, and then Ruth, smiling at her own lightheartedness. 
 But she easily excused herself. It was glorious to 
 have left the farm with its drudgery and worries be- 
 hind and to be setting out for a new world. It was 
 spring-time too ; the sun was warm ; a cool south 
 wind blew, driving here and there a fleecy cloud 
 across the blue sky ; green crops relieved the sombre 
 colours of the forest. God seemed to be smiling on 
 the land and bidding His children rejoice. Great, 
 indeed, was the excitement of the next few days. All 
 was so wonderful to the bush children, and much of 
 it to their parents. The train journey from Tonga- 
 long, the city with its magnificent buildings and 
 crowded streets, the mighty throng at the Cup, the 
 roar that went up from seventy thousand throats as 
 the winner flashed past the post, the theatre, and the 
 myriad lights at night Then there was the sea, 
 which brought her childhood's days back to Ruth, 
 and filled the children with amazement, not untinc- 
 tured with chagrin, for the great lagoon on the Tonga, 
 of which they had been so proud, seemed now but a 
 puddle. A week was spent in sight-seeing, and then 
 Ruth began to find her thoughts reverting, amid the 
 din of the city and the stench of its by-ways, to the 
 little home in the forest, and a yearning came over 
 her to return there and rest. To Toland the new 
 scenes brought varying moods. At one time he felt 
 exhilarated by the rush of life around him, at another 
 depressed by the contrast between wealth and 
 poverty. He watched the carriages roll by in Collins 
 Street and wondered if their owners had worked
 
 T 4 2 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 harder than the farmers. He saw fat old dowagers 
 reclining on the cushioned seats trying to appear like 
 aristocrats at ease, and he thought how much better 
 his wife would look than they. On the other hand, 
 he saw for the first time in Australia men begging for 
 food, women sunk to the lowest depths of degrada- 
 tion, ragged children earning stray coppers in the 
 streets. His individuality, he felt, had vanished in 
 the alien throng ; he was a nonentity whom nobody 
 knew or gave a thought to. Sometimes a passer-by 
 would turn in the street to glance at the powerful 
 form that towered over the average townsman, or to 
 smile at the group of country visitors, but friendly 
 recognition he had from none, and he found the 
 loneliness of the city greater than that of the bush. 
 There were problems, too, that puzzled him sorely. 
 Where does the wealth come from ? Why are they 
 so rich and we so poor? were questions he constantly 
 put to himself, and which he left unanswered with the 
 reflection, ' I'll talk to Conyngham about it when I 
 get home.' 
 
 One incident of his visit deeply impressed him. 
 He was walking along Bourke Street, admiring a 
 great wool warehouse, when he was attracted by a 
 crowd on a vacant allotment that graces with a heap 
 of jam tins and other rubbish the centre of the 
 city. About four hundred men, sullen and hopeless- 
 looking for the most part, were listening to the speech 
 which was being delivered from the vantage ground 
 of a heap of road metal. The speaker was a thin, 
 wiry, nervous - looking man, undersized in stature, 
 harsh in voice, but in whose eye the fire of fanaticism 
 glowed. Toland's attention was riveted by the first 
 sentence he heard. ' They said,' shouted the man, as
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 143 
 
 he waved his clenched fist, ' that they would make 
 this land a paradise for the working man, but they've 
 made it a hell. They said every honest man would 
 be able to earn a living, but instead we are starving. 
 They brought us here to make homes, but we're 
 digging our graves. They tell us now to go to the 
 country to look for work, but those who collared the 
 land will only throw a man some scraps and tell him 
 to clear. So all that's left is to tramp the roads and 
 keep on tramping, for if a man stops to rest or to die 
 he'll be run into gaol. This is our paradise, friends, 
 and the monopolists are the gods that made it ! So 
 down with them, I say, down with them to hell !' 
 
 Quivering with passion, the man sprang from the 
 stone heap whilst a murmur ran through the crowd. 
 Toland, who was moved by the fierce earnestness of 
 the speaker, whose every tone seemed to tell of a 
 wrong endured, turned to a policeman who was stand- 
 ing next him. 
 
 ' What's the meeting about ? ' he asked. 
 
 ' It's the unemployed ; they come here every day 
 to do a bit of spouting.' 
 
 The next speaker was inaudible from where Toland 
 stood, so he turned away and resumed his walk, 
 troubled in mind and dispirited, for he felt that 
 another nail had been driven into the coffin he saw 
 slowly but surely being prepared for the hopes of his 
 early years. Not in this land then, after all, neither 
 in town nor in country, was the prophecy to be fulfilled 
 which he had laid to his heart, and he muttered sar- 
 donically to himself as he walked along : 
 
 ' For a' that, and a' that 
 It's coming yet for a' that, 
 That man to man the wide warld o'er 
 Shall brithers be, for a' that.'
 
 144 
 
 After they had been in the city a week they all 
 began to long for home, not excepting the children, 
 who were jaded with excitement, and whose feet were 
 sore and limbs weary from walking on the pave- 
 ments. Joe especially wanted to get back and grow 
 quickly big enough to become a mounted trooper, 
 the Governor's escort at the Cup having determined 
 his future career. It was, therefore, decided to return 
 forthwith, and next day, as the sun was sinking, the 
 little party drew near their home. 
 
 'Isn't the air delicious after that of the town?' 
 said Ruth. 
 
 ' It is indeed/ replied Toland, drawing into his 
 capacious lungs a great draught of the cool night air, 
 fragrant with the scent of the blossoming gums. ' I 
 don't know how men can live in those filthy streets ; 
 I should die of disgust in a month.' 
 
 ' I shouldn't like it either,' said Ruth, ' so you 
 needn't worry any more about my being shut up 
 in the bush. After all, there's no place like home.' 
 
 ' Out you get, Joe ! ' said his father, a minute later, 
 as they drew up at the gate of the cultivation paddock. 
 ' It's dark to see properly, but, by Jove ! I don't like 
 the look of the crop ; it wants rain badly.' 
 
 When they reached the cottage they found old 
 Mick ready to receive them; a welcoming light 
 shone through the kitchen door, and a fire roared 
 up the chimney. 
 
 ' Good evening, Mick ! No rain yet.' 
 
 ' Good evening, sor ! Divil a drop, and the crops 
 needing it bad.' 
 
 ' My pup all right, Mick ? ' burst in Joe. 
 
 1 He is that, but I'll not be answering for the 
 fowls he has kilt'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 145 
 
 ' The boy's no good, Mick,' said Toland, as he 
 lifted Ruth down ; ' he wants to be a policeman.' 
 
 ' And that's what they're all wanting to be,' said 
 Mick. ' The lads are all for rushing off to the town 
 and the vanities of it. Miss Mab'll not be running 
 off though, I'll be bound.' 
 
 ' No, Mick,' replied Mab, with a merry laugh. ' I 
 don't want to be a policeman, but I want the cob 
 in the morning, though, to have a good ride round 
 with father.' 
 
 ' All right, miss ; he's nice and handy, and I've 
 been giving him a bite in the stable whilst you've 
 been gone.' 
 
 ' That was good of you, and I didn't forget you, 
 Mick ; I have brought you a pound of tobacco, and 
 I hope you'll like it.' 
 
 Mab gave the old man a parcel, and then ran into 
 the kitchen to help her mother and escape his 
 thanks. That night when husband and wife were 
 alone, Toland said, 
 
 ' Well, missis, what do you think of it all ? ' 
 
 1 I've enjoyed it very much, dear, and it was very 
 good of you to take me, but I feel as if I didn't 
 want to go again. I like the peace of our home, 
 and I never knew how beautiful it was, or how fond 
 I had become of it till I went away. I am afraid I 
 have been discontented, but I promise to turn over 
 a new leaf.' 
 
 ' You discontented ! Why, you are the most 
 patient little body in the world, and the best wife 
 man ever had. I'm glad to be back too. Not that 
 I like peace myself. I like strife. I hate a sluggish 
 life, and it's I who have been discontented. But 
 life in the town wouldn't content me. I wouldn't 
 
 K
 
 14 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 like to be one of that sickly-looking lot, each one 
 hurrying along to swindle someone else. I used 
 to feel that with my back to a wall I could take 
 a dozen of them. Yet they're much cleverer than 
 us bush folk. They despise us for being stupid 
 fools. They make the laws and ride on our backs 
 and live on us, so Conyngham says, and I believe it's 
 God's truth. But I'd sooner toil in the sun and sleep 
 under the stars than be one of them and fill my lungs 
 with the stench of their filthy streets. Why farmers' 
 sons are rushing off into their factories, and to serve 
 behind their counters licks me. I'd despise a son 
 of mine who'd do it' 
 
 Ruth smiled at her husband's outburst. 
 
 ' It's just as well, John, you don't want to live 
 in the town, for I'm sure you would always be 
 getting into trouble especially if you had Mr 
 Conyngham to make you want to fight everybody 
 about everything. I think I'll have to warn him 
 of the bad effect he has upon you.' 
 
 Toland laughed good-humouredly. 
 
 ' Oh, Conyngham's all right, and has got as soft a 
 heart as anybody, though he tries to hide it more 
 than most He's made a failure of life somehow, 
 and if he didn't gird at things with his tongue, I 
 believe he'd go mad. I know I should if I were 
 in his shoes.' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Ruth, sympathetically. ' I feel very 
 sorry for him when he comes and sits by our fire- 
 side, and no doubt wishes he had one of his own. 
 It's miserable, too, when he goes out in the night 
 for his long ride to the Scotts.' 
 
 ' Mother,' called Joe, from his little back room, ' I 
 want to speak to you.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 147 
 
 ' Very well, I'm coming. Good-night, John, dear. 
 I think I'll go to bed, for I'm tired. Don't sit up 
 brooding, like a good man.' 
 
 ' No, I'm coming as soon as I've finished my pipe. 
 And there's nothing to brood over. It's grand to 
 see you looking better. Go and have a good sleep, 
 for it's work again to-morrow. I'm afraid we left 
 our trip too late, little mother ; we have got to be 
 like a horse that is used to the furrow and is no use 
 out of it.' 
 
 Ruth smiled and kissed him for they were lovers 
 still and passed out. 
 
 ' What is it, Joe ? ' she asked, as she put her head 
 in at the boy's door. 
 
 ' Mother, how long will it be before I can be a 
 mounted trooper ? ' 
 
 'Go to sleep, dear, and don't be a stupid,' she 
 replied, and went to bed, leaving Joe to dream of 
 a fairyland in which, clad in blue cloth, white 
 corduroys and resplendent helmet, and mounted on 
 a prancing steed, he protected Her Majesty's re- 
 presentative from the too close presence of the 
 multitude at the Melbourne Cup.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WHEN Toland rode round his farm with Mab the 
 morning after their return from Melbourne, his 
 heart sank within him, for he saw that, without 
 heavy rain in a few days' time, the crops would 
 be a failure. Already, though the flag was not a 
 foot high, here and there an ear of wheat could be 
 seen a fateful sign. The oats, being a later crop, 
 looked more hopeful, but were beginning to go back 
 from lack of moisture. The maize was above the 
 ground, but, instead of being dark green, was tinged 
 with yellow. The grass was rapidly drying up, and 
 all round were signs that summer had set in a month 
 too soon a small thing to some, and yet threatening 
 widespread ruin throughout the land. 
 
 ' It's a bad lookout,' said Toland, as he glanced 
 across the drought-stricken crop. ' If it doesn't rain 
 soon it won't be worth cutting even for hay.' 
 
 ' Oh, father, wouldn't that be dreadful ? And there 
 is no sign of a change.' 
 
 ' None ; it looks as if it would never rain again.' 
 He turned his horse's head and rode back towards 
 the cottage, followed silently and sorrowfully by 
 Mab. 
 
 Nevertheless, Nature, animate and inanimate, 
 seemed full of rejoicing. The great heat had not 
 yet come, though the haze was beginning to dim 
 the outline of the distant hills. The sunshine had 
 
 148
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 149 
 
 a delicious warmth, and there were cool puffs from 
 a changeful breeze, while fleecy clouds drifted aim- 
 lessly across the blue sky. The days of the summer 
 silence, broken only by the skirr of the locusts, were 
 not yet Magpies sang with full mellow notes, jays 
 chattered and shrieked in the creek timber, and 
 flocks of parrots tinged the orchard with scarlet. 
 It was spring without the refreshing showers, come 
 like a lovely wanton to wither and destroy. 
 
 When Toland and Mab reached the cottage they 
 found Ruth waiting on the verandah to hear their 
 report. 
 
 ' Well, how do the crops look ? ' she asked as they 
 dismounted. 
 
 ' Not very splendid. They want rain badly,' 
 replied Toland, in a voice that was intended to 
 be cheerful, as he had determined to save Ruth as 
 much as possible from anxiety. 
 
 ' I'm so sorry,' she said sympathetically ; ' it would 
 be too disappointing if they failed.' 
 
 ' Don't you worry, little woman,' he replied. ' Even 
 supposing they did fail we'd survive all right, though 
 I must say I'd like to see a couple of inches.' 
 
 Day followed day without a rain-cloud appearing 
 in the oft-scanned sky, and then, at the end of a 
 fortnight, a change took place. From daylight 
 clouds gathered on the horizon to the north and 
 gradually rolled up the valley before the wind, 
 growing darker and sinking lower as the day passed. 
 The air was sultry and full of dust, borne along 
 in mighty volumes. All sounds of life were hushed 
 and the stillness that betokens an impending con- 
 vulsion lay on everything. Toland and Joe worked 
 hard to get in some potatoes before the rain,
 
 1 5 o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 whilst Ruth and Mab busied themselves in planting 
 vegetable seeds. About four o'clock black thunder- 
 clouds massed themselves to the north and began an 
 onward march in force. In an hour's time they had 
 wholly overspread the sky, and then the battle of 
 the elements began. From east to west a flash of 
 lightning zig-zagged its way and a distant peal of 
 thunder sounded a deep warning. Toland and Joe 
 ran up to the cottage to escape the deluge that 
 seemed to be at hand, and joined Ruth and Mabel 
 on the verandah. Nearer and nearer drew the 
 artillery of the storm, while in the darkening sky 
 black clouds rolled over one another in charging 
 squadrons. Then a splash of rain fell, and the drops 
 were red like blood from the dust overhead that 
 had been whirled up five hundred miles away. In 
 a few seconds it ceased and there was a dead silence. 
 Then right across the north darted a swift gleam 
 of flame, followed by a thunderclap that made the 
 little party shrink. Flash followed upon flash, 
 peal upon peal ; the forked lightning ran here and 
 there, slashing the black pall with sword-strokes of 
 fire ; the skies resolved themselves into one wild 
 turmoil ; below, the wind howled with increasing 
 fury. 
 
 ' Hurrah ! here it comes ! ' shouted Toland, above 
 the roar of the storm, as a torrent of rain 
 descended. 
 
 Ruth framed a silent prayer of thankfulness. Mab 
 and Joe rushed inside to fasten the banging doors 
 and windows. 
 
 For about ten minutes the rain pelted down and 
 then suddenly ceased, while at the same time the 
 wind dropped.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 151 
 
 ' Hang it ! ' said Toland, ' I hope that's not all 
 we're going to have.' 
 
 ' Oh, it can't be/ replied Ruth. ' Why, look at the 
 sky ! ' Almost as she spoke a puff of wind blew off 
 her hat. 
 
 ' The wind has changed,' he said as he picked it 
 up. 'We were sheltered before. If it goes round 
 to the south it will be over.' 
 
 Husband and wife anxiously watched the progress 
 of the storm. Every moment it seemed as if a deluge 
 must fall, and at the same time they feared to see 
 the clouds driven back from the south, the quarter 
 from which rain never came. The wind for a while 
 veered towards all quarters, and at last it seemed 
 to make up its mind and blew steadily from the 
 south. It increased in fury till it whistled and 
 howled through the tree-tops and round the cottage. 
 The advance of the rain-clouds from the north was 
 checked, and then turned into a rout. At first they 
 were driven back in mass, but, when the fierceness 
 of the onslaught increased, they were dispersed in 
 all directions and hurried from the sky in thunder- 
 growling fragments. Blue sky appeared here and 
 there and everywhere, and in an hour not a rain- 
 cloud was to be seen. Then the south wind, having 
 done its work, sank to a cool and pleasant breeze. 
 
 ' By Jove ! that's hard luck,' said Toland, in bitter 
 disappointment, as all hope of rain and salvation 
 from loss disappeared. Ruth felt inclined to cry 
 and took his arm affectionately. 
 
 ' It may rain before long, dear ; one never can tell.' 
 
 ' This sort of thing is the sure sign of a big 
 drought. It's all up with the crops now,' replied 
 Toland, gloomily.
 
 j 5 2 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 Come to tea,' called Mab from the kitchen, and, 
 with little inclination to eat, they went inside and 
 sat down to the evening meal. 
 
 A week later Toland announced to Ruth that he 
 was going over to the station to see if he could buy 
 some sheep off the shears to fatten. 
 
 ' But what are you going to fatten them on ? ' she 
 asked. 
 
 ' I'm going to turn them into the cultivation 
 paddock. I've given up all hope of cutting any 
 crop this year.' 
 
 ' Oh, John ! Is there no hope ? ' 
 
 ' None at all. A foot of rain would do them no 
 good.' 
 
 ' I suppose it can't be helped, but how are we 
 going to live and pay our debts?' 
 
 ' Oh we'll pull through all right somehow or 
 another don't you worry and make yourself ill. 
 That's what I'm afraid of. It's worse to see this pale 
 face than the withered crops.' 
 
 ' It's kind of you to think of me as you do, dear, 
 when you have so much to trouble you.' 
 
 ' No, it isn't. Don't you see you're something 
 pleasant to think of. Now promise not to work too 
 hard just because things look a little blue.' 
 
 ' Of course I won't. I've quite an easy time now 
 with Mab to help me. Couldn't you take her with 
 you? The poor child never gets any enjoyment.' 
 
 ' I think I'd rather not,' he replied ; ' she'd better 
 stay with you.' 
 
 'Very well, dear,' said Ruth, reading the unex- 
 pressed thoughts in his face, ' perhaps she might be 
 in the way.' 
 
 When Toland rode off Mab put down the book
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 153 
 
 she had been reading and joined her mother, who 
 was topping and tailing gooseberries in the verandah 
 in the shade of the vines. 
 
 ' Mother,' she said, ' I don't like going for the mail 
 nowadays.' 
 
 4 Why, dear ? ' asked her mother in some surprise. 
 ' I hate that man Mallock. He will talk to me if 
 he possibly can, and of course he gets the chance 
 when I ask for the letters.' 
 
 ' Does he ever say anything you dislike ? ' 
 ' No, not exactly, but he tries to be very fascinat- 
 ing, and asks after you and father as if he were a 
 friend of the family, but all the time he has such a 
 horrid look in his eyes.' 
 
 ' I can't bear him either,' said Ruth, shivering. 
 ' I've always hated him,' continued Mab, ' since a 
 long time ago when I was a little thing staying with 
 Aunt Bess. I went for the mail, and Mallock offered' 
 me a big packet of lollies if I would give him a kiss, 
 and then he said he wouldn't give me the letters 
 unless I did. I was so frightened that I ran out and 
 got on the pony and rode off. When I told Aunt 
 Bess she gave Mallock a talking to, but he only 
 laughed and said something with a sneer about her 
 having to come to him on her own business some 
 day that frightened her.' 
 
 ' He's a horrible man,' said Ruth, ' and you must 
 go to the store as little as possible.' 
 
 ' I don't want to go at all if I can help it. I went 
 one day with that little wretch, Jimmy, and when we 
 came out he said, " Isn't it a joke old Mallock making 
 eyes at you ? " I would have liked to box his ears.' 
 
 ' That was very wrong of him,' said Ruth, glancing 
 in fond admiration at her daughter, thinking how
 
 T 54 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 much she resembled her father when her eyes flashed 
 in anger. 'You mustn't go there any more. But 
 you must say nothing to your father. Half what 
 you have told me would make him kill Mallock.' 
 
 ' I'd almost like to see him do it,' said Mab. ' How 
 he would crush him in his great arms!' 
 
 ' Mab, my child, don't say such things. I'm always 
 afraid of what your father might do if put into a 
 passion by some wrong. You must promise not to 
 make him hate Mallock more.' 
 
 ' Of course I won't, mother dear,' replied Mab as 
 she kissed her. ' I'll go for the letters sometimes so 
 that he won't have any suspicion; and anyhow 
 Mallock can't eat me.' 
 
 ' No, you mustn't do that,' said Ruth, stroking 
 her daughter's soft hair. ' We won't talk of it any 
 more, but I'm glad you told me.' 
 
 Though Toland spoke very confidently to his wife 
 before starting on his ride to the station, his later 
 thoughts scarcely confirmed the hopeful views then 
 expressed. Like his neighbours he lived on what 
 he was going to make. After each harvest ac- 
 cumulated liabilities were more or less paid off and 
 a fresh career on credit started. Such had grown to 
 be the recognised business understanding between 
 the farmers and the storekeepers, whose assistance 
 alone enabled men with insufficient capital to make a 
 start upon the land. Consequently Toland deeply 
 cursed the misfortune that had befallen him which 
 seemed to render inevitable what he had striven so 
 hard to avoid, namely, an increase of the mortgage 
 on the farm. Further hard work, care and dis- 
 appointment he felt he could face as directly 
 affecting himself, but the bitterness came when he
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 155 
 
 thought of those dependent on him. More especially 
 when he thought of Ruth, his comrade and mainstay, 
 and saw in the future no hope of escape from the toil, 
 monotony and anxiety that were beginning to tell 
 upon her. Then, when he left the road and crossed 
 the flats on Kumbarra, he fell to musing once more 
 on social inequalities and to wondering why Harlin's 
 wife should have every luxury that wealth could pro- 
 cure, whilst his own had to bear the scourge of 
 poverty. How could Ruth, he asked himself, have 
 suggested he should bring Mab with him ? Now that 
 he was going down hill he must be more careful to 
 see that they did not come to be regarded as pen- 
 sioners on the bounty of the Harlins. 
 
 The shearing shed was about a mile from the house 
 and now easily to be located by the shouting of 
 musterers, the barking of dogs and the bleating of 
 sheep. When Toland reached it he found operations 
 in full swing, and not seeing Harlin about, he stood for 
 a while and watched the busy scene. Twenty-five 
 shearers were hard at work and the short, sharp clip 
 of their shears filled the shed with sound, notwith- 
 standing the bleating from a thousand throats. Each 
 man worked as if for dear life, the ' ringer,' or highest 
 tally man, for honour and glory as well, while the 
 heat of the iron roof, the stooping position, and the 
 hot bodies of the panting sheep bathed the shearers' 
 faces and limbs in sweat. No one spoke, except to 
 curse a tarboy or rouseabout for not being at hand 
 when wanted, and for thereby causing the loss of a 
 valuable minute, or to mutter an oath as the boss of 
 the board passed by with a caution for a gash or a 
 second cut. Penners-up bustled along the sheep with 
 wild yells ; rouseabouts hurried up and down the
 
 156 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 board, bearing away the fleeces ; skirters tore at them 
 on the table with eager haste, for the classer was 
 doing his work with but a glance and tug at the 
 staple. The press squeaked and groaned as two 
 sinewy giants swung on the lever ; and a few seconds 
 later there was hammering at clamps, and yet an- 
 other bale rolled out on the floor, to be branded and 
 started on its trip round the world. 
 
 After a while Toland asked one of the pressers if Mr 
 Harlin was anywhere about. 
 
 ' No, but there's M'Intyre,' he replied, indicating 
 Harlin's factotum, who was walking towards them. 
 Toland went up to him. 
 ' Good-day ; I want to see Mr Harlin.' 
 'Well, you'll not see him to-day,' said M'Intyre, 
 looking at him suspiciously as one of those infernal 
 cockies who had helped to spoil the run. 
 
 ' Isn't he up at the homestead ? ' asked Toland. 
 'Yes, he's up there,' replied M'Intyre after a 
 moment's hesitation, ' but he doesn't want to be 
 bothered to-day. Is there anything I can do for 
 ye?' 
 
 ' No, thank you. If he's up at the house I'll go and 
 see him, and I don't care a damn if he wants to be 
 bothered or not. I've come to see if he will sell some 
 stores off the shears, and don't want to come again.' 
 So saying he turned and walked out of the shed. 
 M'Intyre followed him. 
 
 ' Look here, Mr Toland,' he said, ' I think I might 
 fix that for ye, and I know Mr Harlin will not be 
 wanting to see ye, not feeling well this morn.' 
 
 ' Well, he can tell me so himself,' replied Toland, 
 annoyed at M'Intyre's manner. 'Why shouldn't 
 he? Has he become such a great man as all that?'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 157 
 
 'Have ye no understanding, ye great galoot?' 
 said M'Intyre, irascibly, as Toland prepared to mount 
 his horse. ' D'ye think a mon that's drinking his 
 bottle o' whisky a day can do a deal in sheep ? ' 
 
 ' Good Lord ! You don't mean to say that Harlin 
 drinks like that ! ' exclaimed Toland in surprise. 
 
 ' That's aboot it,' replied M'Intyre ; ' and excep' that 
 I wadna hae ye go to the house and the missis have 
 the turnin' awa of ye, it's nae a word I'd hae telled ye. 
 Ye may as well get back and I'll send word if Mr 
 Harlin will sell. Keep your mouth shut, as the boss 
 only goes fair off his head once in a whiles and the 
 missis don't like it known.' 
 
 Toland's thoughts on his homeward ride were very 
 different from those in which he had indulged so 
 shortly before. Too generous-minded to rejoice in 
 the knowledge of any man's failing, his thoughts 
 centred themselves, not upon Harlin, but upon his 
 wife. 
 
 In an instant she stood transformed in his eyes. 
 She appeared no longer the haughty, purse-proud 
 woman, raised above his own wife by the witchcraft 
 of fortune, but as a sufferer who also bore her burden 
 bravely in solitude. He could now understand there 
 being a bond of sympathy between Mrs Harlin and 
 Ruth, and he began to reproach himself for churlishly 
 hindering its expansion. When he reached home he 
 found Ruth lying down, as she often had to do from 
 sheer exhaustion during the great heat of the after- 
 noon. He sat down beside her and said quietly, 
 
 ' Why didn't you tell me that Harlin was a 
 drunkard ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, you didn't see him like that, did you ? Poor 
 Margaret ! '
 
 1 58 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 ' Why didn't you tell me, when you knew I judged 
 her wrongly and thought she only wanted to patron- 
 ise us ? She has her trouble and leads a lonely life 
 on account of it, and I've helped to make it a little 
 harder by keeping you away from her.' 
 
 ' She told me the secret she has kept for so long, 
 and I promised never to tell a soul. She has been 
 very lonely since Rupert went to school and her little 
 daughter died of diphtheria, and once she said she 
 envied me.' 
 
 ' I owe her gratitude on account of Mabel,' said 
 Toland, gloomily, ' and have paid her in different coin. 
 I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. I'll try and think a 
 bit more kindly of her and hers.' 
 
 ' She's a noble woman,' said Ruth. 
 
 1 It's a pity she's a squatter's wife, and that we're 
 only what they call " blasted cockies," ' said Toland, 
 somewhat coldly, as he picked up his hat and walked 
 out of the room.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 DECEMBER, that should have ushered in the ripening 
 summer, differed only in its longer days of shimmer- 
 ing heat from the preceding month, credited by the 
 calendar to a never-existing spring. The sun shone 
 perhaps a little hotter, a few early wheat-fields 
 yellowed rapidly with starved heads of pinched grain, 
 but cattle were grazing most of the sowed paddocks ; 
 and very few reaping-machines left their sheds to be 
 put in gear for harvest. 
 
 Toland bore his losses philosophically, and to 
 Scott, who grumbled all day long at disasters less 
 severe, it seemed curious, and in a measure a 
 personal affront, that his brother-in-law should be in 
 a more equable frame of mind than he had been for 
 several past years. Analysing neither his own 
 feelings nor Toland's, Scott did not recognise that 
 buffets from Fate and Nature had called forth from 
 Toland a grim fortitude, not always proof against 
 social wrongs ; and he would have learnt with surprise 
 that he himself had long derived a soothing sense of 
 superiority and blessedness from comparing his good 
 crops and good temper with Toland's smaller yields 
 and increasing bitterness. 
 
 ' Cleaned up ' for tea, he leaned on the garden gate 
 in his shirt sleeves, watching the last crimson of a fiery 
 sunset fade from the sky. ' Another cursed scorcher 
 to-morrow,' he muttered, and turned his eyes upon a
 
 160 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 pair of riders cantering down the dusty road towards 
 his gate. 
 
 Bess came out from the verandah and slipped her 
 arm through his. 
 
 ' That'll be Mabel and Joe,' she said. ' I thought 
 likely they'd be here for tea to-night.' 
 
 ' It seems to me you might think it likely any 
 night and not be far wrong,' answered Scott, surlily. 
 
 ' You're surely not grudging them the bit they eat ? ' 
 
 ' Of course I'm not,' replied Scott, a little ashamed, 
 'and it's not that they come after. Isn't young 
 Harlin coming to-night to see Mr Conyngham ? ' he 
 added with a cunning grin. 
 
 Bess bunched the cornflowers she had gathered 
 into a satisfactorily compact mass and laughed. 
 
 1 You're very clever, but youVe got the cart before 
 the horse. Mabel didn't know Rupert Harlin was 
 coming, but I'm not saying that he didn't guess she 
 was. And what's the harm ?' 
 
 ' Who talked about harm ? But it's a bit of dashed 
 nonsense all the same, and you know John wouldn't 
 like it.' 
 
 'There's many a good thing John doesn't like 
 John's queer, but I must say I've not seen him so 
 quiet and reasonable-like for many a long day.' 
 
 'Quiet enough,' assented Scott, with an irritated 
 laugh, ' but I'm hanged if I see how he's so reason- 
 able. Wasn't he going about with a long face talking 
 about his stolen rights and fool talk like that, cursing 
 and damning every well-to-do man in the neighbour- 
 hood when things was going right enough with him ? 
 And now, though I'll have a bag or two of wheat for 
 every bushel he sees, you'd think from his happy 
 face that he was an angel with a ten-bag crop.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 161 
 
 His pipe went automatically into his mouth after 
 this long deliverance. 
 
 ' Don't smoke now tea'll be directly,' said Bess, 
 taking the plug from his hand. ' So you're cross with 
 poor old John for getting a bit contented.' She 
 smiled rather sadly and sighed. ' It's a blessed thing 
 for poor Ruth. Time was I set myself above her, 
 but since little Bessie went 
 
 ' None o' that,' interrupted Scott, with a roughness 
 that stood for sympathy. ' Jack's right enough, but 
 why the dickens don't he growl when he's got some- 
 thing to growl about ? That's what I'd like to know.' 
 
 His problem was unanswered, and he gave Bess 
 no time to consider the matter. 
 
 ' Joe, you young vagabond ! ' he bawled in saluta- 
 tion to the pair just arrived within shouting distance. 
 ' If you bring that pack of mongrels down here again 
 I'll kick you off the place. D'ye hear ? ' 
 
 Joe heard, but his reply was fortunately inaudible, 
 and a second later, dismounting and taking his sister's 
 horse, the boy walked off to the stable-yard. 
 
 Mabel flicked the dust from her riding-skirt as she 
 went, and strolled up to the garden gate, followed by 
 four kangaroo dogs. 
 
 ' It's not Joe's fault ; they are my dogs, uncle,' she 
 said, laughing. ' And if you call them mongrels again 
 I won't come near the place, do you hear that ? ' 
 
 She kissed her aunt and shook hands with her 
 uncle, whose face showed that her at least he was 
 pleased to see. 
 
 ' Don't shut the gate,' she advised him. ' They will 
 only jump the fence and do more harm to your flower- 
 beds, and really, if you shut up all the cats I don't 
 see that they can get into much mischief.' 
 
 L
 
 1 62 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' You're a cool hand, Mab, but I'm glad to see you, 
 my dear dogs and all dash 'em ! ' 
 
 Scott was fond of his wife's pretty, high-spirited 
 niece, though he often suspected she was making fun 
 of him, and sometimes she openly ruffled his dignity. 
 But his displeasure was never long proof against a 
 penitent speech, when she would show nothing but 
 the long lashes of her grey eyes, avoiding his small 
 peering ones lest she should hurt his feelings by 
 laughing again in the midst of her apology. He 
 compared her mentally with his daughter Bessie, 
 whose loss he felt as much as he could feel anything, 
 but admitted to himself that Bessie would never have 
 been Mabel's equal. His wife, too, took Mabel closer 
 to her heart now that her eldest daughter was gone, 
 but if she ever compared the girls, it was not to find 
 her idealised Bessie inferior. However, on another 
 point she was clearer sighted than her husband, and 
 knew that his hopes of making a match some day 
 between Mabel and her cousin, Jimmy Scott, were 
 doomed to disappointment a fact which she re- 
 garded with resignation in view of other and more 
 romantic imaginings for Mabel's future. 
 
 She encouraged young Harlin, who had discovered 
 many knotty points in his vacation studies to visit 
 the house and consult upon them with Conyngham. 
 Scott was pleased to see the squatter's son, since, in 
 conversation with his neighbours, there was a pleasing 
 sound about such casual remarks as, ' When Rupert 
 Harlin was at my place last night,' or, 'as I was 
 saying to young Rupert at tea,' and others of the 
 kind, conveying an impression of familiar relations 
 with Kumbarra. 
 
 Harlin was not at tea that evening. Scott refused
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 163 
 
 to put on his coat for Mabel, who wasn't a fine'lady 
 yet he said meaningly. Joe and Jim wrangled, 
 occasionally getting in a satisfactory kick at one 
 another's shins, and four smaller Scotts, constituting 
 a later crop, giggled and smeared themselves with 
 treacle at the end of the table. Mab sat next 
 Conyngham, answering his questions concerning her 
 home affairs in the intervals of talk with her aunt 
 and uncle, with a pause now and again to eat a 
 mouthful. 
 
 By-and-by the springs of Scott's humour were 
 loosened by beef and scones and he turned it upon 
 Joe. 
 
 ' Have you got your handcuffs about you, Joseph, 
 my lad ? No ? Perhaps you've got a baton stuffed 
 under your waistcoat, then or is it only pudding and 
 potatoes ? ' 
 
 Jimmy laughed disagreeably, and Joe, flushing, 
 intimated sotto voce" that he was quite equal to 
 bashing his cousin's head in without the aid of a 
 baton. 
 
 'Joe doesn't want handcuffs and batons,' said 
 Mabel, scornfully. ' He's going to be a mounted 
 trooper with a revolver and sword.' 
 
 ' Why don't he stick to honest farming work 
 instead of meddling with such things ? That's what 
 I want to know.' 
 
 ' That is his business, isn't it and father's ? ' 
 
 Joe went on with his tea, feeling that his battles 
 were safe in Mabel's hands. Scott laughed and said 
 he was only having a bit of fun, and Conyngham 
 changed the subject by asking Mabel if she had 
 read the novel that he had sent to her mother. 
 
 Joe and Jim who, though quarrelsome, were fairly
 
 164 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 good friends, went off after tea to fish in a deep 
 reach of the Tonga where perch and cod bit well on 
 the warm nights. Rupert Harlin arrived before the 
 boys started, but declined, after some hesitation, to 
 accompany them. It would be very jolly, he said, 
 but he had come to ask Mr Conyngham to construe 
 a difficult passage in Virgil with him. Mab suggested 
 that there would be plenty of time for the translation 
 when he returned from the river, whereat he grew 
 red but stuck to his point, and Conyngham good- 
 naturedly interfered, saying that he should be writing 
 later on but that he would be glad to spare half an 
 hour for the Latin if Harlin came to his room at 
 once. 
 
 Mabel got up when Harlin and the schoolmaster 
 were leaving the kitchen, saying that she believed 
 she would go down herself to see what sport the boys 
 were having, and Conyngham smiled at the cloud 
 of anger and disappointment he saw cross Harlin's 
 expressive features. 
 
 Rupert Harlin, at twenty, was a fine-looking 
 fellow, tall like his mother, with her dark eyes and 
 clear skin, and his lithe figure showed to advantage 
 in the dark coat with boots and riding-breeches that 
 he wore. He was a lover worth tormenting, 
 Conyngham reflected, and Mabel was a fortunate 
 girl to have the doing of it. That Harlin was, or 
 would be, in love with Mabel, and that she would 
 take advantage of the fact to hurt his vanity and 
 make him miserable in a dozen ways, it never 
 occurred to Conyngham to doubt. In his philosophy 
 all properly-constituted young men of twenty fell 
 in love with the prettiest girl of their acquaintance 
 sometimes with two or three and if Mabel had
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 165 
 
 denied emphatically that she knew Harlin admired 
 her, or that her determination to go fishing was 
 designed to disconcert him, he would have accepted 
 the assurance and put the incident down to sub- 
 conscious feminine cerebration, working true to type. 
 Human nature interested him. His thoughts were 
 upon it more than the Latin, in this case with a 
 kindly bias towards the particular examples of it, 
 which he condemned as unphilosophic ; and Harlin, 
 with his thoughts on the mosquito-haunted river 
 bank, was cursing Virgil and trying to think hard 
 things of Mabel. 
 
 ' Ah, yes ! The moods in those indirect questions 
 are sometimes puzzling,' said Conyngham, closing 
 the book with a yawn when the farce had continued 
 for ten minutes. He looked at Harlin with a 
 quizzical smile. ' I believe you might catch them 
 now, if you ran fast enough and are not too proud.' 
 
 Harlin met his glance with surprise, and reddened. 
 
 ' I don't know what you mean,' he began with an 
 attempt at haughtiness. Then he laughed and 
 corrected himself. 'At least I do but I think it's 
 rather rough on a fellow to rot him like that, you 
 know and I won't run after anybody. I'm going 
 home. Good-night, Mr Conyngham.' 
 
 ' Good-night ! As a type you are perhaps common- 
 place. For you, individually, I confess to interest 
 almost to sympathy. Come again.' 
 
 He got up and gravely opened the door for the 
 puzzled boy, who passed into the yard, uncertain 
 whether to be amused or angry. Conyngham went 
 back to his armchair, and, clasping his hands behind 
 his head, gazed at the damp-stained ceiling. 
 
 ' Ah, Youth, Youth ! ' he sighed. ' How important
 
 166 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 you are, and how eternally the same! She goes 
 fishing to avoid you now. Ten years hence you will 
 go fishing, and she will cry and think you do it to 
 avoid her whether you do or not.' Conyngham 
 felt tor his pipe while his thoughts wandered from 
 Mabel's and Rupert's affairs to his own; and he 
 found himself patterning a face with some of the 
 features like Mabel's too distinctly on the canvas 
 overhead. ' This won't do,' he muttered, checking 
 himself. ' Old fools are as bad as young ones and 
 not so honest.' 
 
 Meanwhile Harlin, in an injured frame of mind, 
 walked round the house from the schoolmaster's room 
 towards the kitchen to say good-night to the Scotts. 
 
 Bess was putting the younger children to bed, and 
 Mabel looked up with a smile at Harlin 's be- 
 wildered expression as his eye fell on her sitting at 
 the end of the table playing draughts with her uncle. 
 
 Without a moon it was too rough a track that 
 led through thistles and bracken to the river, she 
 explained, so she had changed her mind about the 
 fishing ; and Rupert had just presence of mind to 
 change his before betraying his intention of immediate 
 departure. He brought a chair to the table, and was 
 silently happy, in spite of a snub he received for 
 suggesting a move to Mabel, who won the game 
 with three kings to spare. 
 
 Scott grumbled, gave several convincing reasons 
 why he should have won, and then turned his atten- 
 tion to Harlin, questioning him about his parents and 
 the station affairs with a mixture of familiarity and 
 deference which grated on Mabel, while the scarcely- 
 veiled distaste with which Rupert answered them put 
 her further on edge.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 167 
 
 , The Toland blood in her resented the difference, to 
 which she could not blind herself, between the tone 
 and station of her relative and his visitor. 
 
 ' Do stop talking about droughts and sheep,' she 
 said at last. ' I get so tired of them at home.' 
 
 ' It's the first time I ever heard you had any sheep 
 at home, my dear,' rejoined Scott. 
 
 'There are lots getting thin in our best wheat 
 paddock, and we have enough drought to make up, 
 at anyrate,' she laughed. 'Come and play me 
 draughts, Mr Harlin I'm almost sure I can beat 
 you ; and the winner can give uncle another beating.' 
 
 Harlin knew nothing about the game, but as he 
 was not anxious to win that was of small importance, 
 and he willingly took Scott's seat. They were 
 arranging the draughtsmen when the dogs roused 
 themselves and rushed barking out to. the gate. 
 
 ' Another visitor ! ' growled Scott. ' It looks as if 
 the whole country was coming down on me to-night.' 
 
 Mabel's and Rupert's eyes met in a smile of 
 sympathy. 
 
 ' Isn't that nice for you, uncle ? ' she said sweetly, 
 holding black and white men behind her back for Har- 
 lin to choose from. ' Are you going to see who it is ? ' 
 
 Scott had already gone, and Harlin was nervously 
 congratulating himself on being alone with Mabel, 
 wondering what use to make of such a boon, when it 
 was snatched from him by the re-entrance of Mrs 
 Scott, bearing marks of the final tussle with re- 
 calcitrant bed-goers. 
 
 ' They'll be the death of me ! ' she sighed. ' And 
 Georgie's really getting too big to bite.' 
 
 ' You surely don't bite him, aunt ! ' exclaimed Mabel 
 in astonished tones.
 
 1 68 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Mercy, no ! The idea ! I mean for him to be at 
 such tricks seven years old, you know, and with 
 teeth like oh, get along, Mab ! You're always 
 making fun with that solemn face.' Bess laughed, 
 joining in a merry peal from Mab and Rupert, and 
 pulled down the sleeve she was rolling up to evidence 
 Georgie's dental atrocities. 
 
 ' I beg your pardon, Aunt Bess. It is a shame to 
 tease you,' said Mabel. ' It's your move, Mr Harlin ; 
 it always is your move.' 
 
 Bess took her work-bag from a shelf and inquired 
 what had become of her husband when he and the 
 just-arrived visitor entered the room together. 
 
 ' Here's Mr Mallock has just dropped in as it were 
 to give us a look up,' said Scott, announcing his guest 
 with an embarrassed attempt at heartiness. 
 
 ' That's kind now. I'm glad to see you,' joined in 
 Bess, hospitably mendacious, shaking hands and 
 dusting a spotless chair for the visitor. 
 
 ' Thank you, ma'am,' said Mallock. ' I hoped 
 you'd take it that way. I thought to myself to-night, 
 " It's small use having good neighbours like Mr and 
 Mrs Scott if you don't sometimes drop in, and better 
 late than never ! " So, as it was a fine night, with not 
 much business doing, I just saddled my horse, and 
 here I am/ 
 
 Harlin glanced with surprise at Mabel, who had 
 swept the draughts off the board and risen from her 
 seat at the far end of the table. 
 
 ' Beast ! ' she muttered, with an angry gleam in her 
 eyes. 
 
 ' Steady,' whispered Rupert, admiringly. ' He'll 
 hear you.' 
 
 ' I don't care if he does.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 169 
 
 It did not seem that Mallock had heard. He 
 appeared to have only just become aware of the 
 young people's presence, and came towards them with 
 outstretched hand and the thick red lips parted in a 
 wider smile. 
 
 ' Well, I am in luck/ he said. ' Who'd ha' thought 
 to meet Miss Mabel and Master Rupert here ? It's 
 bringin' a lot of pretty young birds down with one 
 stone and no mistake.' 
 
 Mabel vouchsafed an unwilling ' good evening,' 
 but coldly and deliberately ignored the hand he 
 offered, keeping both her own behind her back. 
 Harlin, with less dignity, dived beneath the table in 
 search of an imaginary draughtsman, remaining there 
 chuckling to himself till the danger was past. He 
 would have readily cut Mallock in the open, but had 
 some scruples about adding a knock-out blow to 
 Mabel's, when the man was a fellow-guest, however 
 unwelcome, in another man's house. 
 
 Mallock, however, was not disconcerted. He had 
 heard that Mabel was at the farm, and to see her 
 was the purpose of his visit ; but he was aware she did 
 not like him, and, reckoning on some day making her 
 change her tune, he choked a sudden impulse of rage 
 and turned, smiling still, towards Mr and Mrs Scott. 
 
 ' I am going home, aunt,' announced Mabel, calmly. 
 
 ' Gracious, child ! it's not after nine yet, and Joe 
 won't be home for an hour.' 
 
 ' I don't care. I must set the bread or mother will 
 do it. Mr Harlin will see me home won't you ? ' 
 
 Rupert nearly jumped with delight as she turned 
 to him, but he managed to say fairly soberly that he 
 would be very pleased, and started off to get the 
 horses.
 
 1 70 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 1 1 will go with you to the stables,' said Mabel, ' if 
 you wait half a minute.' Her cap was hanging on 
 the wall. Her farewells were short Bess was 
 flustered, Scott angry, Mallock inscrutable and self- 
 contained, not risking a second snub. Scott blunder- 
 ingly suggested that Toland might not like Mabel 
 riding home alone with a young man. Mabel blushed 
 furiously, but managed to laugh. 
 
 'It's very kind of you, uncle,' she said, 'to take 
 such an interest in father's affairs, but really he can 
 manage them for himself.' 
 
 ' Much chance you give him,' muttered Scott with 
 some justice as Mabel left the room, and Mallock, 
 chuckling, said girls would be girls, and he liked a 
 filly with a bit of devil in her. 
 
 ' I hate him I can't breathe in the same room 
 with him ! ' said Mabel with a long sigh when they 
 got into the open air. 
 
 ' You certainly let him see pretty straight what you 
 thought,' laughed Harlin. 'He's a bad man to 
 offend, though.' 
 
 Mabel sniffed contemptuously. ' I'll offend who 
 I choose,' she said. 
 
 In a minute or two they had started on their ride, 
 and talked of indifferent subjects for a time, Rupert 
 despairingly watching mile after mile of his longed- 
 for opportunity go by without venturing to say 
 anything the whole world might not hear. 
 
 ' Why do you hate Mallock so awfully much ? ' he 
 asked at length. 
 
 ' For every reason.' The darkness hid her blushes. 
 She felt impelled to tell Rupert, and she continued, 
 after a pause, ' Most of all, I think, because I believe 
 he actually wants to make love to me.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU i?i 
 
 Rupert's horse gave a sudden bound, the victim of 
 a vicious stroke of the spurs intended in fancy for 
 Mallock. 
 
 ' The old blackguard ! ' he said. ' I can scarcely 
 even imagine him daring.' Then, with a nervous 
 gulp, ' You wouldn't hate everyone who fell in love 
 with you, would you?' 
 
 ' No one else ever has,' answered Mabel, non- 
 committingly. 
 
 ' Yes, they have. I have,' he said boldly, the words 
 coming freely enough now, 'ever so much and for 
 ever.' He reined his horse closer to Mabel's and 
 tried to sse into her face, which she kept turned away. 
 She laughed softly, but said nothing till Rupert broke 
 in again hotly. ' Will you only laugh ? Am I not 
 even worth answering ? ' 
 
 ' I only laughed because it seems so queer,' she 
 said. ' I like you very much, but it's silly to talk 
 about like you did, you know. You are only a boy.' 
 
 ' I am twenty.' 
 
 ' Well, that's not very old. You're the dearest boy 
 I know, Rupert, but that's because ' 
 
 ' Never mind why say " and always will be," ' broke 
 in Rupert, catching her bridle hand in his fingers, 
 ' and I will be satisfied.' 
 
 ' But how do I know ? ' she laughed. 
 
 'Just say it, and I will trust you to know.' 
 
 ' And always will be,' she murmured in a rather 
 tremulous voice. ' I don't know you are silly to 
 make me say it,' and, snatching her hand away, she 
 whipped her horse into a canter. 
 
 There was no chance to say anything more for a 
 time, and Rupert, in a glow of happiness, felt that 
 having gained so much it was wise to be content.
 
 1 72 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 When their horses fell into a walk again, Mabel 
 herself returned to the subject, and her quiet, womanly 
 voice, in spite of his three years' seniority, almost 
 overawed Rupert. 
 
 ' Uncle George was right,' she said. ' Father will be 
 angry at your riding home with me and would be 
 angrier still if he knew what we had been saying.' 
 
 Rupert made a gesture of impatience. 
 
 ' I don't myself think parents or anyone else have a 
 right to stop people liking each other if they are nice,' 
 she continued, ' but ' with a sigh ' it's not only my 
 father and mother. There are your people they 
 might only laugh now, but you know how angry 
 they'd be if you were a little older and you told them 
 you liked me.' 
 
 ' Not mother,' he answered with assurance. ' Dad, 
 perhaps but poor old dad, you know or at least 
 you don't know ' 
 
 ' Yes, I do,' she said softly ; ' and I'm sorry. That's 
 another reason you oughtn't to offend him. You 
 must promise me not to say anything like this oh, 
 for ages to come.' 
 
 ' I promise,' he said, ' and I couldn't for a long 
 time, except in letters, because I'm going to England 
 next week.' 
 
 Mabel's cheeks suddenly lost their colour and, in 
 spite of an effort to prevent it, her voice trembled. 
 
 * Why didn't you tell me before ? ' she asked. 
 
 ' Because I wasn't going to come trying to sneak 
 you into liking me because I wasn't there and it 
 wouldn't be much trouble,' he answered, with a 
 meaning clear enough in his own mind, which Mabel 
 seemed to grasp. 
 
 She made no comment but thought her own,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 173 
 
 thoughts for a time and then broke her own 
 compact. 
 
 ' I expect when you see all the girls in England 
 and everywhere you'll forget all about me.' 
 
 There followed a torrent of protestation which she 
 had no excuse to stop, and which was at least ex- 
 citing and flattering to hear. She told him how 
 longingly she envied him the delights of travel and 
 university life before settling down upon the station, 
 and he said there was no need for envy, for some day 
 they should go again and see all that he had seen 
 together, and after all he was only a child as she 
 had herself said and would not appreciate it yet. 
 Mabel tried to make him understand that it was 
 his youth she had been insisting on ; and, in light- 
 hearted, laughing dispute the miles flew by like 
 one. 
 
 Harlin said he would ride back to Scott's and spend 
 the night there, and Mabel felt with a new bitterness 
 that only misconceptions and narrowness prevented 
 her from offering him the hospitality of her own 
 home. In an hour's ride so many individual rights 
 and claims seemed to have sprung into existence. 
 
 Rupert rode with her to the harness-room door to 
 take the saddle off her horse. He knew it would 
 be fatal to ask permission he guessed she would 
 be angry but, deciding it worth the risk, when she 
 gave him her hand to say good-night, his other arm 
 went round her neck, and raising her face to his he 
 kissed her. 
 
 ' Good-bye, dear Mab,' he whispered ; and leaping 
 on his horse was gone before she could reproach him 
 or protest.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DECEMBER, January and February passed with 
 molten skies from which the sun blazed down in all- 
 consuming wrath, so that it seemed as if the world 
 must shrivel up like paper drawn through flame. 
 Grass became innutritious straw, creeks turned into 
 hot shingle beds, bottoms of dams and water-holes 
 baked hard with sun-cracks which divided them into 
 little squares. Even the song of the Tonga was still. 
 Its loud murmur could no longer be heard in the hush 
 of evening or the silence of night ; for where once the 
 river flowed in exuberant mirth, there was now only 
 a chain of water-holes growing green with slime. The 
 forest trees dropped and exotics died. Men became 
 sapless, but still worked on, fated to toil everlastingly, 
 heedless alike of summer blaze or wintry storm. 
 
 March came, and the air turned sultry and more 
 oppressive, and life was even less endurable. 
 
 At least, so thought Ruth as she sat in the shade 
 of what leaves the locusts had left on the elms, and 
 wondered if the sun would ever go down behind the 
 hills and relief come from the fiery torment. So she 
 sat and thought for an hour with some needlework 
 lying untouched on her lap, when diversion came in 
 the person of Conyngham, who rode up, attended by 
 a vast and persistent convoy of flies, which he tried 
 in vain to swish away with a piece of wattle branch. 
 He tied his horse in a shady spot and entered the 
 little brown garden.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 175 
 
 ' Good-day, Mrs Toland. I see you haven't aban- 
 doned hope of keeping cool.' 
 
 Ruth gave him a welcoming smile. 'Well, it's 
 almost hopeless. I'm just waiting for the sun to go 
 down. Won't you get yourself a chair? I think 
 this is the coolest spot to be found.' 
 
 ' This will do, thank you,' he replied, as he sat on 
 the ground facing her and leant against the trunk of 
 the tree. ' Where is your good man ? ' 
 
 ' He is away, poor fellow, with Joe. They've gone 
 to drag a bullock out of a water-hole where it got 
 bogged and hadn't strength to move.' 
 
 ' What hard luck ! Have the stock become as 
 weak as that ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ; they seem to be nothing but skin and bone. 
 It's dreadfully sad to see the poor brutes standing 
 with their heads down and the crows hovering over 
 them. John is afraid they will nearly all die during 
 the winter if they live till then.' 
 
 ' It's hard luck, and no mistake,' reiterated Conyng- 
 ham. ' I suppose he's very cut up ? ' 
 
 ' He must be,' replied Ruth, ' but he says very little 
 about it, and is much more cheerful than I thought 
 he would be. He just works as if nothing particular 
 were happening, though he is more silent than 
 usual.' 
 
 ' You may be sure that whatever happens he will 
 fight it out to the end,' said Conyngham, pensively, 
 crushing a bull-dog ant that had crawled upon his 
 boot. 
 
 ' Yes, he would make a good soldier,' said Ruth. 
 
 'Oh, I don't think much of a soldier's bravery. 
 Trumpet and drums, honour and glory, excitement 
 and desire to kill make an ordinary man fit to do
 
 i 7 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 anything. But no ordinary man can fight the fight 
 in the solitude of the bush without a murmur.' 
 
 ' Yes ; it is hard,' said Ruth, looking pleased at her 
 husband's commendation. 'Yet, all the same/ she 
 continued after a pause, 'I think it must require 
 some bravery to be a soldier.' 
 
 'Some, perhaps,' assented Conyngham, as he 
 watched a smoke ring rise from his pipe ; ' but I can 
 almost imagine myself, when intoxicated with the 
 devilry of it all, being so foolish as to rush into 
 danger on a battlefield, whereas, if I were in your 
 husband's place, I should just sit down, light my 
 pipe and let the place go to well, what it is very 
 like at present, with the thermometer at a hundred 
 and four in the shade.' 
 
 ' I don't think that,' said Ruth, smiling. ' You 
 would not like the idea of failing in what you had at- 
 tempted ; it is a matter of pride as well as courage.' 
 
 ' You think not ? ' Conyngham replied with a tinge 
 of bitterness in his tone. ' I am afraid that you flatter 
 me and that I am a very complacent failure as it is. 
 Fortune dealt me one hard blow, and I turned and 
 fled until I found a spot where not even the faintest 
 echo could reach me from the battlefield where I 
 couldn't even hear as a murmur " the shouting of the 
 captains and the men-at-arms." ' 
 
 ' Do you never repent it ? ' asked Ruth, looking up 
 from her needlework into Conyngham's face. 
 
 A cynical reply came to his lips, but he raised his 
 eyes at that moment and met her sympathetically- 
 questioning look. 
 
 ' Sometimes.' 
 
 ' Then why do you not return ? ' 
 
 He looked at her and smiled.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 177 
 
 ' That question requires a little self-analysis to 
 answer. In the first place, I am indolent and hate 
 change ; in the second, the bush holds me in its thrall. 
 I came to rest for a breathing space, but it looks like 
 lengthening out to include my life. Sometimes I 
 think I'll go, but get tired of the idea before giving 
 effect to it. I know I am weak weak as a woman 
 who shuts herself up in a nunnery to escape the strife 
 of the world. But after all it's of no consequence. 
 Excuse so long an explanation over so small a matter, 
 but I had to find some excuse for not ridding you of 
 me when you seem to think I should.' 
 
 ' Don't say that, Mr Conyngham,' said Ruth, de- 
 precatingly. ' You know we should miss you dread- 
 fully if you left. Talking to you is about the only 
 pleasure John has though I'm afraid sometimes you 
 put dangerous ideas into his head.' 
 
 ' Those dangerous ideas are prompted by his heart, 
 and at most I help to show how they are supported 
 by the head.' 
 
 ' And then there is Mab. She wouldn't know 
 what to do with herself if you didn't teach her to 
 take an interest in many things. The daughters of 
 the farmers about are all trying to get employment 
 in Melbourne as domestic servants or factory girls, 
 and after all, considering the lives they lead, one 
 cannot blame them for wanting to leave their homes.' 
 
 ' Well, Mab will never be a domestic servant or a 
 factory girl,' said Conyngham with a smile, as he 
 thought of his fascinating and masterful young pupil. 
 ' I prophesy some fairer fortune for her.' 
 
 ' I don't know how it is to come to her, poor child,' 
 sighed Ruth. ' The lot of a selector's daughter isn't a 
 very happy one. Mab's is better than most, of course, 
 
 M
 
 1 78 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 since she doesn't have to slave at milking and things 
 of that kind. Her father says he doesn't want 
 women farm-hands. But still there are no amuse- 
 ments, no social intercourse and no light-heartedness 
 anywhere.' 
 
 ' That's true,' said Conyngham, ' and the education 
 provided by the State is just sufficient to make them 
 discontented with a purely animal life without supply- 
 ing a fund for the mind's self-support. It enables 
 them to read of the pomps and vanities of the 
 wicked world beyond the little clearing, and naturally, 
 having inherited the spirit of their parents, they want 
 to be off to where they fondly believe fortunes are to 
 be won and some happiness to be obtained.' 
 
 ' Don't you think that if they had altogether the 
 spirit of their fathers they would stay ? ' said Ruth. 
 
 ' No, I think not. It would be demanding more of 
 the children than was required of the fathers. Things 
 are changed since the days when the pioneers settled 
 in the land. They did so, flushed with hopes of in- 
 dependence and prosperity. Those hopes have 
 largely vanished now, but the never-ending, joyless 
 toil remains. This is the heritage the children find 
 themselves born to ; and no wonder they are eager to 
 relinquish it for the first mess of more highly-seasoned 
 pottage with which they are tempted.' 
 
 'You do not encourage me much as to the 
 future of my children,' said Ruth, with a sad smile. 
 ' Do you include them among the others ? ' 
 
 ' Not altogether. Joe may be true to his juvenile 
 intention of becoming a trooper, but I have greater 
 hopes for Mab.' 
 
 ' What are they ? Do tell me.' 
 
 'Well, you are imposing on me a distinctly
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 179 
 
 feminine task, and making me avow speculations 
 that are incongruous in a gloomy misogynist, but 
 I must admit that I have foreseen the possibility 
 of Mab's being one day the mistress of Kumbarra.' 
 
 Ruth dropped her needlework and pondered, 
 looking at the far-off purple hills. 
 
 ' Do you think there is anything in that, then ? ' 
 she said presently. ' I mean that Mab and Rupert 
 Harlin are in love with each other.' 
 
 Conyngham meditatively enveloped himself in a 
 cloud of smoke, seeming to gain inspiration there- 
 from like a priestess of Apollo. It was a habit with 
 him, whenever he spoke on any subject dealing with 
 human emotions, to enshroud himself in tobacco 
 smoke and his thoughts in verbiage. 
 
 ' Now you ask me a question that I find difficult 
 to answer, because I cannot possibly conceive the 
 essentials of that condition. Nor would I dare to 
 affirm that, given they were in love with each other, 
 as you term it, that they would consequently marry. 
 My chief experience in such matters has been of 
 a woman in love with one man marrying another. 
 Consequently, you must acquit me of the foolishness 
 of deducting matrimony from the premise love. I 
 prefer to leave love out of the question, as neither 
 here nor there, and find the probability of what I 
 have suggested in the often-observed result of en- 
 vironment, contiguity and natural proneness to folly 
 in the young.' 
 
 Ruth smiled as she gradually unravelled his 
 speech, and came to the conclusion that it all meant 
 nothing. 
 
 ' Well,' she said, ' I never really thought of it as 
 probable, and hope it is not the case ; for her father
 
 i8o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 would be furious if he thought Mab had encouraged 
 him.' 
 
 'That I am sure she has never done. In fact, 
 I fancy she has considerably reduced the young 
 gentleman, for whom I have a great liking, in his 
 own estimation. He's safe in England now, but 
 he has a steadfast sort of nature, and I shouldn't 
 be surprised if you have to get your husband to 
 abandon his resentment for the sake of his daughter.' 
 
 ' I'm afraid I never could at anyrate not with- 
 out your assistance.' 
 
 ' My services as a matrimonial agent are always 
 at your disposal. I see your husband coming and 
 will go and meet him.' 
 
 Conyngham rose and looked at Ruth for a 
 moment while her eyes were searching for her 
 husband. ' Toujours votre serviteur, madame,' he 
 said in an undertone, as he raised his hat. Then 
 he turned and walked away in his customary long 
 stride, with his eyes fixed on the ground. 
 
 Ruth watched the retreating figure for a few seconds. 
 
 1 What a strange man and what a ruined life ! ' 
 she said musingly, as she remembered how every 
 now and then in their conversation a grief, repressed 
 and crushed out of sight, had almost revealed itself 
 through the mists of expression. Then her thoughts 
 wandered on to what Conyngham had said of Mab 
 and Rupert, and, in spite of the barriers in the way, 
 she could not help feeling glad, as Conyngham 
 had intended she should, and she hoped that he 
 might be right. 
 
 There was no time to think of it further, for 
 Toland and Conyngham were walking up from the 
 stable to join her.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 181 
 
 When they were some distance off she saw the 
 former stop and point to a far-away range. 
 
 Wondering what it was that interested them, she 
 rose and looked in the same direction. Toland, 
 however, was only pointing out to his companion 
 a pillar of smoke that had been rising for days 
 past from the Wallaby Table Lands. 
 
 She knew there was nothing to fear as her husband 
 had told her it was fifty miles away at least. She 
 would not have felt so satisfied if she had heard 
 the conversation. 
 
 ' It draws a little closer every day,' Toland was 
 saying. ' I'm told it is off the Table Land and has 
 started to make its way down the ranges towards 
 the valley. We shall have to do something before 
 long.' 
 
 ' Well, John, dear, have you had a very miserable 
 day ? ' she asked, as the two men approached. 
 
 ' Not too pleasant,' he replied, mopping his head. 
 
 ' You didn't find any more dead ones ? ' she asked 
 anxiously. 
 
 1 Only five.' 
 
 ' How dreadful ! ' 
 
 ' I suppose it's no use selling stock now,' said 
 Conyngham. 
 
 'At the last market,' replied Toland, 'sheep sold 
 for a shilling a head and steers for a few shillings. 
 The graziers on the table lands are killing their stock 
 for the hides and the farmers on the plains have to 
 cart water thirty miles.' 
 
 ' It's a bad lookout certainly,' said Conyngham. 
 ' This is March, and we've only had a shower since 
 the beginning of October.' 
 
 ' Well, let's hope things will be better after the day
 
 1 82 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 of humiliation and prayer I see the Government has 
 appointed,' said Toland, sardonically. ' For my part 
 I'd rather be cheered up than humiliated any more; 
 and as for praying, I find more relief in cursing. 
 How long will it be to supper, missis?' 
 
 ' Mab is seeing about it now, and as the sun is 
 down I'll help her to get it at once.' 
 
 'Come and have a wash,' said Toland, as Ruth 
 left them. 'There's only stagnant water in the 
 creek, but the well is still going. By Heaven, it 
 was beastly work pulling that rotting carrion out 
 of the mud. The stench turned Joe up. It's a 
 great thing to be a farmer, and no mistake ! ' 
 
 At supper Conyngham entertained them, as he 
 was in the habit of doing, with news of the outside 
 world culled from the papers and magazines. He 
 took a delight in starting a general discussion and 
 in summing up with some startling dictum contrary 
 to all sane views held on the subject. It amused 
 Toland and always annoyed Scott, who liked every- 
 body to be practical and unoriginal. Mab enjoyed 
 it too, for she dearly loved making fun of everything 
 herself, and knew that this was Conyngham's way of 
 doing it. 
 
 After supper the two men went out on the verandah 
 to smoke, and later on Ruth joined them. Just as 
 she was going to sit down something caught her 
 attention. 
 
 1 Look, John ! ' she exclaimed, pointing towards the 
 range. ' There is the fire ; we can see it now.' 
 
 Toland and Conyngham turned round. 
 
 1 By Jove ! ' exclaimed Toland, ' so we can. This 
 is the first night we've seen it It must be coming 
 down the range.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 183 
 
 'What a spread it has,' said Conyngham, as he 
 looked at the thin line of flame that ran mile upon 
 mile along the brow of the distant hills. 
 
 ' Twenty miles at least,' said Toland. 
 
 ' Oh, I hope it won't come down on to the river,' 
 exclaimed Ruth, fervently. ' It's dreadful to think of 
 its drawing closer and closer every night.' 
 
 'We'll have to stop it before it does that,' said 
 Toland. 
 
 1 Perhaps we shall have rain soon,' suggested 
 Conyngham. 
 
 ' I do hope so,' sighed Ruth ; ' but I'm almost 
 beginning to despair of ever seeing rain again.' 
 
 ' Don't worry, missis,' said Toland, laying his hand 
 on her shoulder. ' Come and sit with us while we 
 smoke and yarn, and we'll forget about droughts and 
 fires.' 
 
 Meanwhile Mab and Joe played cribbage. 
 
 ' Fifteen two, fifteen four, fifteen six, fifteen eight 
 and a pair, that makes ten. I'm out and you're 
 licked again, Mab.' 
 
 ' You do have luck, Joe, but come on, I'll play you 
 again.' 
 
 ' Not now. I'm going to set possum traps in the 
 orchard. Come along with us.' 
 
 ' I hate you to set traps for the poor old possums ; 
 it's so cruel to leave them all night when they're 
 caught.' 
 
 ' Well, they shouldn't come and steal our apples 
 and anyhow, it isn't so bad as having your eyes 
 picked out alive by the crows like the bullocks when 
 they get down. As you're so mighty particular it's 
 a good job you didn't come out with dad and me 
 to-day.'
 
 1 84 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' I'm glad I didn't, but you needn't tell me about 
 it. That would be worse. 1 
 
 ' Five of 'em. They'd have come out on their own 
 hook if they'd been left much longer, although they 
 were dead.' 
 
 ' Don't be disgusting, Joe,' said Mab, putting her 
 fingers in her ears. 
 
 ' Come on,' he said, pulling her hands down. ' I'll 
 make you a muff of the best skins I get.' 
 
 Mab yielded to the temptation, and as they went 
 the sound of their voices and merry laughter helped 
 Toland and Ruth to forget for a while their gathering 
 misfortunes.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE day that followed Conyngham's visit to the 
 farm deepened the feeling of anxiety in Ruth's mind, 
 for that night showed the long line of fire closer. 
 Now, too, a flaming area could be seen after the sun 
 had gone down, thousands of acres glowing red on 
 the hillside. 
 
 The wind was blowing from the fire, and dense 
 masses of smoke rolled down and settled in the 
 valley below. The sun was obscured and looked 
 like a red toy balloon hung aloft. Darkness fell 
 upon the land so that nothing could be seen beyond 
 a couple of hundred yards. 
 
 The hills were blotted out, the birds never sang, 
 and all sounds of life were hushed. The smoke 
 made the eyes smart; its pungent smell never left 
 the nostrils ; it caused a feeling of suffocation in 
 the lungs; in the cottage it filled the rooms. So 
 gradually the fire crept down the range ; but as yet 
 nothing could be done, for it was coming before the 
 wind. Then at last the wind blew from the south, 
 and word was sent round that a 'break' would be 
 burnt at night to head off the fire from the farms in 
 the valley. So long as it was confined to the hills 
 and the green timber, where there was no settlement, 
 it could do no harm, but it was rapidly approaching 
 the farming area below, where, amongst the ringed 
 timber, it would become uncontrollable as the tides 
 of the ocean. 
 
 185
 
 1 86 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Toland set out before sundown for O'Brien's 
 selection at the foot of the ranges, the appointed 
 place of meeting and the first farm threatened. 
 When he arrived he found about twenty men at 
 supper in the kitchen. He was surprised to find 
 neither Scott nor Conyngham present, but learnt 
 that they were with a party burning a break lower 
 down. 
 
 O'Brien gave him a cordial welcome and explained 
 the proposed plan of operations. An advance guard 
 of the fire was making its way down a spur in front 
 of the main body and it was imperative to head it 
 off before the wind changed again. As the farm 
 ran to the foot of the ranges, it was necessary to 
 climb for a few hundred yards before starting the 
 break, so that in case of the fire getting away it 
 could be beaten out before it reached the land on 
 which dead trees stood close and dry kangaroo 
 grass covered the fallen timber. 
 
 When the party reached the spot selected for a 
 start, branches were cut from saplings and the 
 leafy boughs bound together for the purpose of 
 beating out the flames. Then O'Brien gathered and 
 lit a bunch of dry bracken, and ran with it trailing 
 in the grass. When he stopped another did the 
 same ahead of him, and immediately a line of fire 
 blazed up for fifty paces. The beaters rushed in and 
 thrashed out the slow advance down the hill against 
 the wind, whilst flames rolled away before it, leaving 
 the ground, between the great fire and the farm, 
 burnt and bare. 
 
 When that section had been secured the trail was 
 run on again, and the fire again beaten out At first 
 the work was easy, for the ground was stony, with
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 187 
 
 little grass, and the wind blew steadily from the 
 south. But soon the trail, which was run as nearly 
 as possible parallel with the bush fire, passed into 
 long grass and bracken, and then the work began in 
 deadly earnest. The undergrowth flashed into flames 
 that leapt up ten feet or more, and each beater could 
 only rush in and make a few strokes before being 
 compelled to fall back. Sometimes, too, the wind 
 changed and blew the smoke and flames towards the 
 men ; but nevertheless the fire had to be beaten out 
 before it escaped beyond control ; and beards were 
 singed, shirts burnt into holes, and lungs filled to 
 suffocation with the smoke. 
 
 Scarcely a word was uttered except when the boys 
 were cursed for not being at hand with the water 
 buckets, or someone shouted in desperation to the 
 fire-runners for a spell. As the trail extended in 
 length men were left behind to patrol the work 
 already done, in case some smouldering embers should 
 break into flame and send the fire sweeping down the 
 range. Sometimes a cooey was heard from the 
 watchers, betokening that such a break-away had got 
 beyond control, and others ran back to assist. 
 
 Deep gullies had to be crossed, where a foothold 
 was scarcely obtainable by men well nigh dropping 
 from exhaustion, and belts so dense and inflammable 
 that only a few yards could be fired at a stretch. By 
 midnight two miles had been run, but the need to 
 press on was now more urgent than ever. Ahead 
 the great fire could be seen beating down the range, 
 and the trail had to be run quicker still to intercept 
 it. So the fight grew fiercer, and the men, now black 
 as stokers, fought like devils amidst the flames of the 
 Inferno. The sight was magnificent. Behind the
 
 X 88 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 forest lay dark and glowing where not lit by the 
 lurid light of towering flames. In front and stretch- 
 ing for miles the fires raced to meet each other. In 
 the long grass and bracken they burned savagely. 
 Green scrub crackled and flashed ; the flames ran up 
 huge dead trees to their topmost heights and turned 
 the trunks into pillars of fire, while the branches 
 crashed down amid showers of sparks. The noise of 
 the conflagration was terrific. Trees fell with a loud 
 boom, and the swirl of the flames in the wind was 
 accompanied by a hungry roar. For another mile 
 the trail was continued, and then, the bush fire being 
 headed, it was run into a gully with water at the 
 bottom of it, and work was suspended for the night. 
 The men threw themselves down in the grass for 
 a while, and the first light of dawn was in the sky 
 when they tramped wearily back to O'Brien's. 
 
 It was after six o'clock when Toland rode away. 
 The sun had risen, the heat was already overpower- 
 ing, and his brain reeled with exhaustion, so that he 
 wondered vaguely if the world was going to be dis- 
 solved in flames. The day passed wretchedly away, 
 and that night no one went to bed at the farm, for it 
 was useless to try and sleep while sweltering in a 
 temperature of a hundred degrees, below which the 
 thermometer never sank. Ruth and Mab sat in easy- 
 chairs on the verandah, while Toland and Joe 
 stretched themselves on the floor. No one spoke, 
 but every now and then one of the little group rose 
 to get a drink from the canvas water-bag hanging up 
 on the verandah post. Want of sleep, inability to 
 eat, the smoke in the lungs, and the sinking feeling 
 in the pit of the stomach, caused by physical collapse, 
 all went to cause an insatiable thirst. Toland, who
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 189 
 
 was completely prostrated, felt he did not care what 
 happened. All he knew was that in a few hours' time 
 he would go out again and fight the fire. The eyes 
 of the little group were fixed in one direction across 
 the narrow gulf of darkness to the hell on the 
 range. Mile upon mile the cordon of fire stretched 
 away to the north. Forty miles it had now advanced 
 from its starting-point on its march of desolation, 
 leaving in its track but smouldering ruins of forest, 
 farm and homestead, with here and there little white 
 heaps of ash that betokened where a living creature 
 had melted into flame. That night more than ever 
 its grandeur was apparent, and in the rising north 
 wind it appeared as if enraged that its progress had 
 been barred by the efforts of puny men. From the 
 base to the tops of the hills the bank of fire rose a 
 thousand feet, the topmost flames appearing to leap 
 into the lurid clouds on the skyline. 
 
 Mab and Joe wondered if the end of the world was 
 approaching, and thinking of the fate of Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, added a suitable prayer to their customary 
 ones. Ruth, when she gazed at the mighty furnace, 
 thought of the brave, overwrought men fighting in 
 its face for the preservation of their homes, and re- 
 membered with a dread that in a few hours' time her 
 husband would go to a worse fight still, when the 
 blazing sun would make the work a long-drawn 
 agony. About two o'clock she and Mab went inside 
 to lie down, leaving Toland and Joe on the verandah, 
 where they remained till dawn. At six they had 
 breakfast together, and at nine Toland set out again 
 to take his place in the relief of the fire-fighters of 
 the night. By that time the north wind was sweep- 
 ing in terrific gusts down the valley, scorching hot
 
 1 90 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 from the torrid deserts of Central Australia and 
 from the fires it had passed in its course. It heated 
 and shrivelled the lungs, dried the skin and the 
 saliva from the mouth. It howled through the 
 ringed trees wild with hot, ravening rage. Its voice 
 was that of an avenging fury crying woe and 
 desolation to the land. It tore along as the 
 harbinger of destruction the proclaimer of ruin at 
 hand. Great now was Toland's fear lest the fire 
 should break from the forest on the hills, where it 
 had so far been retained, on to the ringed country in 
 the valley. He could not see the position of the 
 fire, for the smoke, swept along in mighty volumes 
 towards him by the wind, obliterated everything 
 further distant than one hundred yards. Showers of 
 burnt and scorched leaves were falling around the 
 cottage like flakes of black snow, and a charred piece 
 of bark that he picked up was still hot. By the 
 constant dropping the cultivation paddocks, which at 
 one time were white with the trampled straw of the 
 ill-fated crops, had been turned to a dun colour. 
 
 At first Toland rode slowly, but gradually anxiety 
 possessed him, and he spurred his horse into a canter. 
 A mile from the cottage he passed on to the main 
 road and slackened pace, so that he might fill his 
 pipe. Then he heard the sound of a horse galloping 
 towards him, and a second later a man rode out of 
 the smoke haze. He was beside Toland before they 
 recognised each other. 
 
 4 Conyngham ! What's the matter ? ' 
 
 'Bad news, old man. The fire has broken away. 
 It's in the rung country. It has swept away Thomson's 
 and is travelling towards us like hell on wings.' 
 
 'Have you been in it?' asked Toland, as he saw
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 191 
 
 Conyngham's shirt had been burnt in half a dozen 
 places. 
 
 'Very near it. It's on the road not a mile from 
 here. There's no time to lose.' 
 
 ' Is it any use going forward ? ' 
 
 ' None. It's flying from tree to tree, taking leaps 
 of a hundred paces. Gallop back and save your 
 family; that's the most you can do.' 
 
 ' The house ought to be safe,' said Toland, as he 
 turned and spurred his horse. ' I burnt a break 
 round it some time ago.' 
 
 ' It's useless, with the dead timber round. 
 Thomson's house was fired from a tree a couple of 
 hundred yards away. You can't leave them there.' 
 
 After that the two men galloped on in silence, 
 turning their heads every now and then to see if 
 the advancing line of fire were yet visible. 
 
 Soon they reached the cottage, where they found 
 Ruth and the two children in dread and expectancy 
 watching the wall of darkness grow nearer. As 
 Toland and Conyngham galloped out from it into 
 sight safe and unharmed a great wave of thankful- 
 ness flooded Ruth's heart. Toland quickly told her 
 what he knew. The smoke each moment grew denser. 
 Everything was enveloped, and for all they could 
 tell the fire might be only a hundred yards away. 
 The men flung themselves from the horses. At a 
 word from his father Joe led them away to the creek, 
 and Toland turned to Conyngham. ' The cottage is 
 not safe,' he said, pointing at the dead trees close by. 
 ' Ruth, you and Mab must go down into the potato 
 patch and stay by the creek till the fire has passed.' 
 
 'What are you going to do? You must come 
 too.'
 
 1 9 2 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 ' Not yet. I must stay here and see if I can save 
 the place.' 
 
 ' I'll stay with you/ said Conyngham. 
 
 1 Go at once, Ruth,' said Toland. ' It can't be far 
 off and keep Joe with you. If I want him I'll 
 call.' 
 
 Ruth longed to stay with her husband, but she 
 knew she could help best by obeying him, and 
 taking Mab's hand she drew her away from the 
 cottage. 
 
 Toland and Conyngham carried some of the 
 furniture and most precious belongings out of the 
 house on to the bare ground in front, and then 
 hurried away to the bark shed, whence they dragged 
 out the cart and buggy and the reaper, as they would 
 be safer anywhere than under the inflammable roof. 
 It was too late to do more, for the fire was upon them, 
 and they retreated to guard the cottage. They 
 could see the line of fire now as it swept forward, 
 crackling and roaring in the straw and dry grass and 
 blazing up every here and there into red pillars of 
 flame. On it came to within thirty paces and then 
 was checked by the fire break. Round the little 
 clearing it swept, till it had surrounded it on every 
 side, and then rushed onward and away. Toland and 
 Conyngham lay with their faces on the ground and 
 gasped for breath in the agonies of suffocation. The 
 heat was intolerable, but as the inflammable matter 
 on the ground quickly burnt out, their condition 
 improved. But the real danger was now beginning. 
 Already the great forest trees were blazing from butt 
 to topmost limb, sending down cascades of sparks. 
 Up other trees, hollow in the centre, the wind and 
 fire roared as through a funnel, carrying red-hot
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 193 
 
 ashes high into the air. They fell in showers upon 
 the clearing, and the two men gazed at the bark 
 roof in dismay, knowing that the first spark that 
 lighted there meant the destruction of the home. 
 Then Toland got a ladder and mounted on the ridge 
 of the roof, and Conyngham drew buckets of water 
 from the well and handed them to him to dash upon 
 the bark. They had hardly begun when smoke rose 
 from the roof of the shed, and a minute later the 
 whole structure burst into flames. Nothing could be 
 done. Only Conyngham worked harder hauling 
 water from the well, blinded with smoke and sweat 
 though he was, and almost fainting from exhaustion. 
 Relief, however, came to him from an unexpected 
 quarter as Joe suddenly made his appearance. 
 
 ' I'll give you a hand, sir,' he said, gasping for breath. 
 
 ' What are you here for ? Why did you leave your 
 mother ? ' 
 
 ' They are all right in the creek and I was not 
 going to be out of the fun. Isn't it awful, though ? ' 
 
 ' You'd better carry the buckets to your father.' 
 
 ' Let me draw, sir. The old man can't see me here, 
 and he might send me back if he did.' 
 
 But even Joe's valuable assistance was not to be of 
 much avail. A hollow tree not forty yards away had 
 caught fire and was belching forth showers of sparks 
 right over the cottage. Again and again the roof 
 began to smoulder, and Toland, nearly blinded and 
 maddened by the smoke, each time drenched the 
 spot with water. Once he had just emptied one 
 bucket, and the second had not been handed to him, 
 when a spark fell on the roof a few feet below. 
 Immediately the bark began to smoulder, but before 
 it could burst into flames he lent over and crushed it 
 
 N
 
 i 94 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 with his hand. A Berserker rage was upon him. He 
 intended to save the home he had built with his own 
 hands which was endeared to him by a thousand 
 ties. So he clenched his teeth, and, heedless of the 
 agony in his scorched hands, smoke-laden lungs and 
 tortured eyes, fought like a demon in his element. 
 
 Conyngham and Joe were staggering with ex- 
 haustion when the end came. A limb broke from 
 the tree and a flight of sparks soaring into the air 
 was carried by the wind over the cottage. In a 
 second the roof smouldered in half a dozen places. 
 Toland threw what water he had here and there, 
 but a spot burst into flames just below him. He had 
 no water left, and, ferocious with despair, he tore at 
 the sheet of bark, thinking to remove it from its 
 fastening and throw it to the ground. But the great 
 sheet was immovable, and the flames licked the hair 
 from his arms as he tugged, and the smoke made him 
 groan. Along the roof the fire sped and in a second 
 he looked as he knelt on the ridge like a martyr at 
 the stake. 
 
 Conyngham shouted to him to come down before 
 too late, while Joe burst into tears. But he either 
 did not hear them in the roar of the wind and the 
 flames, or heeded not, for he only groped here and 
 there with his hands but did not move. 
 
 Conyngham rushed to the ladder and carried it to 
 the side of the roof that was not yet in flames, and, 
 running up, seized Toland and dragged him down. 
 The latter did not utter a word and seemed too 
 dazed to help himself, whilst his burnt hands were 
 incapable of holding the rungs of the ladder. 
 
 Conyngham steadied Toland as he slid down the 
 roof, and as the eaves were only seven feet from the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 195 
 
 ground he was able to let him down without injury 
 and lead him a few paces away. And none too soon, 
 for the roof was now blazing from end to end and 
 the whole cottage enveloped in flames. 
 
 ' Come farther away,' shouted Conyngham. 
 
 Toland put out his hands in front of him and 
 staggered towards the flames. 
 
 ' What are you doing ? Do you want to be burnt 
 alive ? ' cried Conyngham, .pulling him back. 
 
 ' Give me your hand,' said Toland, hoarsely. 
 ' Can't you see I'm blind ? ' 
 
 Conyngham took him by the arm and dragged 
 him away, followed by Joe. 
 
 ' We'll go to your wife,' he said. 
 
 ' Is it all over ? ' asked Toland. 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 Then he turned and let Conyngham lead him 
 across the smouldering track of the fire to the 
 potato patch at the creek side, where Ruth and 
 Mab were waiting in an agony of sorrow. 
 
 When Ruth saw her husband's fire-blasted face 
 she found it hard to control a frenzy of grief, and 
 hung upon him, sobbing. 
 
 ' It's nothing,' he said. ' It was a good fight. I'll 
 be able to see soon.' 
 
 Conyngham, too, assured her that men's eyes re- 
 covered from the smoke blindness, and, there being 
 nothing further to be done, they sat down together 
 in silence whilst the wind howled by and swept the 
 fire on to complete the work of desolation. 
 
 After weary hours had passed, Conyngham 
 suggested that Mab and Ruth should mount the 
 two horses and that they should all make their way 
 through the burnt area to the Scotts, who, he thought,
 
 196 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 had escaped, being well to the north of the point 
 
 at which the fire had broken away. Ruth and Mab 
 
 were put on the horses. Conyngham led Toland, 
 
 and Joe piloted the way amongst the burning timber. 
 
 When they passed the cottage Ruth felt almost 
 
 glad that her husband could not see, for a few 
 
 smouldering logs were all that remained of the home 
 
 consecrated by happy memories. The smoke seemed 
 
 to rise as from a funeral pyre on which a loved one 
 
 had perished, and she wept as she passed. When 
 
 they got to the road they found it almost impassable 
 
 for the fallen timber, and their progress was slow 
 
 amongst the ashes, smoke and flames. 
 
 Late in the afternoon the sorrowful pilgrimage 
 came to an end and they found shelter at the Scotts.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 FOR days after the fire Toland's thoughts scarcely 
 dwelt a moment on the wreck of his material 
 prospects, for he was living in a fever of alternate 
 hope and despair of his wife's recovery from an illness 
 brought on by the shock and strain of the bush fires, 
 winding up with the terrible hours of the refuge in the 
 creek. The chill which she made light of at first could 
 no longer be resisted when it developed into inflamma- 
 tion of the lungs, and the doctor from Tongalong in- 
 formed Toland he must be prepared for the worst, as 
 his wife was thoroughly run down and had no reserves 
 of strength to draw upon. There seemed indeed no 
 hope, and for hours at a time Toland would refuse to 
 leave the room, scarcely aware of the presence of 
 Mabel or Bess, who were unremitting in their care 
 as nurses, nor of Mrs Harlin and the doctor when 
 they visited the sick chamber. He had eyes only for 
 the pale face, and his ear heard nothing but the quick, 
 loud breathing that evidenced the struggle of the 
 body to keep life within it. 
 
 Sitting by the bedside with his eyes fixed on those 
 that for long periods in the height of the fever gave no 
 gleam of recognition, Toland was scarcely a reason- 
 ing being, and for the first time for years he prayed, 
 not humbly, nor with great faith in the efficacy of 
 prayer, but almost fiercely, contemptuously of himself 
 and his weakness, as a measure of despair. 
 
 From the night of the fire the Toland family had 
 197
 
 198 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 been quartered on the Scotts ; and much as Toland 
 disliked the arrangement, he knew that any other 
 would have greatly offended his sister, who was the 
 soul of sympathy and kindness, while, after Ruth's 
 prostration declared itself as serious illness, no con- 
 siderations of pride or independence would have in- 
 duced him to separate himself and the children from 
 her. 
 
 Mrs Harlin drove down every day from the station 
 to the Scotts, usually bringing medical luxuries for the 
 invalid, and Toland saw her come and go with a sul- 
 len feeling of jealousy that she of all strangers should 
 intrude upon his grief. Then one day, when the crisis 
 was at hand and hope almost gone, the doctor had 
 ordered him to leave the room for a few minutes, and, 
 walking with bowed head into the garden, he nearly 
 ran against Mrs Harlin. 
 
 Hearing a sob, he looked up wonderingly, and their 
 eyes met. She dabbed a pocket-handkerchief on hers 
 and greeted him with a sad smile. 
 
 ' Do you cherish your friends as you do your 
 injuries ? ' she asked. 
 
 Toland wrinkled his brows and shook his head with 
 a dazed look. He scarcely took in her words and was 
 in no mood to deal with psychological problems. 
 
 ' Walk with me to my buggy,' she went on, and he 
 found himself mechanically obeying the softly-toned 
 command. 
 
 As he opened the garden gate she stopped and 
 rested her fingers for a moment on his arm. 
 
 ' I won't force my sympathy on you,' she said, ' but 
 you must not grudge me my own grief. Remember 
 that before she was your wife she was my friend, and 
 that I loved her dearly.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 199 
 
 Toland raised his head with a frightened look in his 
 eyes. Her unconscious use of the past tense sounded 
 like a death sentence. He clenched his nails into his 
 palms, suppressing an impulse to curse or cry. 
 
 'Oh, for pity's sake don't!' he exclaimed plead- 
 ingly. ' I know she loves you, and I I grudge you 
 nothing.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin could not forbear giving expression to 
 her pity for herself and him. She clasped his strong 
 fingers in her gloved hand. 
 
 ' Mr Toland,' she cried, ' I am so sorry for you. 
 And you must pity me and give me your sympathy 
 even if you will not have mine.' 
 
 Toland's mood softened at the touch of her hand ; 
 and this appeal from a sorrow-stricken woman to a 
 man in like sorrow rose above all considerations of 
 class and dimmed the memory of real or fancied 
 wrongs. 
 
 ' I am thankful for it,' he said with an effort ; ' and 
 I suppose it makes it easier to bear that someone 
 else feels it something the same.' Then, gripping 
 her fingers fiercely as she was withdrawing them, 
 he turned a searching gaze on her face. 
 
 ' Tell me, Mrs Harlin, do you think there is any 
 hope ? ' 
 
 ' There is always hope,' she faltered. ' Have you 
 prayed for her?' 
 
 ' I think so,' replied Toland with a bitter laugh. 
 ' I've said, " God if there is a God let this woman 
 get well. If You do I'll believe in You. I'll thank 
 You, I'll try to love the Harlins and all my enemies 
 if You don't let her die. If You do I'll try to 
 believe in You that I may hate You and curse You." 
 I've said that and things like that cried them with
 
 2 oo THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 my whole soul for hours and days together. Is that 
 praying?' 
 
 ' Hush ! ' said Mrs Harlin, gently. Toland had 
 raised his deep voice and was quite unconscious of 
 the wonder the strange scene and conversation were 
 exciting in the mind of the man holding Mrs Harlin's 
 ponies only a few yards away. 'If prayers count that 
 come from the heart,' she went on with a smile, ' yours 
 will be answered. And please Heaven so will mine.' 
 
 'You are a good woman. I I believe I trust you 
 more than the doctor,' muttered Toland, huskily. 
 
 He turned his back abruptly and, without another 
 word, Mrs Harlin slipped away to her buggy, calling 
 out, as she took the reins in her hand, 'Good-bye, 
 and keep up your spirits, I shall be back again for 
 news in an hour.' 
 
 Toland leaned on the gate and watched till the 
 vehicle was out of sight. She was as unhappy as he, 
 and her pride was as great as his own and of a finer 
 kind, he supposed, since she employed it to hide the 
 skeleton in her cupboard, and wore a smiling mask 
 over the great misery in her life. Had it not been 
 for an accident he would never have discovered the 
 secret of Harlin's weakness, with which only Ruth 
 had been entrusted. If Ruth recovered there were 
 happier days in store. And she must recover, for 
 there were wrongs that he must set right. Still he 
 leaned upon the fence, not daring to go back to the 
 house for a later bulletin, lest it should dash the 
 hopes that unaccountably were growing, when he 
 heard a step behind him and a strong hand rested 
 on his shoulder. 
 
 ' Toland, old man ! The crisis is past and she will 
 recover.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 201 
 
 The voice was Conyngham's. He was boarding at 
 Mallock's shanty now and had ridden across through 
 the paddocks to ask for news. Approaching the back 
 of the house, unseen by Toland, he had just met the 
 doctor as he left the sick chamber, and had hurried 
 away in search of his friend. 
 
 No words were adequate, but the men could read 
 each what the other would express in the silent hand 
 grip, when suddenly Toland looked from Conyngham's 
 trembling arm to his face and felt a momentary, 
 almost jealous, surprise at the depth of the emotion 
 he saw written there. 
 
 Then consciousness of everything else was swal- 
 lowed up in the over-surging joy of Ruth's return to 
 him. 
 
 The doctor stood by the verandah step drawing 
 on his gloves and talking to Bess, and he smiled as 
 Toland, forgetful for the moment even of Conyng- 
 ham's existence, hurried towards him, demanding 
 almost fiercely full confirmation of the good news. 
 
 ' My dear Mr Toland, I am not omniscient and I 
 can promise nothing,' he said deprecatingly. ' But the 
 fever has left her, and with the care of such nurses as 
 your sister and daughter here provided there is no 
 relapse I see no reason why Mrs Toland should not 
 be up and about again in a fortnight.' 
 
 ' May I see her ? ' asked Toland. 
 
 ' You had better not to-day. Miss Mabel is with 
 her, and the fewer people about the sick room the 
 better. Ah, there is my buggy at the back. My 
 congratulations to you, and good-bye ! ' 
 
 The doctor stepped briskly to the gate, settled 
 himself on the driving seat and rattled off, leaving 
 Bess and Toland together. Bess had had a satis-
 
 202 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 factory cry before her brother's appearance, and con- 
 tented herself now with kissing him affectionately. 
 
 1 He is a real clever man,' she said, nodding towards 
 the departing buggy. ' You've got to thank him 
 and God that made him an instrument that we've 
 got Ruth with us to-day.' 
 
 ' And where do you come in ? ' he asked, resting 
 his hand lovingly on her shoulder. 
 
 ' Oh, me ? ' she laughed happily. ' What on earth 
 have I done ? Here's Mr Conyngham wants to wish 
 you joy too. Come on, Mr Conyngham ! You'd best 
 interrupt John and me before we get downright silly.' 
 
 Conyngham was approaching, rather hesitatingly, 
 down the path beside the house from the front garden, 
 where Toland had left him. 
 
 'I'm afraid you'll have to do without my restraining 
 influence,' he said, smiling 'if there is any reason 
 not to be silly for I have come to say good-bye.' 
 
 ' I am sorry we are keeping you out of your quarters 
 and driving you back to that beastly shanty,' said 
 Toland. ' However, all being well, Joe and I will be 
 back at work on the farm again in a day or two.' 
 
 ' I hope so,' answered Conyngham, deliberately ; 
 ' but, as a matter of fact, you are not keeping me out 
 of my quarters, for I am not likely to be back here 
 for some time. I have to go to Melbourne on busi- 
 ness, and I expect the next time I shall see you will 
 be at the tea-table, presided over by your wife, on the 
 new Grimsby Farm risen Phcenix-like from the 
 ashes of the old.' 
 
 ' That is sudden, isn't it ? ' 
 
 ' Not very/ said Conyngham, holding out his hand. 
 'You will give my warmest congratulations to Mrs 
 Toland on her recovery?'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 203 
 
 ' Yes/ said Toland, wondering. 
 
 'And to you they are beyond expression you 
 know that. Good-bye, Mrs Scott. I hope you 
 haven't found my absence so great a relief that you 
 will be unable to give it up in a month or two.' 
 
 Toland watched him ride away, with his mind re- 
 verting, in spite of himself, to the thoughts of half an 
 hour ago. 
 
 'Well, well,' sighed Bess, 'he's a queer chap. 
 You never know rightly how to take him.' 
 
 ' I don't believe you do, Bess,' answered Toland, 
 with a half smile ; ' but take him any way you like, 
 he's a fine fellow and a good friend. Can I see 
 Mabel ? ' 
 
 ' I think you'd best not. It might disturb Ruth if 
 she left the room.' 
 
 ' Then I'm going to smoke and think. I don't 
 believe I've had a pipe for days.' 
 
 He took himself off, and for the rest of the day 
 and the night obediently kept out of Ruth's room, 
 avoiding Mrs Harlin when she called again, also Scott 
 and the family, feeling equal to no other companion- 
 ship than his pipe and his thoughts. 
 
 On the following day he saw Ruth for a minute or 
 two only, and he scarcely dared to speak, lest the 
 fierceness of his joy in her promised recovery should 
 carry him away in some outburst of feeling that 
 would excite her and check the feeble current of 
 returning strength. 
 
 Then he went back to the farm, camping with Joe 
 amid the ruins of his home, when he put all his pent- 
 up energy into clearing the ground of fallen trees 
 with which the fire had strewed the blackened 
 paddocks. No other work was possible since, until
 
 2o 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 heavy rains came, post holes could not be sunk for 
 new fences, nor the baked ground be turned over by 
 the plough. 
 
 He had not the heart to put his own labour into 
 the building of a second home. In any case ringing 
 and clearing had put an end to the old days when 
 slabs could be split and bark stripped a few chains 
 from the door ; so, with the bitter-sweet memories of 
 those years ago when he and Mick felled corner posts 
 in the forest, he watched the weatherboard cottage, 
 for which he had contracted, go up on the desolate 
 site of the old, rough dwelling he had loved so well. 
 
 Money had to be found to pay doctors' bills and 
 make a new start in life. From a relief fund liberally 
 subscribed to by neighbours and people throughout 
 the district, whom the fires had spared, Toland re- 
 fused to accept a penny, angrily tearing the forms for 
 particulars of loss sustained and aid sought sent to 
 him as a matter of course by the secretary of the 
 Relief Committee. He had not sunk so low as to 
 accept charity ! In any case it would have been but 
 a drop in the bucket ; and the alternative was a 
 further mortgage on which at eight per cent. 
 Macnamara, of Tongalong, let him have eight 
 hundred pounds. 
 
 Every evening, often taking Joe with him, he rode 
 down the river to see his wife, and Scott showed 
 practical kindliness by lending him mounts, as the 
 daily pilgrimage was too great a strain on horseflesh 
 for Toland's resources. 
 
 Scott's sympathetic conduct all through Ruth's 
 illness induced in Toland a more cordial feeling 
 towards him than he had entertained for years, 
 and he began to wonder if he had attached too
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 205 
 
 much importance to idiosyncrasies of character, and 
 overlooked the good heart underlying them, which 
 was wrung so much by his relatives' misfortunes that, 
 in a mood of expansion, Scott would have made any 
 sacrifice to help them, provided it did not involve the 
 undisguised expenditure of cash. 
 
 Toland's mind, in fact, after this great crisis in his 
 affairs, underwent a kind of moral spring cleaning, 
 during which he cleared his brain of much lumber in 
 the way of bitter humours, and found occasion to re- 
 vise his estimate of other people besides Scott. 
 
 For his wife there was no higher place than she had 
 always held in his esteem, but she returned to him 
 from the brink of the grave dearer if possible than 
 ever. Bess, too, had regained almost her old childish 
 place in his affection and regard ; but, apart from its 
 crushing effect upon his material fortunes, disguised 
 at first by the stimulant of the mortgage money, the 
 most important result of the fire to Toland was the 
 changed relations it indirectly brought about with 
 Mrs Harlin. Not till Ruth was well on the way to- 
 wards convalescence did he meet her again, when, 
 riding down to Scott's from Grimsby Farm, he found 
 her on the point of leaving after a visit to his wife. 
 
 Both felt the constraint resulting from their un- 
 wonted display of feeling when they had been face to 
 face with life as fellow-partners in sorrow, and there 
 was an aloofness, greater even than usual, between 
 them ; but Mrs Harlin had encountered him with a 
 purpose which she would not leave unattempted. 
 She wanted Mabel in a week's time to go and stay 
 with her till the family should be settled in their new 
 home. 
 
 It was the old, old bone of contention, dragged
 
 206 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 anew from the hole where it lay buried, and it was 
 long before Mrs Harlin could conquer Toland's un- 
 reasoning obstinacy; but when she begged it as a 
 favour, saying, in a voice that trembled, she was 
 lonely, his heart smote him for dragging such a con- 
 fession, of which he understood the truth, from the 
 lips of this proud woman. 
 
 ' Thank you,' she said. ' I cannot say that you 
 have given your consent graciously, but I thank you 
 for giving it at all.' 
 
 Toland remained silent with his eyes on the ground. 
 No one could guess what a wrench to his cherished 
 independence the consent had been. 
 
 She hesitated for a moment. Then, with a little 
 angry colour in her cheeks and a haughty ring in her 
 tone, 
 
 ' I suppose I must make allowances for your pride, 
 Mr Toland. I asked a favour and you have been 
 generous enough, however grudgingly, to grant it ; 
 but I should admire you more if I thought you had 
 the generosity to accept one.' 
 
 Toland reddened. The last blow was feminine. 
 It was delivered from a social distance ; but it was 
 aimed true, and he did not reply. 
 
 And thus it was settled that Mabel should go to 
 Kumbarra.
 
 BOOK III 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE rattle of the binder, now loud, now faint, from 
 the wheat paddock's furthest limit, had sounded 
 through the cottage since the first streaks of dawn, 
 ceasing only at long intervals when the hard-worked 
 machine creaked a request for more oil or the twine 
 drum was replenished by another ball. 
 
 There were two hundred acres to cut, threatening 
 to shed the grain under the blazing heat of December's 
 last few days, and Toland had hired a couple of 
 draught horses to keep two teams going without a 
 rest from daylight until dark. 
 
 At twelve o'clock Joe's eight hours' day on the 
 driving seat was over, leaving him free to rest for an 
 hour or two before taking his turn at stocking in the 
 absence of other tasks. 
 
 Mabel moved about the verandah room getting 
 ready his dinner. She brushed from the cloth the 
 crumbs left from her father's just finished meal, and 
 picked a faded rose out of the bowl on the table. 
 
 ' Now, that looks neat and appetising,' she said to 
 herself, critically surveying her work. ' Poor old Joe ! 
 He must be tired and sleepy.' 
 
 Father and brother laughed at Mabel, but secretly 
 were not sorry to give way to what they called her 
 
 207
 
 2 o8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 fads. She had put her foot down on kitchen meals, 
 urging with plausibility that since the cool bark roof 
 had gone, and the whole house was like an oven 
 beneath the iron, there was no sense nor comfort 
 in choosing the hottest spot to eat in, merely because 
 their neighbours were foolish enough to do so. In 
 the two years since the bush fire Mabel's voice had 
 become a power in the house, and her parents more 
 and more deferred, in the world of little things, to 
 the whims and wishes of the beautiful, headstrong girl 
 of whom they felt so proud. 
 
 In a cheap print, almost white from frequent wash- 
 ing, brightened in lieu of vanished pattern by a 
 crimson belt, for without colour of some kind Mabel 
 could not exist, with glossy hair brushed back from 
 a broad low forehead, a bright face and a figure slim 
 and erect, Mabel Toland presented a grateful vision 
 of coolness very different from that which greeted 
 most harvest labourers in the valley when they went 
 in to their meals that day. 
 
 And Mabel was not altogether unconscious of the 
 fact Without much vanity she was proud of her 
 good looks and did what she could to enhance them. 
 They were one of the refinements jealously treasured 
 for their little household, which, she told herself with 
 girlish vehemence, should never sink under any 
 poverty to the level of others, where frowsy fringes 
 and ill-cooked food, on dirty tables, gave the men 
 every excuse to be ill-mannered savages. Joe chafed 
 sometimes under Mabel's tyranny. He considered it 
 unjust that ingrained dirt should be regarded as an 
 aggravation rather than as an excuse for the crime 
 of soiled hands. 
 
 ' Anyone would think I was going to be a bloomin'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 209 
 
 dook, instead of a policeman, from the way you fuss 
 me,' he would grumble ; but he always gave in to 
 Mabel's commands if not to her argument that, for 
 all he knew, he might have to arrest dukes and that 
 kind of people some day, and the least they could 
 expect would be to have the handcuffs put on them 
 by policemen with clean hands. 
 
 The tramp of wearied horses led her on to the 
 verandah. The team, relieved from work, with bowed 
 heads and sweat-blackened collar marks, were making 
 their way in single file to the little creek by the 
 stables, where sheaves of wheaten hay flung out on 
 the banks awaited them. Joe slouched along behind, 
 not looking cheerful or alert. His tanned face was 
 furrowed with little perspiration rills in the layer of 
 dust and dabbed here and there with cakes of oil- 
 mud, acquired when his head was beneath the 
 machine among the cogs and bearings requiring 
 lubrication. The effect was grotesque when he 
 smiled at his sister, who nipped vine shoots on the 
 trellised wires and waited for him. 
 
 ' Got anything decent to eat, Mab ? ' he asked, tramp- 
 ing on to the verandah and pretending to embrace 
 her. 
 
 ' Yes,' she said, recoiling and laughing. ' Cold beef 
 junket and raspberries much too decent for you 
 as you are now. Go and get clean.' 
 
 ' No,' he said calmly, flinging himself down with 
 his back against a verandah post. ' That's worth 
 waiting for, and I'm too beastly hot to enjoy 
 it.' 
 
 ' Well, have a drink.' 
 
 ' Of what ? ' he asked, looking up with a half-sus- 
 picious expression of hope, armed against disappoint- 
 
 O
 
 2io THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ment. Mabel sometimes prepared pleasant surprises, 
 but she also sometimes played tricks and was quite 
 capable of saying ' water.' 
 
 ' This.' She brought out a jug and a cup from the 
 table. 
 
 ' You're a trump, sis,' he sighed, after swallowing 
 half a pint of lemon water at a gulp, and wisely 
 checking an impulse to rub the back of a variously- 
 blackened hand across his mouth. ' I believe you 
 know what will do a feller good better than any 
 farmer's daughter on the river though you do look 
 so horrid clean.' 
 
 ' So I am clean,' she said with dignity. ' Do fix 
 yourself up for dinner, like a good boy, because I've 
 waited for you. Where's mother?' 
 
 Joe rose, stretching himself, and laughed. ' Watch- 
 ing dad. He's cutting out a little bit all turns and 
 there she sits under an umbrella in the blazing sun, 
 against a stock, an' admires him an' the machine. He 
 tells her to go in and shams he don't want her there, 
 an' I swear he'd be awfully disappointed if she took 
 him at his word. It's rum how fond those old people 
 are of each other.' 
 
 ' They're not so very old,' returned Mabel. ' Mother 
 at least can hardly be forty.' 
 
 ' Oh, well ! They're older than me anyhow,' yawned 
 Joe. ' I'll be back in a jiffy.' 
 
 Getting a towel from his room he went to the creek 
 and a few minutes later was in the parlour again with 
 the shine and smell of soap on his face to testify his 
 thoroughness. Neither very tall nor very broad, Joe 
 had not the physique of his father and would not 
 attain it, though he had some time to grow yet, but 
 he was a strong, wiry lad with a well-knit figure when
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 211 
 
 he straightened it, as he sometimes did ; and in 
 his face, which suggested the same plan as Mabel's, 
 more carelessly executed, there was keenness and 
 humour in a measure not possessed by either of his 
 parents. 
 
 Mabel felt satisfied with his upper end at least, 
 where only brushed hair and clean white coat were in 
 evidence, while heavy grey boots and blue dungaree 
 trousers were out of sight beneath the table. Her 
 mind dwelt that day more than usual on the social 
 position of her family, for only on the previous morn- 
 ing Mrs Harlin had told her that Rupert was expected 
 home in a week or less. He had been absent just 
 three years now, and she had neither seen him nor 
 heard from him since the evening he had kissed her 
 by the old harness-room door, and in the meantime 
 he was grown into a man with the capacity for giving 
 weight to petty things that nobler-minded childhood 
 treats with fine disdain. She understood better now 
 their difference in position and wealth, and he perhaps 
 laughed if he remembered his boyish protest of life- 
 long devotion ; but she scarcely believed so. There 
 was a message for her in his last letter to Mrs Harlin 
 which meant very little, perhaps nothing without 
 the key forged on their moonlight ride and grown 
 rusty with disuse but she blushed suddenly when 
 Mrs Harlin read it to her, and that lady intuitively 
 grasped at least a part of Mabel's carefully-guarded 
 secret, kept it to herself and pondered. 
 
 Joe was hungry, Mabel preoccupied, so there was 
 little conversation during their meal to interrupt the 
 monotonous buzz of the big flies and the distant rattle 
 of the binder, but when it was finished Joe pushed his 
 chair from the table, and with a wink and a ' Don't
 
 212 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 split, Mab,' produced a cherry-wood pipe from his 
 pocket. 
 
 ' Joe ! You don't mean to say you smoke ! ' 
 
 ' I don't mean to say it just yet awhile but I do 
 it when I get the chance,' he drawled, shaving off 
 the corners of a dark plug of 'Two Seas' with a 
 novice's deliberation. 
 
 ' Father would be awfully angry.' 
 
 ' That's just why I don't let him know.' 
 
 ' But it's not honest' 
 
 ' That's so like a girl ! I'll bet there's lots of things 
 you keep dark or would, only girls are generally 
 fools enough to tell other girls an' get peached on 
 for their pains.' 
 
 Joe's random thrust, quite unjustified so far as he 
 knew, for Mabel was singularly frank, nevertheless 
 got home since, compared with her great secret, Joe's 
 smoking was as nothing. 
 
 'But you've just told me,' she objected incon- 
 clusively. 
 
 ' Girls split on girls not men. Anyway, sisters 
 don't count' 
 
 ' Not boys' sisters ? ' she asked, with a mischievous 
 smile. 
 
 ' Don't nag,' said Joe, loftily, ' but come down to 
 the creek and have a yarn under the wattle tree 
 before I go back to that beastly stocking.' 
 
 The wattles had grown rapidly after the fire, cloth- 
 ing the devastated creek banks again in greenery, but 
 the beloved elms were gone, and the vines springing 
 vigorously from the roots remained almost solitary 
 survivors of the Tolands' old plantation. 
 
 When she had made the eatables safe from cats 
 and flies, Mabel took some sewing with her and
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 213 
 
 joined Joe beneath the trees, announcing her arrival 
 by dropping a pebble into the pipe bowl sticking out 
 from beneath the slouch hat pulled over his face. 
 
 ' Oh, stow it, Mab ! ' he grumbled, sitting up. 
 'Can't you let a feller alone?' 
 
 ' Well, can't you give a " feller " room to sit you're 
 sprawling all over the only bit of shade that's any use.' 
 
 Joe collected some of his limbs and Mabel sat down. 
 
 ' I've been thinking, Mab,' he said presently. ' I'm 
 going to sling the farm as soon as I'm old enough to 
 be a trooper.' 
 
 ' Then that old joke is going to be a reality. They 
 haven't laughed you out of it ? ' 
 
 ' No, I don't get laughed out of things,' said Joe, 
 with something of his father's expression. ' It's a 
 kind of life I should like I'm the right weight and 
 cut for it and I believe a fellow could get on.' 
 
 Mab put down her work and stared across the 
 creek at the hills. ' It's awfully rough on father,' she 
 said. ' Have you thought how cut up he'll be ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, poor old dad. I know he will feel it, but I 
 can't help that' Joe spoke seriously, and the pipe, 
 which required attention still, was flung aside. ' But 
 you know, Mab, it's no use my sticking here. We 
 are just going to the dogs as fast as we can go, but 
 father's so determined to pull through that he can't 
 or won't see it.' 
 
 ' I know the fire and mother's illness and all cost 
 a lot of money, but I thought we were picking up,' 
 said Mab, incredulously. ' And isn't this going to be 
 a grand harvest ? ' 
 
 ' Not too bad. The wheat might go four bags all 
 round.' 
 
 'Well?'
 
 2i 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Well, what's the good of that ? ' queried Joe, con- 
 temptuously, 'with wheat at two bob a bushel in 
 Tongalong ? Suppose we have four bags say seven- 
 teen bushels. That's one pound fourteen shillings an 
 acre, which sounds like money on two hundred acres. 
 But when you take off oil and twine, two shillings 
 bags, two shillings thrashing, three shillings cart- 
 ing and stacking about two shillings carriage to 
 Tongalong, ten shillings commission, I suppose, 
 another bob there's not much in it, is there? 1 
 
 ' I don't know/ said Mabel, wearily. ' I can't follow 
 all your figures.' 
 
 'They sing-song themselves through my head all 
 the time I'm on the binder, and they're not far out. 
 Anyway, that means there's only about fourteen 
 shillings an acre left to pay for dad's work and mine, 
 and horse feed, and meet a bill on the reaper and 
 binder and it won't do it let alone pay interest 
 and allow us to go on living.' 
 
 Joe's grasp of the position which she had unthink- 
 ingly supposed to be improving was a revelation to 
 Mabel. 
 
 ' I had no idea you thought about it like that. 
 Have you said anything to dad?' 
 
 Joe shrugged his shoulders. ' No ; what's the use ? 
 He could know it just the same as me if he would, 
 but he won't go into it because he wants to be cheer- 
 ful for mother's sake, I think. And it's just as well, 
 because he couldn't do anything different if he did, or 
 save one penny of the expense.' 
 
 ' I could help with the stocking, couldn't I ? and 
 and drive a cart ? ' said Mab, knitting her brows into 
 a frown as she racked her brains vainly for possible 
 economies.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 215 
 
 'You just suggest that to the old man and see 
 what he thinks,' laughed Joe. ' But all the same you 
 know it's just those mean little things that do make 
 farming pay a crowd of overworked, half-starved 
 kids living on nothing but salt junk going a bit 
 slow on soap makin' beef of a beast with lumpy 
 jaw, and working a man sixteen hours a day for ten 
 bob a week till he jacks it up and you pick up 
 another poor devil out of a job that reckons he can 
 stand it for a time.' 
 
 'The Scotts are getting on pretty well, aren't 
 they?' asked Mabel. 
 
 ' I think so but they have a picked bit of land 
 with ten miles less cartage than us and look at 
 Uncle George ! Isn't he as mean as they make 'em ? 
 When does Jimmy get a holiday? And the other 
 kids, poor little beasts ! have to work like niggers 
 out of school-hours in the cowyard, for all Aunt Bess 
 can do to stop it.' 
 
 ' If farming can't pay except by doing things Uncle 
 George's way, I don't want it to,' said Mabel, 
 decisively. 
 
 ' Well, you take it from me it can't. Not dad's 
 way anyhow paying fair wages when he must have 
 a man, and treating me and you and everyone else 
 except himself like human beings. No ; it's not a 
 white man's game, and I'm going out of it' 
 
 ' But what will father do ? ' reiterated Mab. 
 
 ' I'll be able to send him a pound a week almost 
 enough to pay the interest and a darned sight more 
 than I'm worth to him here with nothing for 
 myself.' 
 
 Joe had common sense on his side, and Mabel sat 
 silent, grieving over sentimental aspects of the
 
 216 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 separation which she knew would sink into her 
 father's soul, but felt it profitless to urge on Joe. 
 
 ' But that won't be for a bit yet,' he said after a 
 pause ; 'and in the meantime I'm going to keep my 
 spirits up, and you keep your mouth shut.' 
 
 ' Of course ! ' she said with indignation. 
 
 ' And about this it's no use to annoy the old man.' 
 He took up his pipe again and felt for a match. ' By 
 the way, I wonder what Rupert Harlin's got like, and 
 if he'll look at us now since he's become a University 
 man and a travelled monkey and all the rest of it. 
 He came back yesterday.' 
 
 ' Yesterday ? ' Mabel was startled into a little cry 
 of surprise. ' I Mrs Harlin told me yesterday 
 morning he wouldn't be home for a week.' 
 
 ' Perhaps the old man's playing up worse than 
 usual and they've telegraphed Rupert from Sydney. 
 Anyway, he is home, because Jimmy Scott was up to 
 borrow a couple of balls of twine this morning, and 
 he told me he saw him in Tongalong yesterday.' 
 
 Mabel was bending attentively over her work 
 again, and Joe kept one eye on her as he relit his 
 pipe. 
 
 ' You seem fluttered, old girl,' he said sym- 
 pathetically. ' I know he was a bit sweet on you 
 when we were kids, but come on ! You might as 
 well tell us all about it now I've spotted you.' 
 
 ' You haven't spotted anything/ said Mab, blushing. 
 
 'Oh, all right,' he laughed; 'but I know you're 
 dying to tell somebody.' 
 
 It was true ; and, thus encouraged, with judicious 
 excisions and refusals to gratify Joe's outrageously 
 inquisitive interest on some points of detail, Mab 
 told him the story of the ride to Grimsby Farm.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 217 
 
 When she had finished Joe suddenly burst into a 
 mocking peal of laughter, and Mab got up with 
 flashing eyes and flaming cheeks. 
 
 ' You are perfectly disgusting,' she almost sobbed. 
 ' After sneaking me into telling you, too ! Let me 
 go!' 
 
 But Joe hung on to her skirt to its imminent 
 danger. 
 
 ' Don't go, sis,' he exclaimed. ' I'm awfully glad. 
 But isn't it beastly funny you being so holy about 
 my smoking on the quiet ? " It isn't honest, you 
 know." ' He mimicked her to tone and manner, and 
 Mabel sat down again, laughing too. 
 
 ' It's different,' she said. 
 
 ' Of course it is and about a million times worse. 
 I'm ashamed of you.' 
 
 Then they fell into serious talk and discussed the 
 matter with brotherly and sisterly freedom. 
 
 ' Rupert's a jolly fine chap and I hope neither of 
 you have changed your minds/ said Joe, summing up 
 the situation. ' Anyway, unless he's a fool he hasn't, 
 for he wouldn't find a girl like you if he looked in 
 half a dozen Europes.' 
 
 ' You've travelled such a lot haven't you, Joey ? 
 and know all about it,' she asked, laughing. 
 
 ' I know enough to bet on,' he answered, ' and,' with 
 a sudden twinkle in his eye, 'just a little bit more 
 than you.' 
 
 ' What do you mean ? ' 
 
 He was on his feet leaning against the wattle trunk, 
 and after another glance towards the house looked 
 down at her with a mocking smile. 
 
 ' Never you mind, but just let me know when 
 you're going to tell dad, so that I can hide his boots
 
 2 1 8 THE WISD OM OF ESA U 
 
 and take to the hills for a week. By Jove, I forgot to 
 bathe that borrowed horse's shoulder ! ' 
 
 Joe swung suddenly off towards the stables at a 
 pace that surprised Mabel, who sat to muse for a little 
 in the shade before going back to the hot house 
 and washing up. 
 
 Presently she heard Joe's step again and turned 
 round ; but it was not Joe, and she jumped to her feet 
 with a rosy face as Rupert Harlin stood before her. 
 
 ' Mabel ! ' he exclaimed, holding out his hands. 
 
 ' Rupert ! ' 
 
 Then she did not know exactly what she said. 
 The consciousness that they had parted as children 
 and met again as man and woman was at first 
 embarrassing, but it soon passed away ; and when 
 Mabel went back to the house half an hour later, the 
 sight of a pair of her father's boots made her laugh 
 nervously and think of Joe.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 KNOWING her father better than Rupert, Mabel did 
 not think it wise to stop him, hot and tired in the 
 midst of his work, to drop on him such a bolt from 
 the blue as the news of her engagement, and she 
 insisted that nothing should be said of it in her home 
 till the Harlins had been told. She welcomed this 
 excuse for delay, which Rupert chafed at, for his mind 
 was so filled with the beauty of their romance that 
 there was no room for contemplation of its possible 
 obnoxiousness to others, and he could see no reason, 
 he said, for sneaking away from the farm as though 
 he had done something to be ashamed of. 
 
 Mabel laughed and said that if she was worth 
 having she was worth sneaking for, since her comfort 
 and her father's would be secured by his doing so. 
 She insisted that he should have it out with his 
 own parents before approaching hers. Unwillingly 
 obedient, in a rather injured frame of mind, Rupert 
 Harlin rode away, passing Toland reaping in the 
 distance ; and, on the way home, trying to realise his 
 new happiness, he smiled occasionally to himself as 
 he recognised landmarks on his last ride to Grimsby 
 Farm when mile after mile of his longed-for oppor- 
 tunity had gone by without a word. 
 
 His mother was lying on a sofa in the drawing- 
 room, with her thoughts less on her novel than on 
 the heat and the weariness of life in general, when 
 
 219
 
 220 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Rupert Harlin entered. He had changed his dusty 
 clothes for a light suit of flannels which seemed to 
 bring comfort and coolness with them. 
 
 Mrs Harlin sat up and welcomed him with a 
 smile of pride and pleasure. 
 
 ' I am so glad you have come, Rupert,' she said. 
 ' I have been intolerably hot and bored.' 
 
 ' I am afraid I can't make you any cooler, mother 
 unless there may be a breath of air here in the 
 draught from the fireplace. Come and try it.' 
 
 ' Thank you ; I think that is better,' answered Mrs 
 Harlin, settling herself with a sigh in a cushionless 
 wicker chair that Rupert placed for her. She looked 
 at her son, who had selected another, and, with his 
 long legs stretched out, and his hands behind his 
 head, leaned back gazing thoughtfully at the ceiling. 
 
 ' Do you know, I believe you are getting quite 
 handsome, Rupert ? ' she said, laughing. 
 
 ' That is crushing from a mother who I thought 
 always considered me an Apollo. But to change 
 the subject to the beauty of lesser mortals do you 
 know who I think is absolutely the prettiest girl I 
 have seen in the last three years?' 
 
 ' You must have seen so many whom I have never 
 met.' 
 
 ' But you have met this one Mabel Toland.' 
 
 'Oh?' exclaimed Mrs Harlin, interrogatively, yet 
 not altogether surprised. She studied her son's face 
 for further information. He was still looking with 
 half-closed eyes at the ceiling, and a smile flickered 
 about his mouth. 
 
 ' You have seen her since you came home, then ? ' 
 
 'Yes, this afternoon. In fact, I have just come 
 back from Grimsby Farm.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 221 
 
 ' Mabel is certainly a very pretty girl/ assented Mrs 
 Harlin, waiting in nervous apprehension, albeit with 
 interest, for further developments ; 'but I should have 
 thought in England you would have found higher 
 standards of beauty. Will you ring the bell and let 
 us have some tea ? ' 
 
 Rupert straightened himself in his chair and looked 
 at Mrs Harlin. ' If you don't mind waiting a few 
 minutes for your tea, mother, I have something I 
 want to tell you first.' 
 
 ' Certainly, my boy I can wait/ She raised her 
 eyes to his with a rather sad smile. ' Shall I guess 
 what you are going to tell me ? ' 
 
 ' If you like, and if you can/ 
 
 'That you are in love with Mabel Toland/ 
 
 ' I am in love with Mabel, but that's only a small 
 and unimportant part of it. I've been that for years. 
 I am engaged to her. Won't you congratulate me ? J 
 
 Mrs Harlin gave a start of surprise and disappoint- 
 ment. She had known there was danger and guessed 
 at Rupert's feelings without any idea that things had 
 gone so far. 
 
 ' I thought you would be surprised/ he continued. 
 ' Don't you think I am a very lucky man ? ' 
 
 'Yes, dear. I think you are fortunate indeed in 
 having such a nice girl as Mabel Toland to love you/ 
 Mrs Harlin's voice trembled a little. As Rupert got 
 up from his chair she rose too and kissed him, with a 
 variety of feelings, kept under for the moment by a 
 mother's sympathy, and unwillingness to chill his 
 happy enthusiasm. 
 
 ' It is very sudden, isn't it ? ' she asked presently. 
 
 ' It is and it isn't. I told her how I cared for her 
 before I left three years ago, but I couldn't tell if she
 
 222 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 had forgotten me. I never saw her or heard from her 
 since that till this afternoon, and it all happened then.' 
 Mrs Harlin waited tactfully for further confidences 
 and he went on to tell with due reservations just how 
 things stood now between himself and Mabel. 
 
 'It is a risky experiment, Rupert,' she said at 
 length. ' Her father and yours will do all they can 
 to stop the marriage ; and I am not sure that they 
 will not be right.' 
 
 ' Why ? ' he asked combatively. 
 
 ' Why ? ' she repeated with a little shrug of her 
 shoulders. ' I am afraid I should only make you 
 angry if I tried to explain further than that, on 
 general principles, marriage between people of different 
 classes, especially when parents on both sides dis- 
 approve, is a mistake.' 
 
 ' But general principles have nothing to do with it. 
 Individuals can't sacrifice their happiness to effete 
 class prejudices. Mabel is Mabel, and I am I.' 
 
 ' And you are both young and in love, which puts 
 an end to argument and makes you deaf to anything 
 an old woman might say, even if she had the heart 
 to say it.' 
 
 ' I wish you would not treat me like a child,' said 
 Rupert, loftily. ' I think it is rather insulting to my 
 common sense to suppose I should not be willing to 
 listen to any criticisms on my conduct.' 
 
 ' To declare them out of date and absurd,' she said 
 smiling, and resting her hand lightly on his shoulder. 
 ' No, Rupert, dear ; don't let us quarrel. I tell you 
 frankly it was not what I had hoped for you. But 
 accept my congratulations, and believe that I think 
 Mabel is a very nice, sweet girl, and trust that you 
 will be very happy.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 223 
 
 But Rupert was not satisfied. His egotism de- 
 manded approval complete and absolute, and the 
 offer of anything less seemed an injury. 
 
 ' Thank you, mother/ he said grudgingly. ' I know 
 you wish me happiness, but I think you might at 
 least tell me why you think I have gone an idiotic 
 way to get it' 
 
 ' Rupert ! I did not say I thought anything of the 
 kind.' 
 
 ' Well, you implied it.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin smiled at the sullen cloud gathering on 
 his face. ' Nor did I imply it,' she sighed. ' You 
 young people are so impracticable.' 
 
 ' We want to be treated like reasonable beings.' 
 
 ' Which, when you are in love, you are not,' she 
 laughed. ' But seriously, Rupert, if you insist upon 
 a little lecture from me you shall have it, though I 
 know it is wasted words. I confess I am disap- 
 pointed in a way at your engagement, because I had 
 hoped that you would marry some girl of your own 
 station in life. At anyrate, you are too young to 
 marry now. And I should have liked to keep you 
 to myself a little longer. You are my only child.' 
 
 'Now you will have two Mabel and myself,' 
 interrupted Rupert. 
 
 ' Perhaps,' she went on with an affectionate glance 
 at her son, who leaned against the mantelpiece in 
 front of her. ' Perhaps I shall ; but it will be different. 
 As for Mabel herself, I am very fond of her. She 
 has been with me much since you went to England, 
 and I have learned to know her. And if her family 
 and relations were different I should not have a word 
 to say.' 
 
 ' I don't marry her relatives,' he interjected grandly.
 
 224 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' That shows how young you are. Do you suppose 
 no one has pride but yourself? Can you imagine 
 yourself allowing all the tribe of Scotts to make 
 themselves at home at Kumbarra? Can you guess 
 at the sore feeling it will cause if you don't even 
 though your wife should agree that it won't do ? And 
 besides, Mabel has the deepest love for her father. 1 
 
 ' Quite right too. I think that he is a very fine 
 man.' 
 
 ' There is no need to tell me she is right. And I 
 agree that he is a fine man, but one quite impossible 
 for you or me to get on with. He is embittered 
 against us already an old sore, not to be healed, 
 that had its origin in the dummying of Kumbarra 
 more than twenty years ago, when he and your father 
 had hot words. This will make matters worse 
 alienate Mabel to some extent from her father, and 
 make things harder than ever to bear for her mother, 
 who was a very dear friend of mine, and has become 
 almost a stranger to me since her marriage for a 
 woman can keep no friends who are her husband's 
 enemies.' 
 
 ' But I have no enemies who are Mabel's friends,' 
 argued Rupert. 
 
 ' But you speedily will have. Her relatives will 
 call you stuck up and proud. They will transfer 
 their dislike to Mabel, and she will feel the bitter- 
 ness of it. Don't ask me to say any more,' she said 
 wearily. ' Perhaps I was unwise to say so much. 
 Come and give me a kiss, and tell me you forgive 
 your old mother.' 
 
 Rupert kissed her and laughed. ' There is nothing 
 to forgive, but I am going to marry Mabel and be 
 very happy.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 225 
 
 ' Of course you are,' she answered, surreptitiously 
 brushing away a tear. ' Ring the bell now, like a 
 good boy, if you are content to argue no more.' 
 
 Rupert's hand was on the bell when the door 
 opened and his father came in, bringing with him an 
 atmosphere of the drafting yards and whisky and 
 tobacco. 
 
 ' What are you two discussing so earnestly ? ' he 
 asked. 
 
 ' We were just having a little talk,' answered Mrs 
 Harlin, with a warning glance at her son. ' We are 
 going to have some tea.' 
 
 ' Rupert seems to spend all his time in tea and 
 talk,' sneered Harlin, throwing himself into a chair 
 and wiping a shining forehead that merged itself in a 
 wilderness of baldness. 'Why weren't you down with 
 us at the yards instead of loafing about indoors ? ' 
 
 ' I had something more important to do,' answered 
 Rupert, curtly. He still stood by the fireplace looking 
 down at his father, noticing how the once well-cut 
 features had been marred and the whole face pre- 
 maturely aged by dissipation. Woman's loyal con- 
 servatism he thought was certainly an extraordinary 
 thing. His mother had married in her own class 
 and yet she was an enthusiastic advocate of such a 
 course. 
 
 The heat and the sheep had not improved Harlin's 
 temper. His furtive blue eyes, which could not now 
 meet others for a second, had detected Rupert's calm 
 scrutiny, and he resented it. 
 
 ' Ton my soul, Rupert,' he said testily, ' I don't 
 think your trip to England has improved your 
 habits or your manners. What the deuce are you 
 staring at ? ' 
 
 P
 
 22 6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' I beg your pardon,' answered Rupert, with a start. 
 ' I did not mean to stare. I was thinking of my 
 own affairs.' 
 
 ' Then you have some affairs to think about ? I'm 
 glad to hear it, for you seem to take deuced little 
 interest in mine.' 
 
 ' Rupert has not been long enough back to get 
 into the routine of the station work yet,' interposed 
 Mrs Harlin. ' Will you have any tea, Tom ? ' 
 
 ' No, thanks. You know I never drink tea.' 
 
 Rupert placed his cup beside him on the mantel- 
 piece and waited till the servant had left the room. 
 
 ' I don't know that I ever shall be particularly 
 interested in the station, except as a means to a 
 living,' he said. ' But would you like to hear what 
 I have to tell you ? ' 
 
 Harlin grumbled an affirmative, and in disregard 
 of his mother's frown of warning, Rupert thrust his 
 hands into his pockets and looked again at Mr Harlin. 
 
 ' I am afraid it may not please you, father,' he said 
 with a slight nervous tremor in his voice, ' but I hope 
 you will let me judge what is for my happiness. I 
 am engaged to Mabel Toland.' 
 
 ' What ? ' 
 
 The shock of surprise and anger brought Harlin to 
 his feet as he almost bawled the question ; and before 
 the roughness and menace of his tone, all Rupert's 
 hopes of conciliation vanished. 
 
 ' I thought I spoke plainly,' he answered with his 
 lips parted and slightly-heightened colour. ' I am 
 engaged to Mabel Toland.' 
 
 Harlin sank into his chair again and laughed 
 angrily. 'Then be good enough to break the en- 
 gagement off immediately.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 227 
 
 ' Is that all you are going to say about it ? ' 
 
 'Yes unless you want me to add that I won't 
 have it ; that I will not leave you a penny if you 
 disobey my wishes ; and that I refuse to let my son 
 marry the daughter of a sullen blackguard who has 
 had nothing but black looks and bad words for me 
 ever since he and a few precious mates of his sneaked 
 on to my land. 5 
 
 ' Your land ! Who made it yours ? ' queried Rupert, 
 with a sarcastic laugh. 
 
 ' The law and my good money not a penny of 
 which you shall see if I hear any more of this 
 nonsense.' 
 
 ' Look here, sir,' began Rupert, with rising temper. 
 ' I may owe you respect, but I am of age, and I 
 refuse ' 
 
 Mrs Harlin rose hurriedly from her chair, and laid 
 her hand pleadingly on his arm. She had sat in 
 silence up till then, hoping in vain that the storm 
 would pass by without her interference. 
 
 ' Pray don't quarrel with your father,' she begged. 
 ' Go away now and discuss the matter again when 
 you have both thought it over.' 
 
 ' I have given the subject all the thought it de- 
 serves, Margaret, and he has my answer,' exclaimed 
 Harlin. 
 
 Rupert turned to his mother. 
 
 ' Don't worry about us,' he said soothingly. ' I 
 know what I am doing.' 
 
 ' No ! no ! You are both angry and excited, and I 
 can't let you dispute and say things you will regret.' 
 
 ' I am not a boy, mother I must manage my own 
 affairs. Please go away for a few minutes and leave 
 us alone.'
 
 22 8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Mrs Harlin hesitated, astonished by a tone of com- 
 mand in the voice which she had hitherto been ac- 
 customed to hear in protest against, or in acquiescence 
 with, her own. Then, as he urged her again, and 
 almost led her to the door, she gave way ; and Harlin 
 saw with uneasy astonishment his wife obey her son's 
 quiet order where she would have ignored his own, 
 however emphatically expressed. 
 
 Rupert closed the door and, returning to his place 
 by the mantelpiece, reopened the conversation. 
 
 ' Look here, father,' he said, ' I am truly sorry my 
 wishes are distasteful to you, and I don't want to say 
 anything disrespectful ; but please do not speak of 
 Mr Toland, who is as honest and in every way as reput- 
 able a man as yourself, as a sneak or a blackguard.' 
 
 Harlin winced. He sat angrily twisting his 
 moustache, with Rupert standing above him, taking 
 the tone of reproof that should be his, and became 
 aware that in this son there were reserves of violence 
 as great as his own underlying the mother's quiet 
 manner. 
 
 ' We will keep each our own opinions of Mr 
 Toland,' he said with a sneer. ' I suppose you have 
 become imbued with this new democratic foolery at 
 Oxford. However that may be, I forbid you to 
 marry Mabel Toland.' 
 'Why?' 
 
 ' Because she is not a fit match for you, and I don't 
 choose that you should disgrace the family and make 
 a fool of yourself.' 
 
 'Please drop personalities,' said Rupert, flushing. 
 ' I presume that you have nothing to say against 
 Mabel not that I should listen to you if you had,' 
 he added hastily.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 229 
 
 ' You may set your mind at rest on that score. I 
 think her rather a pretty and considering her station 
 and her brute of a father quite a remarkably nice 
 girl. But you shall not marry her.' 
 
 ' And I say I shall.' 
 
 ' Very well. Your allowance from me ceases and 
 you get nothing under my will. By God, I mean what 
 I say ! Do you hear that, sir ? I refuse to support an 
 undutiful, idle prig of a son who forgets he is a gentle- 
 man and plays the fool with a blasted cockie's 
 daughter! I have done with you.' Harlin had 
 worked himself into a passion, and he stamped about 
 the room. 
 
 Rupert's eyes blazed with anger too and his face 
 went very white. ' A gentleman ! ' he sneered. 
 ' What example do you set to me ? ' 
 
 ' You you young viper ! ' spluttered Harlin. ' Get 
 out of my house and go to your Tolands ! ' 
 
 'Very well,' answered Rupert, with a twinge of 
 conscience. ' I know you have been a good father to 
 me, and I regret having said anything to hurt you.' 
 
 Harlin's only answer to this advance was a con- 
 temptuous snort and Rupert continued, ' I am sorry, 
 and I apologise for what I said in the heat of temper. 
 But all the same I am old enough to be my own 
 master and I intend to have my own way.' 
 
 ' Then have it and be damned to you ! But don't 
 ask me to help you.' 
 
 ' I shall not. But, as you know, there is money of 
 mine in the station payable to me now under my 
 mother's marriage settlement.' 
 
 'Well?' 
 
 ' I must have that money out, or a portion at least, 
 as you can afford it. This is not a threat but a
 
 2 3 o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 necessity, as I have no profession, and, except what 
 you have allowed me, nothing to live on. 1 
 
 Harlin thought for a second or two, calmed by this 
 practical drawback to a quarrel, and Rupert watched 
 him. It would be a squeeze to realise the sum in 
 hard cash, but suddenly his rage returned, getting 
 the better of caution. 
 
 'Take it,' he said, 'and go to hell with it!' 
 
 ' Thank you,' said Rupert, smiling in spite of 
 himself. 'Have you anything to add?' 
 
 ' Nothing except go quickly.' 
 
 Harlin strode angrily out of the room, leaving his 
 son to ponder over the delights of his engagement.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 MRS HARLIN found Rupert in his room, angry and 
 crestfallen, but more obstinate than ever. He was 
 refilling a half-unpacked Gladstone bag amongst his 
 just-arrived baggage, preparing to shake the dust of 
 his father's house from his feet, and to take up his 
 abode in Tongalong till he could see Mabel and tell 
 her of the crisis in their affairs. His mother's en- 
 treaties, however, induced him to give way, and not 
 to bring the eventful day of his engagement to quite 
 such a melancholy close. If he left the house in 
 anger it would break her heart she said. She smiled 
 at his indignant query how it was possible for him to 
 accept his father's hospitality after what had passed 
 between them. All things, she thought, should be 
 possible in the way of conciliation from a son to a 
 father, whose deepest prejudices he had opposed, 
 especially a father who up to now had been so gener- 
 ous and indulgent as his had been. She did not for 
 one moment ask him to give up Mabel, or to sur- 
 render anything that he thought was right, but only 
 to keep silence on the vexed question and remain 
 for a few days at Kumbarra, after which he might go 
 up to the New South Wales station while she fought 
 his and Mabel's battles at home. He would show 
 the truest generosity by subordinating his pride a 
 little to the family peace, besides which, she was sure 
 that he would be sorry to aggravate the quarrel and 
 cause indelible bitterness by forcing his father to find 
 
 231
 
 232 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 the money, which had really gone into the station as 
 an investment for him. 
 
 Being unwilling to embarrass his father, and at- 
 tached to both his parents, Rupert had already cooled 
 down and succumbed to Mrs Harlin's arguments 
 when, womanlike, she could not forbear adding to 
 their cogency by throwing in a little bribe. On 
 Sunday she promised she would get Mabel to spend 
 the day at Kumbarra, and early on Monday morning, 
 if she could be persuaded to stay the night at the 
 station, Rupert should drive her home. 
 
 That was Thursday. Rupert obeyed his mother's 
 wishes ; and, with the greatest difficulty keeping away 
 from Grimsby Farm, lived in a fever of expectation 
 till the longed-for Sunday came. 
 
 In the meantime, he again saw his father, who, 
 doubtless owing to Mrs Harlin's influence, seemed a 
 little ashamed of his former violence. He was ready 
 to meet Rupert half way, so that a peace was patched 
 up between them, on the understanding that nothing 
 more should be said at present of his intention to 
 marry Mabel ; that he should go shortly to spend a 
 few months at work on Harlin's New South Wales 
 property ; and that if he was still of the same mind 
 the question might be re-opened on his return. 
 
 Rupert declared with some warmth that delay or 
 absence could make no manner of difference to his 
 feelings. This nearly provoked another outburst 
 from his father, who checked himself, however, merely 
 saying grimly that fools sometimes exaggerated their 
 own folly, and that Rupert had better not run his 
 head against a wall earlier than was necessary. 
 
 Mrs Harlin had said nothing to her husband of 
 Mabel's expected visit, and Rupert salved his con-
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 233 
 
 science for likewise keeping silence by the reflection 
 that he had made no promise not to see her, and 
 that he was not to sit in judgment on his mother's 
 tactics, which were admirably designed for the con- 
 venience of Mabel and himself. He more than sus- 
 pected that an idle impulse of his father's towards a 
 visit to a neighbour the other side of Tongalong was 
 fanned into activity by Mrs Harlin. At anyrate his 
 father drove away on Saturday afternoon, and early 
 on Sunday morning Mrs Harlin sent her buggy and 
 ponies to bring Mabel to Kumbarra. 
 
 Mabel blushed and looked inquiringly from Rupert 
 to his mother when the latter welcomed her and 
 kissed her affectionately, without, however, making 
 any reference to late events. 
 
 It was an awkward moment for everybody con- 
 cerned, but Mrs Harlin put an end to it by a sudden 
 recollection of orders concerning lunch, which would 
 be ready in half an hour, and she begged Mabel 
 to excuse her. 
 
 ' Does she know ? ' was the girl's almost breathless 
 inquiry, with anxious eyes turned on Rupert, as the 
 door closed behind her hostess. She stepped back 
 a pace and with a little commanding gesture kept 
 him from her till he had answered her question. 
 'Yes.' 
 
 There was a sigh of relief; her lips parted in a 
 smile that showed a flash of white teeth, and her eyes 
 fell before Rupert's which were worshipping every- 
 thing about her with admiration he fondly believed to 
 be critical, triumphantly vindicating his constancy to 
 the boyish ideal, which, in the short hour of three days 
 ago, he had only half discovered to fall so far short of 
 the reality.
 
 234 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 To a man more experienced and less in love than 
 Rupert the picture that Mabel presented would 
 indeed have been fair to see. A half-petulant little 
 frown and pouting of the lips, at the readiness of her 
 undemonstrative lover to obey the lapsed command to 
 keep away, gave an added piquancy to her bright 
 young face ; and Rupert was so engrossed in the 
 aesthetic pleasure of studying her that he subdued the 
 impulse to take her in his arms and, with a smiling 
 suspicion of its cause, watched the frown deepen. 
 Her foot tapped impatiently and he looked down at 
 it. Unable to persuade himself that it was extra- 
 ordinarily small, he noted with satisfaction that it was 
 well shaped and neatly booted. Good looks, allied 
 to innate good taste rising superior to limitations im- 
 posed by rigid economy, made her faultlessly dressed 
 in Rupert's eyes, and, though he could for a moment 
 concentrate his attention on some single detail to ap- 
 prove it, a grateful impression of brightness, coolness 
 and grace summed up his perception of Mabel. A 
 woman would have told him that the pink print was 
 cheap and fading ; the straw sailor hat last year's 
 shape ; the Suede gloves cleaned more than once, and 
 would have probably felt injured that such grave facts 
 should weigh so little, but Rupert saw only a sweet 
 picture harmoniously framed. Her clear olive skin, 
 that defied sunburn, showed the red beneath, intensified 
 a little by the excitement she felt and the drive in a 
 north wind that had blown loose a lock or two of 
 brown hair, giving a pleasant relieving touch of un- 
 tidiness. Her tall, slight figure had the- grace that 
 comes from constant exercise, never degenerating 
 into toil beyond the strength of healthy young limbs ; 
 for it was a jealously-guarded article of her father's
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 235 
 
 faith that no necessity justified the imposition of 
 other than woman's work on woman's shoulders ; and 
 the charm of Mabel's lithe shapeliness was his 
 complete justification. 
 
 As Rupert still showed no disposition to speak, 
 Mabel was obliged to break the silence. 
 
 ' You don't seem to have much to say to me,' she 
 ventured. 
 
 ' Haven't I, though ? ' he laughed, kissing her this 
 time without other protest than a slight blush. ' I have 
 so much to say that I don't know where to begin 
 and you're so good to look at, Mab, darling, that it 
 seems a pity to leave off even to kiss you.' 
 
 She glanced up at him with a bright smile. 
 
 ' It's nice of you to be so silly, but I want you to be 
 serious now and tell me all that Mr and Mrs Harlin 
 said.' 
 
 'Well I don't think I'll exactly do that, you 
 know,' drawled Rupert, with humorously-raised eye- 
 brows, as he recalled his father's violent language. 
 ' But I'll tell you the long and the short of it. The 
 mater considers us young and foolish, but approves 
 your being here is the best proof of that.' 
 
 ' Yes and your father ? ' 
 
 ' He considers us still younger and more foolish 
 and he doesn't approve somewhat emphatically.' 
 
 ' Why not ? ' 
 
 Rupert laughed a little uneasily, but Mabel's eyes 
 demanded the truth, and he saw that the question 
 could not be evaded. 
 
 ' Because,' he began, casting about for euphemistic 
 words, ' because he and your father are not friends, you 
 know and I think he wants to choose my wife for 
 me.'
 
 236 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 A combative smile hovered about Mabel's lips. 
 
 ' And he thinks a selector's daughter is not good 
 enough for you ? ' 
 
 ' Come here and don't talk nonsense, Mab,' he ex- 
 claimed, trying to put his arm round her. 'Or at 
 least, if my father has ridiculous squattocratic notions, 
 don't visit his sins on me.' 
 
 ' There, you have admitted it,' she said pettishly, 
 but smiling in spite of herself, and making only a 
 feeble effort to escape the hand on her waist. ' I don't 
 want anyone thrown away upon me.' 
 
 ' Then you should have said so before. See here, 
 darling ! ' He held her by the arms ; and Mabel, 
 looking up into his face, felt that parents' wishes 
 counted for very little while that expression was 
 there. ' You must be fair, Mab, to my father as well 
 as to me. Yours thinks you are much too good for a 
 beastly squatter's son he's right, to be sure but 
 that's your fault, not his. And in his way he is just 
 as cranky and unreasonable as my old dad.' 
 
 ' I suppose he is,' sighed Mabel. 
 
 ' Of course he is ! ' Rupert clinched the argument 
 with a kiss. ' So let's make the best of our respec- 
 tive father's idiosyncracies and show them that love 
 has no time to bother about little things of the kind.' 
 
 ' That is all very well, but ' 
 
 ' But nothing this is Sunday, and I'm not going 
 to argue.' 
 
 ' I don't care whether you argue or not ; but you're 
 going to listen. Sit down there and hear what I 
 have to say.' 
 
 ^Rupert drew a chair up opposite hers and leaned 
 forward with his elbows on his knees, staring at her 
 solemnly. ' Go on, Goddess of Wisdom. I am all
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 237 
 
 ears except a little bit of eye that tells me you are 
 very beautiful.' 
 
 Mabel haughtily ignored the interruptions. 
 
 ' It is not exactly the same for us. I know my 
 father has just as much pride as yours,' she began 
 hesitatingly; 'but I do know, too, that our positions 
 are different. You are a gentleman's son, and I ' 
 
 Rupert half rose with an impatient gesture. 
 
 ' No ; let me say it,' she went on with a somewhat 
 disdainful smile curling her lips. ' Don't think that I 
 am humble I am not. And it is just because I am 
 proud, and our social positions ' This time Rupert 
 refused to be silenced or to keep his seat. 
 
 ' Look here, Mab,' he said almost sternly, standing 
 over her and imprisoning her hands with his on the 
 chair arms. ' You are not to think. I don't care two- 
 pence whether it is your pride, or humility, or position 
 or any other nonsense you are not to have it. We be- 
 longto each other and that's all about it. Doyou hear ? ' 
 
 ' I ought to you are emphatic enough,' she 
 answered, looking up with a laugh. 
 
 ' I have to be when you are so obstreperous. No, 
 I am not going to let you go yet. Pride is rot some- 
 times. I have pocketed mine by staying here in the 
 old man's house after a row with him. I have pro- 
 mised to go up to New South Wales for a few months 
 and not to make our engagement public, or say any- 
 thing to him till I come back, because more row now 
 would mean money worries to him and grieve my 
 mother. You see he hopes or pretends to hope 
 that we will think better of it ; but we know that is 
 nonsense. Your people, if you like, need not be told 
 anything till I am home again and my side of the 
 business settled once for all. Will that do ? '
 
 238 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 1 I think it will,' she said meekly. 
 
 ' Well, let this be a lesson to you. Be good 
 another time. You may go now.' He smiled at her 
 affectionately and released her hands. 
 
 ' But you may not,' she said, clasping one of his. ' I 
 am not going to argue or dictate I am not violent 
 enough to have a chance against you I only want to 
 know something.' 
 
 ' Anything you like.' 
 
 ' Are you sure quite sure that you are not mak- 
 ing a mistake ? Is it worth all the quarrelling and 
 everything for a girl you scarcely know ? ' 
 
 ' Is it the girl who was boasting just now of her 
 terrible pride ? ' He shook his head at her mockingly. 
 ' I am surprised at you, Mabel.' 
 
 ' Pride has nothing to do with it,' she said with a 
 happy sigh. ' You are sure that is all I want. I 
 am very fond of you, but it seems wonderful that you 
 should care so much though I thought of you always 
 and somehow expected you would, and I should have 
 been ever so unhappy if you had forgotten what you 
 said that night.' 
 
 ' It was the only thing I really remembered. Ever 
 since I was a boy I have never cared for any other 
 girl like you. And I used to think ' Rupert stopped 
 suddenly as he heard a step in the passage. ' I'll tell 
 you all about that some other time. Now I have got 
 you, and I'm not going to give you up. That's 
 mother coming, so I'll clear out and give her a chance 
 for a five minutes' yarn with you to put things straight 
 before lunch. Don't funk it.' He stooped down and 
 kissed the hand holding his, just as the door opened 
 and Mrs Harlin came in with a smile of comprehen- 
 sion to take Mabel to her room,
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 ' Do you know what I have been thinking of, Ruth ? ' 
 said her husband as she kissed him good-night. 
 
 He had been sitting brooding over the fire for 
 hours, whilst the wind howled and the rain rattled 
 on the iron roof. 
 
 ' How to make farming pay ? ' she asked with a 
 smile. 
 
 ' No, not to-night. For once I thrust that away. 
 I was thinking of the days when you helped me 
 among the maize. We were not married then, and 
 there were no grey hairs amidst the brown. Ah, 
 lassie ! I never thought to drive furrows across your 
 face.' 
 
 ' Hush, you mustn't say such things. No one is 
 proof against time. Let us think of that day 
 together. I shall never forget it. It's long ago, but 
 it seems like yesterday. I feel now as I felt then. 
 Do you, dearest?' 
 
 He pressed her closer to him for reply, and like two 
 lovers they sat gazing at the glowing embers whilst 
 the ticking of the clock alone broke the silence in the 
 room. 
 
 Then Toland spoke in a deep, low voice full of 
 suppressed emotion. 
 
 ' How I misled you ! I lured you with a picture 
 of the future painted in bright colours. Fate has 
 daubed it all over and made it real,' 
 
 239
 
 2 4 o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' You did not mislead me. You promised to love 
 me that was all I wanted, and I have got more than 
 I ever hoped for.' 
 
 They were silent again whilst a gust of wind struck 
 the cottage and made it shake to its foundation, 
 breaking round it with a shrieking sound like a spirit 
 in distress. Then there followed a muffled roar, as a 
 great tree, not far distant, crashed to the ground. 
 
 Ruth gave an involuntary shudder and drew closer 
 to her husband. 
 
 ' Everything seems to fall/ he said enigmatically. 
 
 ' But some can rise again,' said Ruth, interpreting 
 his thoughts. 
 
 'Ruth, there is something I should tell you,' he 
 said after a pause. ' I have been keeping it to myself. 
 Things are in a bad way with us. The mortgage 
 falls due shortly. If I cannot get it renewed God only 
 knows what will happen to us.' 
 
 ' I knew something was worrying you, dear. Why 
 did you not tell me before ? ' 
 
 ' I couldn't,' he replied with something like a 
 groan. ' I want to bear it all myself ; and yet the 
 misery is that if things go wrong you must suffer 
 too.' 
 
 ' I shall only suffer because it will make you 
 miserable.' 
 
 ' Not suffer ! Why, what would become of you if 
 we were driven from our home to tramp the roads 
 and become vagabonds on the face of the earth ? ' 
 
 ' I should be like the Ruth of old, " Wheresoever 
 thou goest I shall go." But all the same I am sure 
 everything will yet turn out for the best' 
 
 ' For years I thought so, but failure follows upon 
 failure. At the start I was full of hope, and no work
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 241 
 
 seemed too hard ; but nothing seems to prosper, and 
 sometimes now, when I'm out, I feel inclined to throw 
 away the tools and go and drown myself. I know 
 now what it is that drives men to the shanty. It 
 isn't the brutishness of their nature but the hopeless- 
 ness of their lives.' 
 
 Ruth took her husband's hand in hers and looked 
 at him with compassionate eyes from which the love- 
 light had not faded. 
 
 'You will not fail, John, dear and you will not 
 fall. All will come right. I know it will.' 
 
 ' We will hope so, little mother. There is nothing 
 to do but to fight on. It's a shame of me to worry 
 you about it, for that can't do any good. You must try 
 and not mind if sometimes I'm a bit of a savage for 
 
 O 
 
 somehow or another strange fits come upon me now.' 
 
 Though that was precisely what Ruth did mind, 
 and which crushed her loving nature more than any 
 prospect of misfortunes to come, she replied sweetly, 
 
 ' I will try and not mind, for I know how much you 
 feel it all, but you must promise to tell me all your 
 worries.' 
 
 'Well, we will not talk about them anymore to-night. 
 It's late, and I must send you to bed. Do not lie 
 awake thinking of them.' 
 
 ' You must come soon too,' said Ruth, as she rose. 
 ' You are always so very late now that it seems to be 
 near morning. Mr Conyngham will be here to- 
 morrow night and you are sure to sit up talking, so 
 do get a good night's rest.' 
 
 ' I won't be long. I'm glad Conyngham's coming. 
 I want to have a yarn with him.' 
 
 When Ruth had gone, Toland sat brooding for 
 a while with his elbows on his knees and his head 
 
 Q
 
 2 4 2 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 between his hands. Then he began to pace the 
 room, a prey to the thoughts that would not let him 
 rest. At first there was a gentle look upon his face 
 as he thought of Ruth's unfaltering love, but gradually 
 it departed and he grew to look stern and morose. 
 Round and round the table he strode, with his hands 
 clenched behind his back, his head bent forward 
 and his great shoulders stooping. Then he felt 
 cramped by the limits of his cage and passed on to 
 the verandah. There he felt more in his element ; 
 for as he marched up and down he was buffeted by 
 the wind, and the noise of the storm at once soothed 
 and exhilarated him. After a while he threw himself 
 down on a bench, and his iron frame being inured to 
 all weather, he did not heed the piercing wind. He 
 was just beginning to doze when he was startled by 
 a voice close by him. 
 
 ' Father ! ' 
 
 ' Yes, Mab,' he replied, springing up. ' What's the 
 matter ? ' 
 
 Mab stood by him, shivering in a wrap thrown 
 over her nightdress, and with her brown hair tossed 
 in the wind. 
 
 ' Father, you're not cross with mother, are you ? ' 
 
 ' No, child. Whatever made you think so ? ' 
 
 ' I heard she was not sleeping, and went to see and 
 found her crying. She pretended nothing was the 
 matter.' 
 
 * I will go and see,' he said, and went inside while 
 Mab crept back to bed, thankful that her father had 
 at last gone to rest and that her vigil was over. 
 
 Next morning the members of the little household 
 were very quiet and subdued. Toland, now ashamed 
 of the emotionalism of the previous night, was stern
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 243 
 
 and moody. The affection even that he had exhibited 
 towards his wife seemed in the light of day a betrayal 
 of weakness. 
 
 What right, he asked himself, had a man on the 
 verge of shame and ruin to think of such things ? 
 Henceforth he would steel himself against all soften- 
 ing influences and meet the buffet of fate in armour 
 of iron. He remembered being told when a boy how 
 in the cold North his forefathers had been known as 
 fierce, relentless men, who went their own way in 
 spite of blood and tears. So would he go his, un- 
 trammelled and alone. Ruth could have the children 
 to comfort her. He was getting on in years, and the 
 time had passed to think of love. With back to the 
 wall he would fight against impending ruin. If it 
 conquered him, what then ? When he thought of it 
 the blood seemed to surge through his brain and a 
 whisper was there which, though vague and inarticu- 
 late, he feared, knowing in his heart of hearts that 
 it was a prompting to destroy. 
 
 Ruth was sad, for she felt instinctively her husband's 
 revulsion of feeling, and knew that he had shut him- 
 self up in himself again. She did not love him the 
 less for it, but pitied him and herself the more. Even 
 in his blackest moods he had always been gentle to 
 her. She had never had to suffer a harsh word, 
 though she would almost have preferred that to his 
 terrible silences. Nor had she the consolation Toland 
 supposed, in being first in Mab's affection, for she 
 guessed that place was reserved for her lover. So 
 the day wore drearily away, the routine of the farm 
 seeming even more monotonous than usual, and all 
 were glad when evening came and the advent of 
 Conyngham relieved the tension.
 
 244 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 During supper the conversation of the schoolmaster 
 led their thoughts into impersonal channels; and 
 under the spell of Mab's contagious merriment and 
 Conyngham's good-humoured repartee to her attacks, 
 even Toland forgot for a while his gloomy forebodings. 
 Once, however, an unfortunate subject was touched 
 by Conyngham. 
 
 ' Did you see the announcement in the last Banner^ 
 he asked, ' of Harlin's intention to cut up the estate 
 into farms and let them by tender ? ' 
 
 ' No,' replied Toland ; ' but I heard there was some 
 talk of his doing it.' 
 
 ' Yes, I know. But I refer to the paper's announce- 
 ment. It is very amusing. I have it here, and with 
 your leave, Mrs Toland, will read it.' 
 
 ' Yes, read it, if it is amusing, by all means,' said 
 Ruth. 
 
 ' It is headed in big type " A Patriotic Under- 
 taking. Settling the people on the land," and the 
 editor goes on to say, 
 
 ' " In these days when inability to procure an acre of 
 land on which to pursue their calling is driving our 
 farmers' sons into Melbourne factories and sweating 
 dens, it will be learnt with gratification that it is the 
 intention of Mr T. Harlin to cut up the Kumbarra 
 Estate into small farms, which will be let at an 
 annual rental to be fixed by open competition. The 
 great fertility of the soil assures a rush of applicants, 
 and doubtless Mr Harlin will be well repaid for his 
 far-sighted and patriotic endeavour to advance the 
 prosperity of the district by enabling it to retain 
 its rising generation " and so on.' 
 
 ' What do you see in it that is so amusing ? ' asked 
 Mab in tones slightly suggestive of resentment.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 245 
 
 ' Oh, I m amused at the introduction of the rack- 
 renting system into the district being so highly 
 eulogised, when, by the cablegrams in the same 
 paper, we read that Irish landlords who have but 
 done the same thing are being potted by their 
 tenants from behind convenient hedgerows. How- 
 ever, perhaps I should not be amused. It will doubt- 
 less be a good thing for the district ; and Harlin will 
 make more out of men than sheep that is, if there is 
 any difference.' 
 
 Toland gave a grunt and asked for another cup 
 of tea in tones of such unnecessary acerbity that 
 Conyngham felt he had broached a topic better 
 avoided, and turned the conversation. 
 
 When supper was over Toland asked his friend to 
 come into the kitchen and have a smoke. 
 
 ' I always feel more as if I could let out over the 
 fire in the kitchen than in the sitting-room,' he said, 
 as he placed a couple of chairs in front of the hearth 
 and threw his coat on the table. 
 
 ' Yes ; it's more comfortable/ assented Conyngham, 
 proceeding to fill his pipe. ' How are things going ? ' 
 
 ' To the devil,' replied Toland, laconically. 
 
 ' A very fit and proper place on a cold night like 
 this,' commented Conyngham, as he kicked the logs 
 together. ' Have you got all the crop in ? ' 
 
 'Very nearly. I'm not putting in so much this year.' 
 
 ' How's that ? ' 
 
 ' Wheat at one and sixpence a bushel in Tongalong 
 does not encourage one much, and the fact that the 
 mortgagee will probably reap the harvest still less.' 
 
 ' Surely things are not so bad as all that ? ' 
 
 ' My mortgage falls due in a month's time, and un- 
 less I get a renewal it will be all up with me.'
 
 246 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 1 By Jove, that is serious ! ' said Conyngham, now 
 deeply concerned. ' Who is your mortgagee ? ' 
 
 ' I got the money from Macnamara in Tonga- 
 long.' 
 
 ' A bad man to deal with,' commented Conyngham. 
 
 ' I had to go to him. At the time I didn't know 
 anyone in Melbourne, and I knew lenders there would 
 not look at a security so far from a railway at least, 
 that's what I was told.' 
 
 ' But surely you can get the mortgage renewed ? ' 
 
 'That's just what I'm afraid about. When I 
 borrowed prices were high and there was a boom 
 on. Since then land has fallen in value. Macnamara 
 pressed me to take more than I intended at the time, 
 and like a fool I did, thinking I could go in on a 
 larger scale. Everything seems to have gone to pot 
 since. Bad seasons, low prices, rabbits, have kept me 
 down. I've had a terrible struggle to pay the interest ; 
 and now there's something worse coming.' 
 
 'It's serious,' said Conyngham; 'and I would 
 advise you to go to Tongalong at once and see 
 Macnamara about a renewal. Don't wait till it's 
 too late to do anything.' 
 
 ' Yes, I was thinking of that, and may go to-morrow. 
 But, my God, Conyngham ! isn't it a come down for 
 a man ? After all my years of labour, clearing the 
 bush and making a home, I may be ruined and sold 
 up and have to tramp the road for work and be a 
 slave till I die.' 
 
 Conyngham nodded his head in acquiescence, not 
 being able to frame a consolatory remark. 
 
 ' How we have all been fooled ! ' continued Toland. 
 'Man after man among the neighbours has been 
 sold up, and, except Scott, I don't believe there is a
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 247 
 
 single one left of those who selected at the same 
 time as myself.' 
 
 ' And they came to the colony to better them- 
 selves ! ' said Conyngham. 
 
 ' Yes, to better themselves,' repeated Toland with 
 a hoarse laugh as he got up and stood with his back 
 to the fire. ' To be independent men and have land 
 of their own to hand down to their children. Don't 
 I remember the old gags I have spouted, and don't I 
 see now the whole fraud of the thing ? The old- 
 world curse is on the new ; there is no such thing as 
 independence for the poor.' 
 
 ' Things may come right yet,' said Conyngham, 
 though he knew Toland had not exaggerated the 
 seriousness of the position. 
 
 ' I hope they will, for, mark you, Conyngham, this 
 life of debt is driving me mad. When I look at my 
 wife I think of her driven from her home to beg 
 for shelter ! I see Mab in a Melbourne sweating den ! 
 Would to God such things did not happen, but they 
 do so every day.' 
 
 ' That's true,' said Conyngham, bitterly. ' They 
 have become so common that no one takes any par- 
 ticular notice of them.' 
 
 ' There must be a remedy,' said Toland, pacing the 
 room ; ' and if I were as strong in brain as I am in 
 muscle I should find it out and make this a world 
 where there would be some other reward for honest 
 toil than starvation and slavery.' 
 
 'It would be a mighty task, my friend,' said Conyng- 
 ham, humouring him. 
 
 ' Yes, and I'll never see it done. I thought to once 
 when I left the old country, but the attempt here to 
 better things has all proved a failure and a sham.'
 
 248 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 1 1 don't know that there ever was any real attempt/ 
 said Conyngham, contemplatively. ' And whatever 
 endeavour was made was conceived in ignorance 
 and executed in fraud. It's the same the wide world 
 over, ever was, and ever will be. It was only in a 
 dream that the lean kine swallowed the fat. It's 
 always the other way in reality.' 
 
 ' And no one cares no one lifts a little finger to 
 cause justice to be done ! ' burst in Toland, his eyes 
 flashing beneath eyebrows contracted with passion. 
 ' How I long for that which oppresses me to take 
 form ! If it were a man I'd seize him in my arms 
 and crush him to death. I'd throttle him till the 
 blood gushed out between his teeth. I'd bury my 
 teeth in his throat like a wild beast ! But instead I 
 must sit down and wait, and hope for the best, and 
 pray like a pious hag that I may not end my days as 
 a vagrant in gaol for they haven't even got a poor- 
 house in this accursed country.' 
 
 Conyngham looked at Toland with alarm, for the 
 fury of his outburst deepened a suspicion he had held 
 for some time that his friend, from constant brooding 
 over his troubles, was becoming a monomaniac. 
 This thought troubled him all the more because, a 
 pessimist himself, he felt disqualified to relieve the 
 mental sufferings of another. 
 
 ' Yes,' he said after a slight pause. ' You might 
 even come to be no better than a vagrant school- 
 master.' 
 
 The remark was a fortunate one, as it instantly 
 directed Toland's thoughts from himself to his com- 
 panion. He dropped into his chair with an exhausted 
 look, and both men sat for a while gazing into the 
 fire in silence, each wondering where the current
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 249 
 
 of the other's life would reach that ocean of 
 eternity. 
 
 Presently Toland rose and said, 
 
 ' I'm not a pleasant mate nowadays. Come and 
 have a game of crib with the wife. 1
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 NEXT morning Toland started before daybreak for 
 Tongalong, and in the afternoon Mallock rode up to 
 the cottage at Grimsby Farm. He tied his horse to 
 the fence, and looking about him with an air of com- 
 placent interest, knocked at the door that opened off 
 the verandah into the sitting-room. Ruth came to see 
 who was there, Mab being away with Joe, who was 
 shifting some stock. She was dumbfounded on recog- 
 nising Mallock, and felt a tremor run through her at 
 the thought of a tete-a-tete. 
 
 ' Oh, it's you, Mr Mallock,' she said hesitatingly, as 
 she held the door half open without asking him to 
 enter. 
 
 ' Yes, it's me, Mrs Toland, and how are you ? ' 
 With an air of uneasy familiarity he held out his 
 hand and Ruth touched it unwillingly, thinking how 
 clammy it felt. 
 
 ' Quite well, thank you/ she replied. 
 
 ' I want to talk over a little business with you,' 
 Mallock continued, edging closer to the door and 
 looking into the room. 
 
 ' With me ? ' said Ruth, in tones of astonishment. 
 
 ' Exactly ! And I reckon no one else will do.' 
 
 ' Come in, then,' she said, and, going back into the 
 room, she resigned herself to the inevitable and sat 
 down. 
 
 Mallock took a seat facing her, and with his hands 
 on his knees leant forward and stared at her closely. 
 
 250
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 251 
 
 ' Mr Toland's gone to town,' he said after a pause. 
 
 ' Yes. Did you want to see him ? ' 
 
 'No; I reckon he's gone on mighty unpleasant 
 business.' 
 
 ' I don't know,' said Ruth, frowning. She knew the 
 man was being insolent, but felt powerless to rebuff 
 him. 
 
 ' Well, I do,' said Mallock, with a malicious grin ; 
 and if you like I'll tell you what his particular 
 business is. He's gone to try and get an extension 
 of the mortgage, so he won't be sold up and turned 
 out of house and home.' 
 
 ' You seem very well acquainted with our affairs, 
 Mr Mallock,' said Ruth in a vain attempt to snub him. 
 
 'Well, I do know something about them a deal 
 sight more than your husband does. And the funny 
 thing is he might have fixed up his business nearer 
 home than Tongalong, if he knew where he was.' 
 
 ' How is that ? ' 
 
 ' You see, he wants to get a renewal from his 
 mortgagee.' 
 
 ' Yes.' Fear was beginning to mingle with Ruth's 
 indignation. 
 
 ' Now, Fm his mortgagee.' 
 
 Ruth gave a little cry and turned deadly white. 
 
 ' You ! ' she gasped. ' No, I know you're not. My 
 husband got the money from Mr Macnamara.' 
 
 ' Who got the money from me and transferred the 
 mortgage to me,' said Mallock, triumphantly. ' You 
 see ladies don't understand business. I, so to speak, 
 bought the deed from Macnamara, and so your 
 husband owes the money to me. That's why I was 
 saying it was so funny him going to Tongalong 'when 
 he could have fixed it up closer.'
 
 252 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 1 But how is it my husband doesn't know this ? ' 
 asked Ruth, trying hard not to believe. 
 
 4 I daresay he does by now. I told Macnamara he 
 could let him know.' 
 
 ' Then our farm is mortgaged to you ? ' Ruth 
 spoke faintly, slowly realising the horror of it. Then 
 Mallock's jarring voice startled her from her thoughts. 
 
 ' It is. But that's nothing ; we can fix it up all 
 right never you fear. It wasn't about that I came 
 to talk to you. That slipped out promiscuous like. 
 What I wanted to talk about is something more 
 interesting to a lady. See here, Mrs Toland, I'm a 
 rich man. I'm worth thousands and thousands of 
 pounds. I own thousands of acres. Half the district 
 is mortgaged to me. Well, I'm getting on in years. 
 I don't want to see it all slip away, so I'm thinking 
 of getting married.' 
 
 'Indeed?' 
 
 ' Yes, Mrs Toland and what's more, I'm thinking 
 of marrying your daughter Mab.' 
 
 ' You can't mean that ! ' cried Ruth. It sounded 
 like a disgusting joke, and she flushed angrily, feeling 
 inclined at once to laugh and to cry. Mallock was 
 too absorbed in his scheme to notice her. 
 
 ' I just do,' he went on placidly. ' She'd suit me 
 first rate, and I reckon my money would suit her, and 
 suit you all. I tell you there's lots of it for all. Why, 
 I own half Tongalong.' 
 
 'If that's all you have come to see me about,' said 
 Ruth, rising with a quiet dignity but trembling from 
 head to foot, 'it is no use your staying longer.' 
 
 ' It is, though ! ' said Mallock, angrily. ' Perhaps 
 you think I'm too old ; I tell you there's plenty left in 
 me yet. My sort never get old can't afford to.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 253 
 
 Ruth began to move towards the door. 
 
 ' Perhaps you don't like the idea of your daughter 
 marrying a man that keeps a public-house, but I tell 
 you she can live in Toorak with the best of them or 
 the worst of them for I'm told they're a pretty hot 
 lot. Money'll do anything. Doesn't a draper have 
 the Governor to breakfast ? Isn't the son of a bullock- 
 driver one of the cocks of the walk? And can't I be 
 the same ? Why, haven't I been asked to put up for 
 the Upper House, and couldn't I ruin any man that 
 opposed me ? I tell you, people don't know what 
 I've got, and every day I make more for thrift's the 
 thing to get a man on.' 
 
 While Mallock spoke in a tone of fierce earnestness 
 Ruth sank back into a chair. When he had finished 
 she spoke in a rather more kindly tone. 
 
 ' Don't say anything more about it, Mr Mallock,' 
 she said, 'you must know it is impossible.' 
 
 'But I say it isn't impossible,' insisted Mallock, 
 striking the table beside him. ' Nothing has been 
 impossible for me. Didn't I learn to read and write 
 by the light of a lantern in the stable when I was 
 working for Cobb & Co. ? Didn't I start with 
 only a few shillings, hawking with a pack on my 
 back ? It's no use telling Nick Mallock anything 
 he wants is impossible to get.' 
 
 'Do you suppose my husband would consent?' 
 asked Ruth. 
 
 ' No,' said Mallock, with a short laugh, ' but that 
 wouldn't be necessary.' 
 
 ' Or my daughter ? ' 
 
 ' I could make her see things in the right light. 
 There's nothing like money. And ain't it better to 
 be wealthy than a pauper any day ? '
 
 254 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' You are insulting,' exclaimed Ruth, incensed with 
 herself for having allowed Mallock to argue the matter. 
 
 ' I beg pardon, I didn't mean it. I was thinking 
 she'd jump at me when I told her of the nice little 
 present I'd give her on her wedding-day to do what 
 she likes with. Here it is ! It's the mortgage on her 
 father's farm. That would square that little business 
 nice and satisfactory to all, now, wouldn't it?' 
 
 Mallock drew a deed out of his pocket and laid 
 it on the table before Ruth. 
 
 ' There it is, you see. That's Mab's the day she 
 marries me. Now, what's it to be ? Will you stand 
 by me or not?' 
 
 Ruth got up from her chair. 
 
 ' Mr Mallock, will you kindly go ? ' 
 
 Mallock was utterly astonished, for his experience 
 of women had been confined to those whose favours 
 were in the market. His anger for the moment was 
 kept under by surprise. 
 
 ' I don't want to offend,' he said. ' It seems to me 
 a straight and fair way of doing things.' 
 
 ' Go ! ' said Ruth, pointing to the door. ' I'm only 
 sorry that my husband is not at home to see you 
 about the matter No I'm glad he's not for he'd 
 kill you if he knew. Be careful, Mr Mallock, when 
 he hears about the mortgage.' 
 
 The speech, made in desperation, was an unfortunate 
 one. Hatred and rage flashed in Mallock's eyes, and 
 he shook with passion. He rose hastily, knocking 
 over his chair. 
 
 ' At home ! ' he spluttered. * You're glad he's not 
 at home ! I tell you, in a month's time he'll have no 
 home. Didn't I on purpose tell Macnamara to lend 
 more on the place than it was worth, so he wouldn't
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 255 
 
 get it from anyone else when it was due? He'll 
 never raise the money to pay me off. He's a ruined 
 man he's in my power. In a month he'll be 
 tramping the roads, and you and your precious 
 daughter begging a lodging. His home ! Why, 
 damn it ! it's my home and he'll have to come and 
 beg on his knees to be allowed to live in it ! Now, 
 Mrs Toland, what have you got to say to me who's 
 not good enough for your gallivantin' daughter ? ' 
 
 Ruth tried to speak, but words failed her. She had 
 swiftly grasped the fact that the position was hope- 
 less, and that her husband's ruin was assured, and she 
 felt more inclined to burst into tears for him than to 
 upbraid Mallock. 
 
 ' Well, I'll leave yer to think over it,' he said, pick- 
 ing up his hat and moving towards the door. ' You 
 can let me know on the quiet within the next few 
 days. But bear in mind, Mrs Toland, Nick Mallock's 
 a man of his word. Good-bye.' He held out his 
 hand, but Ruth did not see it, and with a sneer he 
 walked to the door. His hand on the knob, he turned. 
 ' You've got a nice little place, Mrs Toland a very 
 nice little place, and well worth keeping.' Then, 
 chuckling to himself, he walked out. 
 
 Ruth's eyes followed him till he disappeared. 
 
 ' Oh, John ! ' she cried, and sank into a chair. A 
 moment later she slid down upon the floor and 
 fainted away. 
 
 Just at the time Ruth wailed for her husband a 
 man left Macnamara's office at Tongalong with his 
 hands clenched and his face convulsed with passion. 
 A few minutes later he galloped out of the town on a 
 powerful horse that plunged along with a fresh, free 
 stride. A mile on and the township was no longer
 
 258 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 made men to whom the disciples of the doctrine of 
 thrift pointed as a shining example of what a man who 
 chose to work could accomplish in the colony. He 
 was one of the sturdy pioneers who had changed a 
 shilling into a fortune, certainly not the man to whom 
 a pauper would refuse his daughter. Mallock found 
 his reverie .most entertaining. The world looked well 
 for him. He had just had a heavy meal. His beard 
 was reminiscent of the fried chops he had eaten, and, 
 blinking like a gorged beast, he chuckled every now 
 and again as he thought of his latest venture. His 
 thought even became too entertaining and jocular to 
 be silenced. 
 
 ' By God ! I wish I had her sitting by me now ! 
 I wouldn't want no fire to keep me warm.' 
 
 As he spoke he started. 
 
 ' Hullo ! There's someone on the road.' 
 
 He listened a moment. The far-off hoof-beats of a 
 galloping horse could be heard. Mallock felt annoyed 
 at his amorous reveries being interrupted by a traveller. 
 He went into the bar and, leaning over the counter, 
 listened again. Yes, he had not been mistaken ; there 
 was a horseman on the road. Who would be re- 
 turning by night ? he wondered. He had seen no 
 one ride down. Then a recollection flashed across 
 his mind ' John Toland ! ' But if so, why was he 
 returning now, and making a two days' journey into 
 one ? Had his interview with Macnamara anything 
 to do with it ? Then Mrs Toland's warning occurred 
 to him, and at the same time he heard the hoof-beats 
 draw nearer. Beads of perspiration broke out on 
 his forehead. He determined at least to be prepared, 
 for there was no man on the place, and his only servant 
 was in the detached kitchen. Opening a drawer in
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 259 
 
 the bar counter he took out a life-preserver, which 
 he slipped on to his right hand, so that a narrow band 
 of iron, padded beneath, lay across his knuckles. He 
 was afraid of no man now. Then he listened again. 
 The hoof- beats were close at hand, and he scarcely had 
 time to mop his forehead when the rider pulled up at 
 the door. A moment later heavy footsteps sounded 
 on the verandah, and Toland reeled into the bar. He 
 stopped in the centre of the floor and stared at 
 Mallock, with murder and madness in his gleaming 
 eyes. For an instant the two men glared at one 
 another in silence which Toland was the first to 
 break. 
 
 ' You dog, I've got you now ! ' he hissed between 
 his teeth. 
 
 ' Clear out of this, you drunken fool ! ' retorted 
 Mallock. 
 
 ' I'm not drunk I know what I'm about. I've 
 come to kill you.' 
 
 ' Oh, you have ? ' sneered Mallock, adjusting the 
 iron bar below the counter. ' Start away and do it 
 now the sooner you're hanged the better.' 
 
 Without a word Toland sprang upon the counter, 
 but before he could get over, and as he knelt upon 
 it, Mallock struck him a fierce blow between the eyes. 
 With a terrible cry, half roar, half moan, Toland threw 
 up his arms and crashed down upon the floor. As he 
 lay huddled up and motionless Mallock ran round 
 and pulled him over on his back to see the result of 
 his blow. There was a great gash on the forehead, 
 from which blood was trickling over his face and dis- 
 appearing in his beard. To all appearances he was 
 dead. 
 
 ' By Heaven, it looks as if I had done the killing ! '
 
 258 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 made men to whom the disciples of the doctrine of 
 thrift pointed as a shining example of what a man who 
 chose to work could accomplish in the colony. He 
 was one of the sturdy pioneers who had changed a 
 shilling into a fortune, certainly not the man to whom 
 a pauper would refuse his daughter. Mallock found 
 his reverie most entertaining. The world looked well 
 for him. He had just had a heavy meal. His beard 
 was reminiscent of the fried chops he had eaten, and, 
 blinking like a gorged beast, he chuckled every now 
 and again as he thought of his latest venture. His 
 thought even became too entertaining and jocular to 
 be silenced. 
 
 ' By God ! I wish I had her sitting by me now ! 
 I wouldn't want no fire to keep me warm.' 
 
 As he spoke he started. 
 
 ' Hullo ! There's someone on the road.' 
 
 He listened a moment. The far-off hoof-beats of a 
 galloping horse could be heard. Mallock felt annoyed 
 at his amorous reveries being interrupted by a traveller. 
 He went into the bar and, leaning over the counter, 
 listened again. Yes, he had not been mistaken ; there 
 was a horseman on the road. Who would be re- 
 turning by night? he wondered. He had seen no 
 one ride down. Then a recollection flashed across 
 his mind ' John Toland ! ' But if so, why was he 
 returning now, and making a two days' journey into 
 one? Had his interview with Macnamara anything 
 to do with it ? Then Mrs Toland's warning occurred 
 to him, and at the same time he heard the hoof-beats 
 draw nearer. Beads of perspiration broke out on 
 his forehead. He determined at least to be prepared, 
 for there was no man on the place, and his only servant 
 was in the detached kitchen. Opening a drawer in
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 25g 
 
 the bar counter he took out a life-preserver which 
 he slipped on to his right hand, so that a narrow band 
 of iron, padded beneath, lay across his knuckles. He 
 was afraid of no man now. Then he listened again. 
 The hoof-beats were close at hand, and he scarcely had 
 time to mop his forehead when the rider pulled up at 
 the door. A moment later heavy footsteps sounded 
 on the verandah, and Toland reeled into the bar. He 
 stopped in the centre of the floor and stared at 
 Mallock, with murder and madness in his gleaming 
 eyes. For an instant the two men glared at one 
 another in silence which Toland was the first to 
 break. 
 
 ' You dog, I've got you now ! ' he hissed between 
 his teeth. 
 
 'Clear out of this, you drunken fool!' retorted 
 Mallock. 
 
 ' I'm not drunk I know what I'm about. I've 
 come to kill you.' 
 
 'Oh, you have?' sneered Mallock, adjusting the 
 iron bar below the counter. ' Start away and do it 
 now the sooner you're hanged the better.' 
 
 Without a word Toland sprang upon the counter, 
 but before he could get over, and as he knelt upon 
 it, Mallock struck him a fierce blow between the eyes. 
 With a terrible cry, half roar, half moan, Toland threw 
 up his arms and crashed down upon the floor. As he 
 lay huddled up and motionless Mallock ran round 
 and pulled him over on his back to see the result of 
 his blow. There was a great gash on the forehead, 
 from which blood was trickling over his face and dis- 
 appearing in his beard. To all appearances he was 
 dead. 
 
 ' By Heaven, it looks as if I had done the killing ! '
 
 260 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 muttered Mallock, as he slipped his hand beneath 
 Toland's coat to see if the heart still beat. He felt it 
 faintly, and dashed the contents of the water jug over 
 his victim's head. Then, fearing someone might come 
 upon the scene, he half dragged and half carried 
 Toland through the bar-parlour into a small room 
 opening from it, where he laid him on a sofa and 
 poured some more water over him. Presently Toland 
 showed signs of returning consciousness. His limbs 
 moved and he moaned heavily. Mallock began to 
 fear that he would come round and resume the attack, 
 for he knew the nature of the man. Then it occurred 
 to him to treat Toland as he had treated many a 
 drunkard whose violence he feared. He hurried into 
 the bar and brought back a glass containing a power- 
 ful dose of laudanum which he poured down Toland's 
 throat. Then he waited and watched. But there was 
 no longer cause to fear, for the limbs ceased to move 
 and John Toland slept the sleep of the drugged. 
 
 ' He'll be all right till morning, anyhow/ muttered 
 Mallock as he left .the room and locked the door 
 behind him lest his prisoner should be discovered. 
 Then he put out the lights and went to bed, though, 
 as it proved, not to sleep. Having a drugged man on 
 the premises was nothing so unusual as to be a cause 
 of sleeplessness, but what kept Nicholas Mallock 
 awake and tossing on his bed through the night was 
 the weaving of a web wherein to entrap Mabel 
 Toland.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AT breakfast, the morning after Toland's departure 
 for Tongalong, Mab announced her intention of 
 riding to meet him. 
 
 ' I told him I might when he left,' she said ; ' and 
 I think poor old dad would like it.' 
 
 'You had better not go further than the gap, 
 then,' said her mother. She hated the idea of Mabel 
 even passing the ' Morning Star.' Mallock's visit she 
 had not mentioned to her children, fearing their 
 questions as to its object. 
 
 ' Very well,' replied Mab, cheerfully. ' I'm long- 
 ing to hear dad's news. Joe, you've finished your 
 breakfast. Do go and get the cob, like a good boy.' 
 
 ' All right, but he's sure to be looking over the 
 fence in the furthest corner/ grumbled Joe, good- 
 naturedly. ' What a nuisance sisters are ! ' 
 
 'Well, you get the cob, and I'll ride away and 
 leave you in peace.' 
 
 An hour later Mab was gaily cantering along 
 the road, singing snatches of song, and thoroughly 
 enjoying the bright sunshine and keen, frosty air. 
 It had been a practice of hers from childhood to 
 ride and meet her father on his return from 
 occasional visits to Tongalong, and she felt more 
 than ever desirous not to neglect any little act that 
 might gratify him. His lot, she knew, had become 
 hard to bear, and she longed to be able to cheer 
 
 261
 
 262 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 him when he fell into his gloomy moods. She 
 idolised her father, believed he could do no wrong, 
 and wished she were a man to help him out of 
 his difficulties. Then she thought of Rupert, 
 and sighed to think how unsatisfactory was the 
 condition of their love affair. But Rupert and she 
 could wait for one another, she decided, and after 
 all, it was necessary for many people's sake that 
 they should be separated for a time. So, singing, 
 and dreaming and thinking by turn, Mab soon 
 found herself at the foot of the gap. As there was 
 no sign of her father, she dismounted and found a 
 comfortable seat for herself. An hour passed, and 
 as he still did not appear she grew impatient, and 
 determined to ride along the road till she met him. 
 She struggled up the steep incline on foot to ease 
 her horse, and stopped half way to get her breath 
 and indulge in an old amusement of her childhood, 
 of throwing stones off the causeway to see them 
 strike and rebound fifty feet below. She remounted 
 on the top of the slope, and a few minutes later 
 cantered past the ' Morning Star.' 
 
 Mallock saw her ride by from the bar, and went 
 out on to the verandah to watch the retreating figure. 
 He guessed her purpose, for he had frequently seen 
 Mab ride to meet her father; and he chuckled to 
 himself as he thought how fruitless was her errand, 
 and how accident was assisting designs he had 
 formed. He knew she would soon return alone, and 
 his brain ran riot with hot imaginings, part products 
 of the waking dreams of the night before. In order 
 to steady his nerves and help him to decide on a 
 course of action, he tossed off a nobbier of brandy. 
 Then he went to have a look at Toland, to whom
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 2 6 3 
 
 he had given another dose that morning. He found 
 him seemingly unconscious, but in order to make 
 sure, he shook him and called him loudly by name. 
 There was no response, and, fully satisfied, he returned 
 to the verandah to wait for Mab. As time went 
 by, Mallock grew more and more impatient, and 
 began pacing up and down. Now and again he 
 laughed to himself as he thought how fortune was 
 ever on his side. He had said he would succeed, 
 and here was success coming to him almost un- 
 sought He wished the girl would come quickly, as, 
 between excitement and brandy, he was feeling 
 shaky. Soon he saw Mab returning, and as she 
 drew near, he went out into the road and signalled 
 her to stop. 
 
 ' Good-day, Miss Mab ! I thought you might be 
 looking for your father,' he said, putting his hand on 
 her horse's neck. 
 
 Mab looked down with disgust at the blear-eyed 
 face turned up to hers. 
 
 ' I was going to meet him, but he must have been 
 detained,' she replied curtly. 
 
 ' Well, then, he hasn't,' replied Mallock. 
 
 ' How do you know ? ' said Mab, in surprise. 
 
 ' I happen to know because at this moment he's 
 over in the hotel.' 
 
 Mab looked astonished. 
 
 c If he is,' she said, ' kindly tell him I am here.' 
 
 ' It wouldn't be no good, Miss Mab,' said Mallock 
 with a shake of the head. 
 
 ' What he isn't dead ! ' cried Mab, conjuring up 
 horrible visions of accident. 
 
 ' Yes,' replied Mallock, laconically. ' Dead drunk ! ' 
 
 ' It's untrue ! A horrible lie.'
 
 264 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 'If you'll step inside I'll show him to you. You 
 needn't believe me. It don't matter to me.' 
 
 ' I wouldn't go on any account. I know it's not 
 true.' 
 
 ' Then you'd better go home and get Joe to come 
 down for him, before I have to hand him over to 
 the police. Good-day.' 
 
 Mallock moved away. Mab rode on a step or two, 
 then pulled up and turned round. 
 
 ' Mr Mallock,' she said simply, ' I'll see if it is 
 true for my father's sake.' 
 
 She sprang off her horse before Mallock could 
 touch her and followed him into the bar-parlour. 
 Toland lay in the next room ; and in the wall 
 between the two there was a trap-door, used for 
 passing glasses from one room to the other. Mallock 
 went to the trap-door and drew it on one side. 
 
 ' Come here and see for yourself,' he said, turning 
 to Mab with a sinister smile. 
 
 Mab looked through and gave a cry of horror, for 
 there was her father, stretched apparently lifeless on 
 his back, blood stains alone relieving the ghastly 
 pallor of his face. 
 
 ' What is the matter with him ? ' She cried in 
 anguish, ' Father ! father ! ' 
 
 Toland did not stir. Mallock, breathing heavily, 
 watched her and said nothing. 
 
 ' Let me go to him at once,' she demanded im- 
 periously. ' Ah, there is the door ! ' She ran to it. It 
 was locked. ' Open the door this instant ! ' she cried. 
 
 ' Not yet, Miss Mab. You don't believe your 
 father's here, do you ? ' 
 
 ' Unlock it at once, I say, or I'll get someone 
 to make you.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 2 6 5 
 
 Mallock smiled sardonically, and Mab rushed to the 
 door by which they had entered. It too was locked. 
 
 She turned on Mallock, quivering with wrath. 
 
 ' What do you mean by locking me in here ? Let 
 me out at once.' 
 
 'Not yet.' 
 
 ' Then I'll scream for help.' 
 
 ' There's only a woman on the place and she's 
 not within call.' 
 
 Mab was beside herself and rapidly becoming 
 hysterical. 
 
 ' What does it mean ? ' she moaned, dropping into 
 a chair. 'My father! What is the matter with 
 him ? Is he dead ? J 
 
 ' It means this, Miss Mab,' said Mallock, drawing 
 closer. 'In the first place you needn't be afraid about 
 yer dad. I can bring him round right enough for 
 you. He's only a bit off his head over this mortgage 
 business.' 
 
 ' Why don't you let me go to him, though ? ' 
 said Mab, with a measure of relief at hearing that 
 at least her father was alive. 
 
 Mallock did not answer immediately, but took a 
 chair opposite Mab, who leant with her head between 
 her hands and her elbows on the table, striving 
 to stifle a fit of sobbing. 
 
 ' Because I want to explain matters a bit first,' 
 he said. ' You see it's all this mortgage business has 
 upset your dad. I'm real sorry I should be the cause. 
 But you see money lent must be returned.' 
 
 'What do you mean? What have you to do 
 with it?' 
 
 ' Don't you know ? I'm his mortgagee. He owes 
 the money to me.'
 
 266 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 1 To you ! ' cried Mab, incredulously. 
 
 ' Yes ; he got my money through Macnamara. 
 Here's the mortgage deed, you see.' Mallock placed 
 the deed on the table. 
 
 ' Poor old father ! ' cried Mab, jumping up and 
 running to the aperture. ' I don't wonder now. Mr 
 Mallock, you must open that door ; I won't wait any 
 longer.' 
 
 ' No, no, not yet. I have a little proposal to make 
 first. See here this business is killing your dad. 
 What I say is this. Marry me, and take the 
 mortgage.' 
 
 Mallock stepped forward, and Mab recoiled in 
 horror. 
 
 ' Marry you ! ' 
 
 ' Yes, that's it and save your father. I love you 
 too by Heaven I do.' 
 
 ' I'd die first.' 
 
 ' Won't you think over it a moment ? Wouldn't I 
 suit you, Mab ? ' he said with a semi-drunken leer. 
 
 ' It's revolting,' she gasped. Disgust almost choked 
 her utterance. 
 
 ' You're so much better than I am, are you, my fine 
 lady?' 
 
 'Open the door! open the door!' cried Mab, 
 frantically. 
 
 A malevolent smile played on Mallock's flushed 
 features. 
 
 ' And how shall I tame my little bird if I let her 
 out of the cage ? ' he asked brutally. 
 
 Mab ran to the trap-door again. 
 
 'Father, help me! Wake! wake!' she called 
 piteously. 
 
 Mallock laughed, amused at her helplessness.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 2 6 7 
 
 ' It's no use, little one. Nick Mallock's the only 
 man to help you. By G d, I must have you, my 
 beauty.' 
 
 He seized her hand. She jerked it away and 
 screamed. Mallock laughed again. 
 
 ' Don't cry, my pet. I only wanted a kiss. Look 
 here, Mab, I'll give you this mortgage for a kiss.' He 
 held the deed out, his hand shaking violently. 
 
 Mab made no reply, but stood spellbound, trembl- 
 ing with fear and repulsion. 
 
 ' Then I must have it for nothing.' 
 
 He ran towards her and caught her by the waist. 
 There was a shrill cry quickly stifled. 
 
 ' Keep quiet ! ' he hissed. ' You'll be glad enough 
 to marry me yet. Let go, you vixen !' 
 
 Mab, for a moment, held him back, but she quickly 
 felt her strength relax and his thick lips draw closer 
 to hers. His spirit-reeking breath beat hot on her 
 face. 
 
 ' Father, help me ! ' she shrieked for the last time. 
 An awful fear came to her. She could struggle no 
 more. Then the room swam round. It came crash- 
 ing down with the sound of splintering timber. She 
 heard a hoarse voice. The sound of a fall and a 
 heavy groan. With a start she returned to full 
 consciousness, and saw Mallock stretched on the 
 floor, and her father, with his knee on his chest and 
 his hand on his throat, strangling him to death 
 despite his struggles. Mab gave a cry of joy, which 
 was quickly succeeded by one of horror, as she 
 realised that murder was being done before her eyes. 
 She threw herself on her knees beside Toland and 
 tried to loosen his grasp. 
 
 ' Let go, father, dear ! You're murdering him ! ' she
 
 268 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 cried. But Toland was unconscious of everything 
 around, unconscious even of what he was doing. His 
 face was set ; his muscles were rigid ; his eyes stared 
 vacantly at the floor. Mallock was being done to 
 death by the hands of an automaton. Mab, finding 
 her efforts useless, rushed to the door to summon 
 help. It was locked. She rushed back for the key 
 and found it on the floor by Mallock's side. Then 
 she ran, crying for help, through the bar into the 
 verandah, and almost into Conyngham's arms. 
 
 ' Good heavens, Mab ! What's the matter? ' 
 
 'Come quick or you'll be too late. He's killing 
 him ! ' she gasped. 
 
 They rushed back together into the room, and not 
 a moment too soon, for blood and foam were oozing 
 from Mallock's lips, and he had almost ceased to 
 struggle. 
 
 ' Let go, Toland,' said Conyngham, authoritatively, 
 as he seized his wrists. 
 
 Toland's grasp immediately relaxed. His head 
 fell forward on his chest, and if Mab had not caught 
 him he would have fallen on the floor. 
 
 Mallock lay for a moment gasping for breath, then 
 he struggled to his feet, and, moaning horribly, 
 staggered out of the room. At the same time 
 Toland drifted back into complete unconsciousness 
 under the returning influence of the drug ; and, being 
 placed on the sofa by Conyngham and Mab, lay 
 there inert and motionless.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ' ASLEEP at last,' said Conyngham, entering the 
 parlour and gently closing the door of Toland's sick- 
 room behind him. ' He is sure to recover now.' He 
 glanced with an expression of solicitude at Ruth's 
 weary, sorrow-worn face, for the moment lit up by a 
 great thankfulness. 'But why are you not lying 
 down as you promised, Mrs Toland ? We shall have 
 you ill yourself, and that will not do.' 
 
 She smiled gratefully and sank into the chair he 
 placed for her. 
 
 ' I couldn't,' she said. ' I tried, but I couldn't sleep. 
 I was afraid to hear him struggling again with you 
 and Joe.' 
 
 ' That is all over,' he replied confidently. ' And 
 now you really must remember that it's selfish not to 
 think of yourself a little for your husband's sake, 
 you know.' 
 
 Ruth looked indeed in need of care, and the smile 
 faded from Conyngham's face as he noticed the dark 
 lines under her unnaturally bright eyes, and the fra- 
 gility of the figure emphasised by her black dress, 
 which also made the pale face look paler. 
 
 ' Then how you must need rest ! ' she said. ' You 
 have not left him for two days two days ! ' she went 
 on musingly. ' It seems like as many years since you 
 brought him back to me.' 
 
 ' Don't think of them,' said Conyngham, soothingly. 
 269
 
 270 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' They are over now, and when he wakes I am sure 
 he will be himself again.' 
 
 Ruth stared at him anxiously, hanging with hope 
 and dread on every word. 
 
 ' Yes,' he continued, standing with his arms resting 
 on a chair-back before her ; ' I feel certain of that. 
 But he will be very weak and his mind a blank 
 probably since the time of his accident. I think I 
 would just tell him about the fall from his horse, 
 you know and how he was carried to the " Morning 
 Star," when Mabel and I found him and brought him 
 home.' 
 
 Looking into Ruth's trusting face Conyngham 
 could scarcely bring himself to deceive her, but he 
 knew that falsehood was merciful, and the truth 
 would be infinitely cruel. It was his most fervent 
 hope that Toland would indeed remember nothing. 
 
 ' Don't let his mind dwell on past events more than 
 can be helped till he is strong. And now, Mrs 
 Toland, I should only be in the way, and I am going 
 to say good-bye.' 
 
 Ruth sprang impulsively to her feet; and, disre- 
 garding the hand he held out to her, laid her fingers 
 on his arm. ' Oh, you must not go yet ! ' she cried. 
 ' Wait at least till he wakes and can thank you.' 
 
 ' I need no thanks and if I did I should value 
 them at least as much from you.' 
 
 4 Well, you have them true friend,' she said 
 tremulously, placing her hand in his. 
 
 A flush passed over Conyngham's sallow face, and 
 he checked an impulse to raise her fingers to his lips. 
 
 Then there was a faint sound of movement from 
 the next room, and, forgetting Conyngham, Ruth 
 tip-toed swiftly towards it.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU ajl 
 
 ' Wait ! I thought I heard him stir,' she whispered 
 with her ear against the panel ; and then, opening 
 the door, passed into the other room. 
 
 Joe was sitting there with his head between his 
 hands, gazing into the fire, utterly tired out. During 
 the time of Toland's delirium Conyngham had in- 
 sisted that the women were better away and that he 
 and Joe would make the most efficient nurses. 
 
 Ruth went to the bed and leant over her husband. 
 He still slept peacefully. The morose look had left 
 his face, and she was reminded of the John Toland of 
 other and happier days. Tears filled her eyes as she 
 thought of him waking to the cares he had for a time 
 forgotten, and she bent and kissed him gently. Then 
 she left the room again to say good-bye to Conyng- 
 ham but found that he had gone. 
 
 On the way to the stable for his horse, Conyngham 
 met Mab, who, being unable to sleep or rest, had 
 spent the last two days wandering about a prey to 
 almost unendurable misery. No one knew what she 
 had gone through in the parlour of the ' Morning Star,' 
 and she had to support alone the nightmare of 
 shame and horror. She wished to die, to blot out 
 the thought of her humiliation and end the agony of 
 her morbid grief. She felt desecrated in mind and 
 body by Mallock's brutal embrace, and could scarcely 
 refrain from tearing the flesh where his arms had 
 wound round her. In the turmoil of hysteria she 
 found herself almost wishing that her father had 
 killed Mallock, and that he himself would never 
 regain consciousness. It was hard enough to endure 
 alone, but she could not bear it at all, she felt, if 
 another soul should know. If her father remembered 
 from what he had rescued her, she knew that he
 
 272 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 would kill Mallock with his returning strength, and 
 then the world would have the whole sordid story. 
 
 Conyngham startled her from a reverie with his 
 cheery salute. 
 
 'Well, Mab,' he said, 'don't be so doleful. I 
 have good news for you. Your father has fallen 
 asleep and we believe that he will wake all right.' 
 
 Mab was silent a moment, struggling with con- 
 flicting feelings. 
 
 ' It's a dreadful thing to say,' she ventured hesitat- 
 ingly, 'but I feel glad chiefly for mother's sake. I 
 believe it would have been happier for him if he had 
 died, or lost his reason.' 
 
 ' And for you, miss ? ' 
 
 ' Oh, I ' Mab stammered and hung her head, 
 suddenly aware how little of her real thought she 
 could explain to Conyngham. 
 
 He regarded her meditatively. 'That's a very 
 gloomy way of looking at it,' he said. ' Life and 
 sanity are generally regarded as essentials of a happy 
 existence.' 
 
 ' And money to pay debts,' added Mab, hurriedly, 
 glad to have the discussion shifted on to a more 
 impersonal basis. 
 
 'Yes, that is true. But I think you worry too 
 much over that aspect. I've never cultivated a 
 hopeful turn of mind myself, but I don't think you 
 should be quite so ready to consign your father to a 
 nice quiet grave, or to a strait waistcoat in a 
 lunatic asylum, merely because of a deficiency of 
 cash. I don't wish to appear unsympathetic, but I 
 think you will all have to pull yourselves together.' 
 
 ' I know you are right,' said Mab, with something 
 approaching a smile, as she realised how cold-blooded
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 2?3 
 
 her hastily-voiced avowal must have sounded. ' But 
 nobody nowadays expects to be happyand it's 
 sometimes so consoling to be miserable.' 
 
 Conyngham looked at the spirited face, half turned 
 from him, as she plucked a chrysanthemum to 
 pieces and gazed with an expression he could not 
 read at the hills. Mabel did not look like a creature 
 to surrender, without a struggle, the bright things of 
 life. 
 
 ' That is a paradox I am afraid I have not time to 
 stay and unravel,' he said at length, smiling. 
 
 Mabel turned quickly towards him. ' Why, you're 
 not going to leave us, are you ? ' she exclaimed. ' It 
 will be worse when we are left to ourselves.' 
 
 'I'm not wanted any more. Your father will be 
 himself when he wakes, and then your mother will 
 be his best nurse. If by any chance I should be 
 wanted, send for me, and I will come at once.' 
 
 ' I know you will. You've been very good to us.' 
 
 Her eyes spoke all the thanks her voice could not 
 utter, and Conyngham smilingly wondered at the 
 strength of the narrow browned hand that clasped his 
 as he said good-bye. 
 
 She went restlessly back to the house, and Conyng- 
 ham started on his lonely ride, musing upon the 
 irony of fate that made him a consoler of the un- 
 fortunate. 
 
 The remainder of the day passed wearily, Joe going 
 to rest and Mabel sitting, in the intervals of necessary 
 and welcome tasks, with her mother, who never left 
 the sick-room. 
 
 Late that night, when Ruth was watching by his 
 side alone Toland, woke. 
 
 'Is that you, little wife?' he murmured dreamily. 
 S
 
 274 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Yes, dear,' she replied, with a great throb of joy 
 that the delirium had gone. 
 
 ' What's the time ? ' 
 
 ' After twelve o'clock.' 
 
 'Why are you not in bed, then?' he asked 
 wonderingly. 
 
 ' I have been watching you, dear.' She affection- 
 ately smoothed back the hair from his bandaged 
 forehead and touched his face with her lips. 
 
 Toland turned with an effort to her. ' Has any- 
 thing been the matter with me?' he asked. 'I feel 
 very strange.' 
 
 ' You have not been well,' replied Ruth, hesitat- 
 ingly, dreading what was to come. 
 
 ' Tell me what has happened ? It makes my head 
 ache trying to think.' 
 
 'Don't worry over it now, dear. Try to go to 
 sleep again.' 
 
 'No, I don't want to sleep/ he said, with more 
 decision. ' Have I had an accident ? ' 
 
 'Yes, dear, you had a fall from your horse. Mr 
 Conyngham found you and brought you home.' 
 
 ' I don't remember anything about it. Where had 
 I been riding ? ' 
 
 1 Don't ask all these questions now, dearest. It is 
 not good for you. Do wait till the morning,' she en- 
 treated, feverishly wanting to gain time and dreading 
 the cross-examination so merciless to himself and her. 
 
 ' I can't,' he said fretfully. ' I might sleep if I 
 knew all about it. Everything seems a blank, and 
 it makes my brain ache puzzling it out. Where had 
 I been riding, Ruth ? ' 
 
 There was a demand not to be gainsaid in his 
 voice, weak as it was, and Ruth trembled, feeling
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 275 
 
 herself on the brink of a precipice. 'To Tongalong,' 
 she said faintly. 
 
 ' To Tongalong ? What did I go there for ? ' 
 
 'I I I don't know. That is I think on busi- 
 ness. Oh, John, my darling husband, do go to sleep 
 again ! ' she cried piteously. 
 
 He stared for a moment with knitted brows into 
 her agonised face ; and, clasping both her hands in 
 his, he raised himself against the pillows. 
 
 ' On business ! What business ? ' He pressed one 
 hand to his forehead. ' Yes let me think I begin 
 to remember oh, my God ! The mortgage ! ' 
 
 He fell back again and closed his eyes, scarcely 
 conscious that Ruth was bending over him. 
 
 ' Don't think of it now. I beg you not to ! ' she 
 whispered imploringly, laying her head against his 
 on the pillow. ' You have been ill, but you are going 
 to get well again, and I am here beside you. Only 
 think of that to-night.' 
 
 Toland seemed not to hear her. Weak from long 
 delirium, his mind was feebly feeling its way through 
 the darkness. 
 
 'I remember seeing Macnamara, but nothing 
 after. Did I have the fall on my way back?' he 
 muttered presently. 
 
 ' Yes, dear. You fell on your forehead and were 
 stunned.' 
 
 For a while he lay in silence, and Ruth did not stir, 
 praying fervently that he was dropping off to sleep 
 again. Suddenly he clenched his hands and Ruth 
 caught his wrists in dread. 
 
 ' I remember now ! ' he moaned hoarsely. ' I'm in 
 the power of Nicholas Mallock ! ' 
 
 Then he raised himself on his elbows and stared
 
 276 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 about him, fiercely at first, and then with a look of 
 dull despair. Ruth feared that he was going to 
 throw himself from the bed. 
 
 ' Lie down again, dearest, if you love me ! ' she cried 
 as she flung her arms round his neck and pressed 
 him gently back. Toland sank again on the pillow, 
 and with a deep groan turned his face to the wall 
 and lay in silence. Ruth stood a minute leaning 
 over him ; and then, as he did not stir, gently with- 
 drew her arm from beneath his neck ; and, taking a 
 chair by the bedside, sat with her head bowed down 
 on the counterpane, sobbing as if her heart would 
 break. 
 
 Soon Mab stole noiselessly into the room ; and 
 Ruth, feeling a sympathetic touch on her shoulder, 
 looked up and checked her crying. 
 
 Mab's eyes were sparkling with terrified curiosity. 
 
 ' Is he awake ? ' she whispered. 
 
 ' Yes, dear ; at least he was.' 
 
 ' And better ? ' 
 
 ' Yes ! quite himself again.' 
 
 Trembling all over, Mabel looked at the silent 
 figure by the wall. Then she turned to her mother. 
 
 ' Does he remember anything ? ' she asked with 
 an effort, in a voice she scarcely recognised as her 
 own. 
 
 ' Nothing after leaving the lawyer's office in 
 Tongalong.' 
 
 The room swam before Mab. The tension had gone, 
 and she could scarcely see the couch by the window 
 to which she falteringly made her way. She sank 
 upon it, hiding her face a moment in the curtain folds. 
 ' Thank God ! Thank God ! ' she sighed beneath 
 her breath, realising the immensity of the dread that
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 277 
 
 had loomed before her for the last two days. Now 
 it was gone she understood more clearly the less 
 selfish grief that weighed her mother down, and saw 
 with a pang of conscience how pale and wan she had 
 become. 
 
 'Oh, mother dear!' she said, going over and 
 kissing her fondly, 'you look so tired. You must 
 go to bed and let me stay with father now.' 
 
 Mrs Toland was touched by Mab's strangely 
 softened mood. She would not go to bed, however 
 but insisted that Mab should do so. No one need 
 sit up, she said, as she was no longer anxious, but 
 she would lie down on the couch, where she would be 
 at hand if the invalid should need anything. So Mab 
 stayed for a little with her mother, and then went to 
 her room, thankful that her own cup of bitterness had 
 not been filled quite to overflowing. 
 
 Toland woke in the morning, clear-minded, but 
 very weak ; and, though gradually regaining strength, 
 he remained nevertheless utterly broken in spirit. 
 The violent, wrathful moods had gone, but in their 
 place a gloom that never lifted settled upon him. 
 He wandered about, scarcely ever attempting to help 
 Joe with the work through the day, while at night he 
 sat for hours gazing into the fire. No memory of his 
 ride and after events returned. The story of his 
 accident he accepted without question, and he never 
 alluded to his trip to Tongalong ; but as soon as he 
 had sufficiently recovered to attend to business, he 
 wrote, at Conyngham's suggestion, to the Tongalong 
 agent of Messrs Owen & Smith, a Melbourne firm 
 that did a large money-lending business in farming 
 districts. In reply to his request for an advance, the 
 firm's valuer came to inspect, with the result that an
 
 278 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 offer of ,700 was made .300 short of the amount 
 required to pay off the mortgage. After that Toland 
 seemed to entirely abandon hope, and, with folded 
 arms, to wait the falling of his doom. 
 
 But not so Ruth. Distressed by her husband's 
 silent apathy more than by the stormy resentfulness 
 which it succeeded, she did not give way to despair, 
 but summoned all her latent energy to fight against 
 disaster. She recognised that her husband's mind 
 was unhinged and incapable of warding off the fate 
 that day by day drew nearer ; so she felt that hers 
 must be the active part in the struggle to prevent 
 their home going from them. She wrote, herself, to 
 Macnamara, and to other money-lenders, without 
 result ; and then as scheme after scheme fell through, 
 she determined to apply to Scott. She knew he had 
 some money saved, and if he could be prevailed upon 
 to lend it to her husband, with the amount offered by 
 Owen & Smith, there would be enough to pay off 
 Mallock and avert the sale. 
 
 Scott hummed and ha'ed a good deal when she 
 went to him, but his regard for Ruth, and sense of 
 family ties, stronger than his friendship for Toland, 
 which was more the creature of circumstance than 
 sympathy, finally drew from him a guarded promise 
 to see what he could do. Ruth offered good interest 
 on his money, and the season promising splendidly 
 made it almost certain that she could pay it, and with 
 any luck, soon return a portion of the principal as 
 well. 
 
 Accordingly, he promised Ruth that he would go 
 that afternoon to see Mallock and warn him to take 
 no other steps since the mortgage money would be 
 paid. There and then he called Jimmy to finish the
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 2 79 
 
 last land which he was ploughing, and returned to 
 the house with his sister-in-law, who forgave him the 
 advice and homilies with which he entertained her 
 for the genuine kindness prompting his action. Her 
 heart was too full to say much in thanks, but if Scott 
 was at first disappointed, he was finally overwhelmed, 
 and tempted for one mad moment to say something 
 about foregoing interest on the loan. 
 
 There had been silence for a moment when they 
 reached the gate, and Scott looked down at her sad, 
 gentle face with a sudden flow of compassion. 
 
 ' We'll get him out of this mess, never fear, Ruth. 
 And don't you worry any more. I'm real glad you 
 came to me,' he said. ' Mallock knows me, and I'll 
 make it right straight away.' 
 
 Ruth looked at him, and, overcome all at once by 
 the kindly concern in expression and tone, she smiled 
 with her eyes full of tears. 
 
 ' Thank you, George,' she said. ' As much almost 
 for your sympathy as your help.' She held out her 
 hand, which was swallowed up in his. ' I am almost 
 tempted to kiss you,' she said, with a half-hysterical 
 little laugh. 'That would express all the thanks I 
 can't say. I think Heaven will reward you for this.' 
 
 Scott drew back nervously, reddening with surprise, 
 pleasure and a sense of shocked propriety. It was 
 then that he felt tempted to refuse interest on the 
 loan, but Heaven does not offer seven per cent, so 
 calmer counsels prevailed, and he contented him- 
 self by muttering something incoherent and escaping 
 to ' clean ' himself for his journey. Ruth went into 
 the house, where she had left Mabel and Bess, who 
 looked curiously at her, but asked no questions, for 
 beyond the fact that she had gone to speak to Scott
 
 2 8o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 on business, and as her face showed that it had been 
 satisfactory, neither of them knew anything. 
 
 Scott soon reached Mallock's hotel and found 
 Mallock in the bar, leaning lazily over the counter, 
 picking his teeth appreciatively as he glanced at 
 the day's paper spread before him. 
 
 ' Good-day, Mr Scott. Crops lookin' well ? ' he said, 
 with interrogative vagueness. It was not mail day 
 and he was puzzled as to what brought his visitor. 
 
 Scott quickly let him know, with a mixed feeling 
 of importance and self-reproach for his fatuous act 
 of brotherly charity; and Mallock, still leaning on 
 the counter, listened attentively with a scowl on his 
 face at the first mention of Toland's name, which 
 gave place to a pleased leer as Scott unfolded his 
 scheme. 
 
 ' This here business, it strikes me, wants a bit of 
 private discussion, Mr Scott,' he said affably. ' If 
 you would be so kind as to step this way ' He 
 lifted a hinged board in the bar counter and led 
 the way into the parlour. 
 
 ' Take a seat, sir,' he said, when he had closed the 
 door, politely handing a chair to Scott, who took it, 
 a little overcome and yet gratified by the publican's 
 deference, ' and excuse me for one minute.' 
 
 Scott watched him in silence fumble in a safe 
 among a bundle of papers, from which he presently 
 selected one and scrutinised it with knitted brows. 
 
 ' Ah ! That's what we want,' he exclaimed cheer- 
 fully, seating himself at the table with the paper under 
 his hand. ' Now, Mr Scott, I understand you want 
 me to hold things off a bit in Toland's little affair, 
 seein' that you can give him what he's short to make 
 up what's owing to me ? '
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 281 
 
 ' Yes,' said Scott, airily. ' It's just a matter of three 
 hundred pounds, which I can make up with a squeeze, 
 you know with a squeeze/ he added in deprecation. 
 
 'Well, you're a blamed fortunit' man,' drawled 
 Mallock, with a grim smile ; ' and I congratulate 
 you, Mr Scott, on being able to put your fingers on 
 such a sum squeeze or no.' He checked some dis- 
 claimer from Scott and went on : ' I congratulate you 
 on your good fortune and your charitable heart 
 more'n on your good judgment for I say it straight 
 no offence to you that same Mr Toland's a 
 bloody dangerous rascal I'd like to see out of decent 
 society.' 
 
 ' He's my relative, you know,' protested Scott, 
 reddening. ' It's a duty, you know, and I don't want 
 to hear ' 
 
 ' Of course you don't ! And I'm not blamin' 
 you,' said Mallock, with slow, indulgent emphasis. 
 ' Blood's thicker than water, they say, and if you 
 want to stump out three hundred pounds on his 
 account why, I've nothing to say. But first of all, 
 what about settling your little business with me?' 
 He lifted the paper from the table and looked from 
 beneath his beetling brows at Scott. 
 
 Scott changed colour, and rising from the chair 
 approached the table. 
 
 ' What ? What business do you mean ? ' he asked 
 nervously. 
 
 Mallock rose too, looked at his bewildered face 
 for a second, showing all his yellow teeth in a grin 
 of admiration, shook his head, and clapped Scott on 
 the shoulder. 
 
 ' By God, Scott, you're a deep 'un and no mistake ! ' 
 he said with a chuckle. ' Sit down here and tell me
 
 282 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 if you know that 'ere signature.' He pushed the 
 unresisting Scott into a chair and spread the paper 
 before him, jamming his thumb down on it beside 
 the queerly-scrawled ' George Scott,' which the writer 
 nevertheless recognised as his performance. 
 
 ' What what is this ? ' he gasped faintly. 
 
 ' A transfer of your land to me for twenty-five 
 pounds cash, bearing date, November iQth, 1863 
 the day it became yours, and that others that did 
 their dealin's with Mr Harlin only got ten pound 
 each for lots as good but I liked the looks o' you 
 and was a bit generous.' 
 
 ' I I swear before God I never signed any such 
 thing ! ' cried Scott, in amazement, staring blankly at 
 the tell-tale document. 
 
 ' Now, what's the good of you sittin' there perjurin' 
 yourself like a blasted infidel, with your signature 
 staring you in the face ? ' asked Mallock, persuasively, 
 with his hand on Scott's shoulder. Then, as Scott 
 gave no answer but a groan, he leaned over and 
 picked up the transfer. ' A joke's a joke, Mr Scott,' 
 he said sternly ; ' but I tell you I don't like it carried 
 too far. Why, you might take it into your funny 
 head to tear up this little paper here. 1 
 
 ' I must have been drunk,' said Scott, feebly. 
 
 'That's your business,' rejoined Mallock, coldly. 
 ' As far's I remember you were sober enough when 
 you signed, but did get mighty drunk afterwards 
 with my money, and broke up my home considerable. 
 I'd have sued you for the damage, only the dummies 
 burnt your little smash with the rest of the place 
 about my ears. Ask your friend Toland if he didn't 
 have to carry you home.' 
 
 Mallock left this view of the ballot night to sink
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 283 
 
 into Scott's bewildered brain, and presently began 
 in a more friendly tone. Of course he would take 
 the three hundred pounds on Toland's behalf, he said, 
 but he thought maybe if Scott had ideas of fighting 
 an action he had better keep it himself. He gave 
 Scott a full and fanciful account of the circumstances 
 leading up to the transaction. He had not cared to 
 press for rent while the pioneering work was going 
 on. In fact he had often thought of selling out for 
 a mere trifle to Scott. Now, he admitted, the fact 
 that he had slept upon his rights so long which he 
 had done out of mere good-heartedness and regard 
 for Scott might give the latter a kind of dog's show 
 in fighting an action if he should be so unscrupulous 
 as to make one necessary. But that, he said, would 
 cost a lot of money hurt them both, and merely 
 gorge the lawyers. To show his good faith, and that 
 he really had a friendly eye for a good farmer and a 
 thrifty man, he would propose a compromise. 
 
 Scott dismally pricked up his ears and found 
 spirit enough to ask what it was. 
 
 That he should give Mallock a hundred pounds 
 draw a cheque for it there and then and that there 
 and then Mallock should tear up the transfer and say 
 no more about it. 
 
 Mallock watched his visitor with stealthy amuse- 
 ment. He had long ago given up all hope of doing 
 anything great with the forged transfer, as involving 
 too much risk for a man in his position, but still he 
 had kept it by him for possible use in emergencies ; 
 and suddenly, on Scott's arrival, the brilliant idea 
 had struck him of using it as a lever to move Scott 
 from his charitable intent, and perhaps to squeeze 
 something out of him as well.
 
 284 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Scott had been dazed at first, but his misery became 
 less acute as he realised that, at the worst, the disaster 
 was not illimitable, and with his memory courage 
 returned, making him hope for entire escape. 
 
 'Well, what's it to be, Mr Scott? Shell out or 
 fight?' Mallock asked at length, lovingly fingering 
 the transfer as Scott remained silent ' I reckon you'll 
 find this bit of paper cheap at a hundred.' 
 
 For a moment the little man became only a red- 
 faced, spluttering mass of indignation. He jumped 
 up and made as if to snatch the document from 
 Mallock, who put it into his pocket and pushed him 
 gently aside. 
 
 ' Now don't you get fightin' me, Mr Scott,' he said 
 suavely, ' or the missis will be saying you don't look 
 pretty.' 
 
 ' I'll not give you a penny. And you'll find your- 
 self in gaol before long, Mr Mallock, if you press this 
 infamous claim,' he blustered. ' Oh, I know all about 
 it ! I have a better memory than you think. I had 
 to sign a paper for Mr Archer, hadn't I ? I wasn't 
 hocussed, was I ? Oh, I remember ! ' 
 
 Mallock lay back in his chair and laughed. 
 
 ' Well, I tell you straight no one'd ha' thought, to 
 look at you that night, that you'd remember much. 
 You didn't appear like rememberin' anything when 
 you was dancin' and singin' with those girls of mine, 
 and makin' a damned noosance of yourself with my 
 money. Let's hear what you do remember and 
 what gives you the notion of putting me in gaol.' 
 
 Scott was somewhat taken aback by the levity with 
 which Mallock received his threats. Visions of such 
 scandalous tales of his behaviour reaching Bess's ears 
 rendered him almost speechless. However, he detailed
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 285 
 
 with indignation, but less confidence, his recollection 
 of events at the shanty, and Mallock listened quite 
 pleasantly. 
 
 ' Urn,' he said, lighting a cigar, ' a very pretty little 
 tale ! I'll tell mine in court, and you'll tell yours. 
 The judge will decide and us and the lawyers will 
 have a nice pleasant trip to Melbourne together at 
 our expense.' He rose as if to end the conversation. 
 
 ' But I have witnesses. I tell you you can't take 
 my land,' exclaimed Scott, excited and frightened. 
 
 ' Now, look here,' said Mallock, with a scowl darken- 
 ing his face. ' I don't want to argue this matter 
 except in court. You have your friend Toland, I 
 know he'll swear anything. But s'pose I say, 
 s'pose your tale should be true? You know Nick 
 Mallock's a fighter. And do you think you'll get 
 much help from the evidence of a man that's three 
 parts mad and tried to murder me?' 
 
 ' I can't consent to pay you any money,' said 
 Scott, weakening. 
 
 'That was my friendly suggestion. I'd have lost 
 money on it, and I don't press it. Now, we'll leave 
 your affair to the proper time. What about this 
 mortgage of Toland's? Are you going to square 
 it up?' 
 
 Scott pondered a moment. Ruth's face rose up 
 before him. Her tearful thanks echoed in his ears. 
 But he might be engaged in a costly suit to keep his 
 own home. He had his children to think of and 
 the voice of prudence was the louder. 
 
 ' I I don't see my way,' he said glumly. ' With 
 this action hanging over me I don't see as I can do 
 more in that matter in justice to my family, you 
 know.'
 
 286 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 'That's a sensible view to take. You're a real 
 man, Mr Scott, that don't shirk his responsibilities, 
 and a rare plucked one. If we fight, we fight fair 
 and friendly.' 
 
 The friendliness of the combat seemed, from Scott's 
 face, to afford him poor consolation, and with a search- 
 ing glance Mallock added, 
 
 ' And I tell you this straight. That action has 
 hung a goodish bit now, and, so long as you don't 
 meddle in affairs that don't concern you, it might 
 hang a blamed long while yet. Have a drink?' 
 
 Scott gave a feeble refusal. 
 
 ' Nonsense, man ! It'll do you good.' Mallock 
 leaned his hand affectionately on Scott's shoulder, 
 and led him to the bar again, where he succeeded 
 in swallowing a glass of brandy that nearly choked 
 him. 
 
 ' Here's you health, Mr Scott ! This quite reminds 
 me of old times,' said Mallock, raising his glass. 
 ' And remember,' he added significantly, ' while you 
 shut your mouth like an oyster and your purse too 
 Nick Mallock's your friend, and me and you ain't 
 likely to quarrel.' 
 
 Scott thanked him incoherently and left the 
 shanty, scarcely knowing how he would face Ruth, 
 and wondering at the strange means Heaven had 
 chosen to reward him for his new-born desire to 
 help lame dogs over stiles.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE time of Rupert Harlin's exile passed with irk- 
 some slowness, whether spent in hard work on the 
 station or in unsuccessful attempts at gaiety in Sydney, 
 whither he often restlessly wandered. In his mother's 
 letters the hope was constantly expressed that his 
 father would eventually consent to the marriage with 
 Mabel. Only in the meantime, she said, he must do 
 nothing to widen the breach, and she begged him to 
 stay a little longer and possess his soul in patience 
 until she should advise him that it was wise to 
 return. In any event, she hoped that he would not, 
 except in case of absolute necessity, withdraw his 
 money from the station, as it would be a great strain 
 on his father's resources to find the cash at the 
 present time. She had managed to pay into his 
 account a thousand pounds from money of her own, 
 and could let him have another thousand shortly, 
 which he might treat as a loan until the difference 
 with his father should be ended or a definite rupture 
 come, when he would either not need the money or 
 have means of his own to repay it. 
 
 The position was very trying for Rupert, and only 
 love for his mother, and the affection which, in spite 
 of everything, he felt for his father induced him to 
 suffer it in the hope of eventual reconciliation. 
 
 Toland and Mrs Toland were still in ignorance of 
 the engagement. From Mabel, Rupert had received 
 
 287
 
 288 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 only one letter assuring him of her affectionate hope 
 that everything would come right, but stating in 
 emphatic terms that nothing must be said to her 
 parents till things were definitely settled with Mr 
 Harlin. She had kept the secret from her mother, 
 not wishing to worry her, and had spoken to Mrs 
 Harlin, who agreed that one family complication was 
 enough to have on their hands at a time. 
 
 So matters stood when Rupert, arriving in Sydney 
 one morning, found two letters, several days old, 
 waiting for him at his hotel. One was from his 
 mother, and his spirits fell as he glanced over it. 
 Things had been going well, he read. Mr Harlin, 
 mollified by his conduct, was becoming more re- 
 conciled to the idea of the marriage, when, looking 
 through the paper, he had seen a notice that in a 
 month's time Toland's farm would be offered by the 
 mortgagee for sale. This, coupled with a report he 
 had heard of some discreditable fracas at Mallock's 
 hotel in which Toland was involved, had re-awakened 
 all his prejudice and antagonism, and Mrs Harlin 
 could now hold out very little hope of ever obtaining 
 his consent ; and the letter concluded significantly 
 he was not at present in a state to consider the matter 
 reasonably at all. She did not know what to say. 
 Apparently the only choice lay between defying his 
 father or giving up all hope of marrying Mabel, at 
 least for a long time to come. That was a matter 
 on which he must consult his own heart and 
 conscience. 
 
 Thinking to himself that a decision would not be 
 difficult, Rupert tore open the second letter, which 
 he found to his surprise contained some advice. 
 It was from Conyngham. Rupert had vaguely
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 289 
 
 thought the handwriting familiar without recognising 
 it as he looked at the address. 
 
 Like Mrs Harlin's the letter contained news of the 
 forced sale of Toland's farm. Now, it went on to 
 state, things were in a very bad way at Grimsby 
 Farm. Toland's troubles and his hostility to Mallock 
 weighed so much upon his mind that Conyngham 
 feared he was practically a monomaniac. Not even 
 his wife and daughter could rouse him from his 
 moody hopelessness. Mrs Toland was miserable, 
 Mabel's nerves completely unstrung by the fight 
 between Mallock and her father which she had 
 witnessed. Joe had left the farm and gone to the 
 west. His father called it desertion, and spoke with 
 unmeasured anger of Joe, but Conyngham thought 
 the lad right, as he had obtained the offer of work 
 which would enable him to send at least a pound 
 a week, and perhaps more, to his parents. However, 
 it was of Mabel he had most to say to Rupert ; she 
 would not write herself, but she was quite broken 
 down and pining to see him. It was eminently no 
 business of his, Conyngham admitted, but he had 
 learned from Mabel how matters stood between 
 Rupert and herself, he could see that she was fretting 
 her heart out, and, while it did not seem that things 
 could be made worse, they might possibly be im- 
 proved by his immediate return to Kumbarra. 
 Therefore, with surprise at his officiousness, and a 
 full recognition that it was quite as likely as not the 
 most mischievous advice in the world, he advised 
 Rupert to come home and see Mabel without 
 delay. 
 
 After his mother's letter Rupert scarcely needed 
 such a spur to action, but it increased his impatience 
 
 T
 
 29 o . THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 to get away, and that evening he took the 
 Melbourne express from Sydney. 
 
 It was noon of the following day when he left 
 the train at Tongalong and, avoiding such acquaint- 
 ances as he met on the platform, he hurried to the 
 livery stables, where he procured a buggy and good 
 pair of horses and was soon clear of the township. 
 
 The roads were heavy and slushy with winter 
 rains, but Rupert rattled his horses along, finding a 
 soothing music in the plashing of the hoofs. He 
 passed the Kumbarra entrance-gate, just catching 
 a glimpse of the white-painted roof glistening in 
 the sun among the distant trees. Long strips of 
 rich soil were turned over in the old sheep paddocks 
 by ploughmen whom Harlin's new policy of sub- 
 division had brought on to the land. Rupert 
 wondered vaguely if it would ever be his, with Mabel 
 installed as mistress in the station homestead. He 
 did not believe in his heart that, however his father 
 might rage and bluster, his anger would survive 
 many years or carry him to such lengths as willing 
 the property away from his only son. Excited and 
 eager for action, Rupert could not concentrate his 
 thought on any detailed plan. He only knew that 
 he was going to have it out with Toland, and claim 
 his right to Mabel, in spite of parents on either side, 
 leaving circumstances to decide what he should do 
 or say. 
 
 Near the gate of Toland's farm the plough stood 
 at the end of an unfinished land. Trace chains and 
 swingle bars lay on the ground before it, but gather- 
 ing rust on the mould boards showed that it had not 
 been used for days. There was a melancholy sugges- 
 tion of hopelessness in the idle plough and the grain
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 291 
 
 bags still lying at intervals where the jays were 
 feasting on a patch, sowed but not harrowed, further 
 from the road. Toland's spirits must be low indeed 
 to suffer such things, Rupert reflected, as he drove 
 through the paddock towards the house. There a 
 like air of neglect and desertion enveloped every- 
 thing. All the yard gates swung open ; there 
 seemed no one about the place ; not even a barking 
 dog greeted his arrival as he splashed in through 
 the mud and pulled his horses up at the stable door. 
 Flinging the traces over their backs he put the pair 
 into empty stalls and, with a nervous presentiment 
 of evil, made his way towards the house. Entering 
 the garden unnoticed, he walked on to the verandah, 
 wondering if the house was quite deserted, and 
 knocked at the sitting-room door. He heard some- 
 one stirring within ; the door opened and Mabel 
 stood before him. She had been crying and she 
 had been asleep; her hair was in disorder rare for 
 her. Marks of tears and of the chair on which her 
 head had rested lined her cheeks, her old grey 
 dress was worn and shabby. Blinking from the 
 glare of the setting sun in her eyes, she stared in 
 astonishment at Rupert. To him she seemed as 
 beautiful as ever. Feeling the glow of a knight- 
 errant's pride, he knew that he had never loved her 
 so much as now when he stood there to relieve 
 her distress. Forgetting all caution, he caught her 
 in his arms and kissed her again and again, while 
 she felt too much the joy of having someone to love 
 and care for her to do anything at first but passively 
 and happily submit. 
 
 Soon, however, it occurred to her to ask how and 
 why he had made this mysterious appearance, and
 
 292 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 leading him into the sitting-room she gave him 
 a chair, choosing another for herself at safe con- 
 versational distance. Rupert told her as clearly as 
 he could of the letters he had received and his 
 instant departure from Sydney, concluding by ask- 
 ing where he should find Mr Toland. 
 
 'Then you did not know I was alone?' she 
 said. 
 
 ' Alone ? No, I had no idea of it. I came to tell 
 your father that he must give his consent to our 
 marriage and also to ask him if he would allow 
 me instead of Mallock to be his mortgagee.' 
 
 Mabel laughed nervously, though on the verge 
 of tears. The picture of such a meeting with Rupert, 
 with her father as a possible witness, struck her as 
 grimly ludicrous. 
 
 ' What are you laughing at ? What have I done ? ' 
 asked Rupert, puzzled and frowning. 
 
 ' Nothing,' she answered. ' Father and mother 
 have driven down to consult the Scotts and see 
 if anything can possibly be arranged. There is no 
 one but me in the house.' 
 
 ' When will they be home ? ' 
 
 ' Any time,' answered Mabel with a frightened 
 glance at the clock. ' Not later than an hour, or 
 an hour and a half at anyrate.' 
 
 ' Then I shall wait and see your father.' Rupert 
 settled himself back in his chair for a good long 
 look at Mabel. 'Don't be worried, little girl. We 
 can have a talk first and then I'm sure I shall be 
 able to persuade him. If you'd rather be out of 
 the way I will go and meet them on the road.' 
 
 Mabel sighed and shook her head. 
 
 'No. Don't do that'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 293 
 
 ' Shall I stay here, then ? Say that you are glad I 
 have come.' 
 
 Mabel went over to him and somehow -found her 
 head on his shoulder. ' I am gladder than I can say 
 to see you I was utterly miserable five minutes ago,' 
 she said ; ' but it is not the slightest use to do any- 
 thing.' 
 
 ' Why ? ' 
 
 ' Because my father will refuse to allow us to get 
 married.' 
 
 ' And if he refuses ? ' 
 
 Mabel pressed her hands over her eyes. ' I shall 
 obey him,' she said, stifling a sob. 
 
 An exclamation of impatience from Rupert caused 
 Mabel to raise her head, and she looked at him re- 
 proachfully. 
 
 ' Don't be ungenerous, Rupert,' she sighed. ' You 
 can't understand. If you only knew what my poor 
 old father had been through you would never ask me 
 to be cruel to him just because we love each other. 
 Try to help me instead of persuading me to be selfish 
 and disobedient.' 
 
 ' My darling girl, I would do anything to help you 
 only tell me what ? ' 
 
 Mabel shook her head hopelessly. 
 
 ' There, you can suggest nothing. The one thing 
 I won't do is leave you here to be miserable. I 
 know from Conyngham something of what you've 
 been through.' He felt the tremor of a smothered 
 sob, and a nervous pressure of his arm, confirming 
 what Conyngham had said, encouraged him to go on. 
 ' I would disobey my parents for your sake,' he 
 argued persuasively ; ' and if people are unreason- 
 able I don't see that we owe them obedience.'
 
 294 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Mabel smiled through her tears. ' You were always 
 obstinate, and I believe as much as anything, dear, 
 you want your own way.' 
 
 1 1 want you, Mab and I'm going to have you 
 with our parents' consent or without. Anyhow, it 
 can do no harm to ask.' 
 
 ' Don't don't,' she cried. ' I simply can't let you 
 speak to my father and be refused with such a storm 
 of anger as you don't know you can't imagine. He 
 is so changed morose and almost fierce. I should 
 be ashamed and and frightened I would rather 
 run away.' 
 
 ' Run away ! ' echoed Rupert, softly, a gleam of 
 hope dawning on him. He left the chair beside 
 Mabel and stood thinking for a moment, scarcely 
 aware of her frightened, questioning gaze. 
 
 ' How much money does your father want to save 
 the place from being sold ? ' he asked suddenly. 
 
 ' A thousand pounds.' 
 
 ' And you don't think there is any chance of his 
 taking it from me as a loan ? ' 
 
 Mabel shook her head. ' Not the slightest.' 
 
 ' And from you ? ' 
 
 ' What do you mean ? From me? Where should I 
 
 Her eyes met his and she lowered them, blushing. 
 
 Rupert stood over and caught her hand. ' Mabel, 
 dearest, listen to me,' he cried. ' You spoke just now, 
 as a wild possibility, of running away. But there is 
 really nothing else to do if you won't let me speak. 
 Truly, I had never thought of it. I came to honestly 
 tell your father that I love you, and if he were here 
 I would do so in spite of anything anyone could say.' 
 
 ' You would be mad then,' she interjected. 
 
 ' Well, as he is not here I can't try. Anyhow, you
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 295 
 
 think it useless ; and see how Fate has played into 
 our hands. It is only your father's misfortunes that 
 have made him hard and bitter, so you must marry 
 me and put an end to them. If he would not take a 
 loan from me, at least from his daughter he surely 
 would. Come with me and send a cheque your own 
 cheque for a thousand pounds to your father as 
 soon as you are my wife.' 
 
 Mabel trembled all over and her heart beat furi- 
 ously. She dared not look at Rupert, but she felt her 
 power of resistance giving way before the mingled 
 command and pleading in his tone and the strong 
 clasp of his hand. The temptation was overwhelm- 
 ing. First, there was her strong love for Rupert. 
 Then with a stroke of the pen to free her father from 
 all his troubles ! To do it herself she who had 
 never possessed a sovereign of her own in all her life ! 
 It was scarcely imaginable. Salvation for her parents 
 if she yielded for herself, freedom from sordid 
 worries and fears escape from the memory-poisoned 
 surroundings she had grown to hate. She loved her 
 father as she had always done, but of late her presence 
 seemed to give him no pleasnre only to add poig- 
 nancy to his regret while she could not conceal from 
 herself that there were times when she positively 
 feared him. 
 
 Then there was the other side of the picture her 
 father's fierce anger, her mother's blank dismay should 
 they return to find her gone. 
 
 She looked at Rupert in dumb appeal. He saw 
 that she hesitated and pursued his advantage. 
 
 They might travel together, see some of the great 
 world that she had so longed to see, and return again 
 when her parents had made the best of it, as they
 
 296 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 were sure to do, and all was forgotten and forgiven. 
 Mrs Toland would be glad to see her married ; Mabel 
 had admitted that her mother knew of the engage- 
 ment and was pleased with it. Only yesterday she 
 had told her. Could she doubt, Rupert demanded, 
 that in time Mrs Toland would succeed in bringing 
 her father over to their side ? That was to say when 
 his mind was free from the great trouble oppressing 
 it. If she stayed at home saying nothing, and the 
 farm were sold, his mind might never recover from 
 the blow. 
 
 Rupert pleaded his cause well. Mabel's love for 
 him and her own personal longing for happiness were 
 his champions, and finally they triumphed for a time 
 over fears and scruples. 
 
 She got up and, flinging her arms round his neck, 
 buried her head on his shoulder. 
 
 ' Yes, I will go with you,' she faltered. ' It may be 
 wicked. I don't know what it is, but I can't bear the 
 strain any longer. Life is terrible here and I must go 
 I simply must ! ' 
 
 Rupert was triumphant. 
 
 ' It's not wicked at all, but common sense,' he 
 laughed, kissing her. 'Everything will go right 
 now, you will see.' 
 
 She looked into his happy face, trying to absorb 
 some of the confidence she saw there. Then the last 
 slanting sun ray vanished from the room as the sun 
 dipped behind the distant hills and she was seized 
 suddenly with a new fear. 
 
 ' No, no ! It is too late,' she cried, breaking away 
 from him. ' They would meet us on the road. They 
 may be here any moment. You must go away and 
 leave me. We can only wait and hope.'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 297 
 
 It was nearly six. Rupert had not thought of the 
 hour, and he was staggered for a moment, but quickly 
 recovered himself and made up his mind. 
 
 ' No, Mab, darling. You have promised, and you 
 won't go back on it,' he said, holding her by the arms. 
 
 ' But suppose my father should meet us ? It would 
 almost send him mad.' 
 
 ' But he won't meet us if you are quick,' he said 
 confidently. ' Go and put up what things you want. 
 Write a note to say what you have done, and I will 
 bring the buggy to the house.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Is there nothing else we can do ? ' she asked 
 despairingly. 
 
 Rupert kissed her again. ' Nothing,' he answered 
 promptly, ' except to stay to bring misery on every- 
 one. You will trust me, won't you ? ' 
 
 Mabel answered the question with a look that 
 satisfied him. 
 
 ' Don't waste any time, Mab,' he said, hurrying 
 away to the stables. His pulse beat fast. He would 
 have preferred not to sneak away, but there was com- 
 pensating excitement and a glow of triumph in pur- 
 pose accomplished. All now depended on good luck 
 and good speed. As he led out his tired horses for 
 their long journey he almost welcomed the need for 
 haste, with all its disadvantages, since, with more time 
 to think, Mabel might have faltered from her emin- 
 ently sensible resolution. Practical in spite of his 
 excitement, he thought of his horses and stowed half 
 a bag of chaff in the buggy to feed them on the road. 
 
 Meanwhile Mabel, feeling faint and giddy, leaned 
 her head on the mantelpiece for a moment's thought. 
 Then she pulled herself together. There was time 
 only for action, and fear of her father's anger,
 
 298 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 looming larger than anything else, gave her speed. 
 She scribbled a few hasty, tear-smudged lines to her 
 parents, saying what she had done. They looked 
 bald and heartless, but there was no time to put on 
 paper the justification, excuses and protests of affec- 
 tion that rushed pell-mell through her brain. Then, 
 going to her room to pack a few things into an old 
 portmanteau of her mother's, she saw her reflection 
 in the looking-glass. It gave her quite a shock. A 
 sleepless night had made her fall away from the high 
 standard she held of what a woman owes to her 
 appearance. She had not dared to go to bed till the 
 droning voices of her parents in the next room had 
 ceased early that morning, but now a few seconds 
 must be spared to wash away all traces of tears and 
 put on her smartest dress to face the world and 
 troubles in a woman's strongest armour. Things 
 looked brighter then, and she had almost finished her 
 small packing when she heard the rattle of wheels 
 and Rupert's voice, with an undercurrent of im- 
 patience in it, calling from the garden gate. 
 
 ' In a minute,' she answered. She paused with a 
 lingering look round the little sitting-room as she 
 passed through. She saw with a new pang of con- 
 science that the fire was out. The lamp was un- 
 trimmed, the table was not laid. She had not left 
 even a materially comfortable house for her parents 
 to return to. 
 
 Rupert called her again, and she hurried out, half 
 fearing to see the other buggy appearing over the 
 hill. He stowed the luggage beneath the seat, helped 
 Mabel in with a sigh of relief that she had come at 
 last, and started his horses away at a gallop. 
 
 Anxiety and, on Mabel's part, remorse at the step
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 299 
 
 she was taking, kept them almost silent till long 
 after the white gate of Grimsby Farm was left behind. 
 Then the novelty, the excitement, and the prospects 
 of the new life coming gradually shook off the spell 
 of the old one left behind. The moon had been high 
 in the sky before the twilight had gone, and there 
 was little chance of passing Toland unrecognised if 
 they should meet him on the narrow road. Rupert, 
 therefore, made all the pace he could, and began to 
 hope that they might pass in time the turn where the 
 cross road came in from Scott's. He had only half 
 a mile to go, and was walking his horses up a sharp 
 pinch some six miles from the farm, when a distant 
 rumble of wheels sounded on his ear. Mabel heard 
 it too and clutched his arm in fear. 
 
 ' They are crossing the bridge,' she whispered. 
 
 Rupert nodded. ' I think we can do it, dear/ he 
 answered, and whipped up his pair. In a minute the 
 white schoolhouse by the corner gleamed ahead 
 through the trees. Mabel gave a long sigh of guilty 
 relief as they passed it, and Rupert, reining his 
 horses down to a slow trot, pointed to a buggy just 
 emerging from the moonlit lane. 
 
 ' It was a narrow squeak,' he said. ' It is your 
 people, isn't it ? I'm glad we did not meet them on 
 the track.' 
 
 Mabel turned her head and looked where he 
 pointed. She recognised the grey horses ; then her 
 father's voice reached her, commenting on the strange 
 buggy on the roads. There came suddenly a great 
 revulsion of feeling. 
 
 ' Oh, Rupert ! I can't leave them. Let us go 
 back ! ' she cried imploringly. 
 
 ' It is too late, Mab, darling. It would be only folly
 
 3 oo THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 now.' He called to his horses again, and in a few 
 seconds the rattle of the buggy driving up the road 
 they had come died away in the distance. 
 
 Mabel was silent for a long time torturing herself 
 by picturing phases of the old folk's surprise and 
 dismay when they arrived at the deserted house. 
 Rupert left her alone. Though young, he was not 
 devoid of sympathy ; and with tact beyond his years 
 understood the occasional value of silence. 
 
 After a time he roused her to interest in their imme- 
 diate plans. They would drive slowly through the night, 
 not to Tongalong, but to the next roadside station, 
 where they would not be known, and catch a train at 
 daybreak. Then she should go to a cousin of his 
 mother's, an old maiden lady, who would undoubtedly 
 be shocked, but who was devoted to Mrs Harlin and 
 very fond of him, and whom he could trust to take 
 care of her until they were married on that day or the 
 next. 
 
 ' And then what ? ' asked Mabel. 
 
 1 Then, as soon as you hear from your mother that 
 she has the cheque and all is right, first boat to 
 England with six months free from jawings and row- 
 ings, to give all the old people time to forgive us.' 
 
 His confidence was ^infectious, and Mabel found 
 great solace in the thought of her mother's joy on re- 
 ceiving that wonderful cheque, which should make life 
 at Grimsby Farm smooth and unmortgaged again. 
 Surely then her father would forgive her, and, with 
 returning mental health, admit that she had acted for 
 the best. 
 
 By-and-by the pale light of Mallock's shanty 
 lamp showed its glimmer down the road. 
 
 Mabel shuddered as she thought of the last scene
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 301 
 
 enacted there and demurred at first when Rupert 
 asked her to hold the horses while he entered. But 
 she could not account to him for the depth of her re- 
 pugance and conquered it, since Rupert said that he 
 must change a cheque or be stranded penniless 
 on the railway station. It had also occurred to him 
 that Mabel would need refreshment to keep up her 
 strength on the long night drive ; and here he might 
 get biscuits and wine. 
 
 He still retained something of a mischievous boy's 
 pleasure in taking a neat fall out of an enemy. There- 
 fore he greeted the shanty-keeper pleasantly when 
 Mallock entered the bar wondering greatly at Rupert's 
 presence there, his purchases, and his anxiety for cash 
 in exchange for the cheque which he offered. Then 
 as he left the house Rupert turned smilingly on his 
 host. 
 
 ' Well, good-bye Mallock,' he said ; ' I won't see you 
 for some time as I'm off to England. I suppose you've 
 heard that Miss Toland and I are to be married.' 
 
 ' What the hell do you mean ? Mabel ? ' gasped 
 Mallock, astounded. 
 
 ' Miss Toland, I said,' replied Rupert, quietly. 
 ' Don't swear, my good man, as she's in the buggy out- 
 side. We're driving to Tongalong now, you know 
 and, by-the-bye, my wife will send you a cheque in a 
 day or two to square off that little mortgage business 
 of Mr Toland's.' 
 
 Laughing to himself, Rupert jumped into the buggy 
 and drove off, leaving Mallock staring after him and 
 uttering curses so heartfelt and foul that it was well 
 
 o 
 
 they had no audience but the trees.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 AT other times Toland might have noticed in such 
 moonlight the fresh wheel marks at his gate, but his 
 thoughts were turned inward. Even the empty feed 
 boxes in the stalls, which he had left with chaff in 
 them that morning, failed to arrest his attention, and 
 he scarcely heeded his wife's exclamation of surprise 
 at the darkness enveloping the house. She would not 
 go in as he told her to, but remained talking at his 
 side until the horses were unyoked and fed and the 
 old buggy, dating from before the bush fire and 
 associated with many happy holidays, had been 
 stowed away under cover. 
 
 The 'familiar routine seemed to bring a keener 
 realisation to Toland, and he paused, looking at the 
 buggy as he slung up the pole in the loop of fencing 
 wire. 
 
 'We've had our last ride on those old wheels, 
 Ruth,' he said. ' I wish it had gone in the fire with 
 the rest of the things we had when we were young, 
 instead of being laughed at and knocked down for a 
 pound or two this day fortnight. My God ! to think 
 that two weeks from to-day you'll have no home, and 
 like as not I'll be a debtor still.' 
 
 ' Don't think of it,' she said, drawing him away. 
 ' I have a sort of feeling that something might happen 
 yet, and at anyrate you've done your best, and your 
 wife and children are proud of you.' 
 
 302
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 303 
 
 Toland laughed bitterly as he put up the buggy 
 shed rails and turned towards the house. 
 
 ' Surely my wife and children are not such fools,' 
 he said. ' Not Joe, at least. Mighty proud he is, 
 when he'd run away and leave the sinking ship! 
 Sensible maybe, but' He checked himself and 
 shook his head in a way that suggested a crowd of 
 whirling thoughts he could not or would not put into 
 words. 
 
 ' Joe only went to fight our battles further afield,' 
 ventured Ruth. ' You must not be hard on the boy.' 
 
 ' I know I know I'll try but don't speak to me 
 about it.' His hand was on the garden gate and he 
 waited for his wife to pass through. ' What's Mabel 
 doing, I wonder, that she's got the house in darkness ? 
 Poor little girl ! We shouldn't have left her alone.' 
 
 Mrs Toland was trembling. The dark windows 
 had filled her with apprehension ever since she had 
 stepped from the buggy, but she had not dared 
 mention them, nor enter the house alone. 
 
 Now they were at the window of the sitting-room, 
 which stood ajar, with the moonlight streaming in, 
 revealing the black, cheerless hearth, a symbol of 
 desolation. Ruth's heart stood still, fearing she knew 
 not what. 
 
 ' Mabel ! Where are you ? Mabel ! ' called Toland 
 in a voice gruff and stern from an endeavour to 
 conceal his fears. The call was repeated, but no 
 answer came. 
 
 'Don't be frightened, little mother. The girl's 
 worn out and gone to sleep,' he said kindly. ' You'll 
 find her in her bedroom.' 
 
 It seemed possible. Mrs Toland pressed her hus- 
 band's hand and hurried towards Mabel's door when
 
 3 o 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 a scrap of white paper fluttered from the mantelpiece 
 as she passed. 
 
 ' Ah, what's that ? ' she cried, snatching it in 
 feverish haste from the floor. She strained her eyes 
 and held the paper where a moonbeam fell upon it. 
 ' Mabel's writing ! What can have happened to her ? 
 Quick, John ! A light. Oh, let me see what she 
 says ! ' 
 
 Toland stood beside his wife, and, looking over her 
 shoulder, held a match, throwing its flickering light on 
 the few lines of Mabel's message. He had seized 
 their import even before she did, and, dropping the 
 light, stamped heavily upon it. He laughed again 
 fiercely, making Ruth shudder. 
 
 ' And this is the daughter who is proud of me ! 
 Like Joe, runs away curse her, I say ! Curse her ! ' 
 
 ' Hush ! Oh, for Heaven's sake, John, hush ! ' Ruth 
 clung to Toland and tried to place her hand over his 
 mouth, but he wrenched himself away. 
 
 ' Yes, curse her, and the low puppy thief that has 
 stolen her. Are you going to turn against me too ? ' 
 
 Ruth had fallen into a chair where he could 
 scarcely see her in the dim light. She sobbed almost 
 inaudibly, but with a violence that shook piteously her 
 slender frame. Her silence only seemed to add fuel 
 to his fury. 
 
 ' Land and children,' he laughed bitterly ; ' what I 
 pictured as the joy of my life and would to God I 
 had neither to be the curse of my old age. Well, I 
 won't have the land long, and I'm glad of it and the 
 children will never enter my doors again. If that 
 Harlin that blackguard cub of a drunken rogue 
 comes across my path I'll strangle him, by God I 
 will!'
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 305 
 
 Mrs Toland rose with an effort. Dry-eyed and 
 composed, though she was deadly pale and could 
 scarcely breathe, she caught her husband's coat-sleeve 
 with a trembling hand. 
 
 ' John, are you not ashamed of yourself? ' she asked 
 in the sternest tones her gentle lips had ever framed. 
 ' Remember me and have mercy, if you have no 
 forgiveness for our poor children, nor respect for your 
 God or yourself.' 
 
 Astonishment sobered Toland for a moment; there 
 came a temporary revulsion of feeling, and, catching 
 her in his arms, he strained her to his breast. 
 
 ' At least you are not afraid of me, little woman,' 
 he cried. ' You love me and will not run away, and 
 I love you more than I ever did, because you are not 
 one of those cursed cowards.' 
 
 All Ruth's strength had gone again with her 
 husband's words and his caress, and almost happy 
 in spite of everything, she could only cry and cling 
 closer to him. 
 
 He had been silent for a moment, when his eye fell 
 on the scrap of paper at his feet, and releasing him- 
 self he stooped to pick it up with the fierce mood 
 creeping on him again. 
 
 ' Bring a light, Ruth. Where are the lamps ? ' he 
 muttered, going to the doorway, where he stood 
 crunching the letter in his fingers and gazing with 
 knitted brows over the clear sweep of the hill 
 paddock. Ruth's hand shook and the lamp-chimney 
 rattled against the brass clips as she tried to place it 
 over the wick. 
 
 Toland turned from the window to the light. 
 Then, changing his mind, with an impatient gesture 
 he flung the crumpled paper into the fireplace. 
 
 U
 
 3 o6 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 ' Why should I read it again ?' he exclaimed. ' She's 
 gone. That's all I want to know gone, she said, to 
 catch the train to Melbourne and marry him to- 
 morrow.' He watched Ruth go to the hearth and, 
 picking up the letter, smooth out the creases, with 
 difficulty repressing an impulse to knock it from her 
 hand. 
 
 ' That was the strange buggy, then,' he broke out, 
 clenching his fists. 'Do you remember, Ruth? 
 Passed within a chain of us at the corner. Oh, my 
 God ! Why didn't I know it then, so that I might 
 have dragged him out and smashed his head on a 
 fence rail Stop reading that wicked child's scribbl- 
 ing and listen to me, Ruth. Do you hear ? Listen 
 to me ! ' 
 
 The paper that she had already read again in a 
 devouring glance was slipped almost defiantly within 
 her dress, and sinking into a chair, she turned dull 
 eyes on her husband striding angrily about the room. 
 
 ' I think I hear, John. What is it ? ' she asked with 
 a faint, quivering smile. 
 
 ' I say that like a fool I missed my chance,' he 
 almost shouted. ' I had the sneak at my mercy to 
 wring his wretched neck and I let him go Could 
 I catch him now ? ' he went on, more to himself than 
 to Ruth. 'There is no train till daybreak. The 
 old horses might do it, and it's the last and best thing 
 they'll do for their master if they let me get my hand 
 on his throat. By Heaven ! I'll make them try.' 
 
 Toland snatched up his hat from the floor where 
 he had thrown it, but before he was through the door 
 Ruth had caught him and was dragging him back 
 with an effort of strength that raised astonishment 
 for the moment above all else in his sick brain.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 307 
 
 ' John, my dear husband ! ' she cried. ' Don't do 
 anything so foolish and so wicked.' 
 
 ' Why wicked and foolish ? ' he asked, giving way 
 with something like a wild animal's sullen obedience 
 and standing still in hesitation. 
 
 ' Sit down and let me speak to you.' 
 
 He almost smiled at his wife's gentle endeavours 
 to force him to a chair, and allowed himself to be 
 pushed into it. She sat down upon the arm with one 
 hand resting on his shoulder, but she looked past him 
 into the moonlight and with a silent prayer nerved 
 herself to an effort. 
 
 Her voice sounded strange and far away to Toland. 
 
 ' It would be foolish to go after Mabel and Rupert 
 Harlin,' she began, ' because you know that with 
 those horses that have travelled so far to-day you 
 could never reach Tongalong in time and it would 
 be wicked because you would be going with only 
 fierce, evil thoughts in your heart. What good could 
 it do if you found them ? You would only commit 
 some rash violence that would ruin Mabel's happiness 
 for ever and fill you with remorse. Oh, if you knew 
 how thankful I am to Heaven that you did not re- 
 cognise that strange buggy on the road to-night' 
 
 She paused, wiping a mist of tears from her eyes, 
 and Toland moved uneasily. ' Maybe it was for the 
 best,' he said grudgingly. ' I couldn't but have laid 
 hands on him. But you're not going to make ex- 
 cuses for her, Ruth the daughter I trusted would 
 stick by her parents whatever other folk did.' He 
 passed his hand wearily through his hair. ' It's cold, 
 let me make you a bit of a fire. The child didn't 
 leave us even that,' he said with a mirthless laugh 
 and made as if to rise ; but Ruth leaned against him,
 
 3 o8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 imprisoning him in the chair, and his arm slipped 
 round her. ' Ah, well ! Life must go on/ he sighed. 
 ' I'm a little mad, Ruth. There's the savage in me 
 coming near the top. Give me time, wife give me 
 time. Let me alone and we won't speak of her to- 
 night I can't forgive her, but I'll try to forget. 
 But no excuses there are none. Come, get up, Ruth, 
 and we'll have the night like old times alone together.' 
 
 Ruth did not move, however, but kept a restraining 
 hand on his arm, pressing it closer to her. ' I must 
 make excuses, John,' she said bravely, 'even if it hurts 
 you I must, for there are true ones.' 
 
 ' You're not wise not to-night,' he muttered. 
 
 ' To-night or never. You'd not think I would will- 
 ingly hurt you, John ? ' 
 
 For answer his great brown hand slipped over hers 
 and raised it to his lips. 
 
 4 No, you could not think so. And yet I must, for 
 I'd rather you blamed yourself a little than her too 
 much.' Her words came in a nervous rush. ' Poor 
 child, you know how you love her, and that she loves 
 you. But, John, dear, you've been cold and rough 
 lately. It's our misfortunes, I know. But you've 
 made her afraid she thought she was no help to 
 you. She loved Rupert Harlin for a long time, and she 
 dared not ask for your consent, though he wanted to. 
 You Heaven knows what you would have said 
 But you'll forgive your daughter John Say you 
 will forgive her not to-night perhaps yes new- 
 to-night ! ' 
 
 He looked into her face for a moment, hesitating; 
 then threw aside her hand and brushed past her 
 roughly as he rose to escape her pleading touch 
 and tones.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 309 
 
 ' Never,' he said hoarsely. ' I can't do it Are all 
 my children cowards?' 
 'Am I?' sighed Ruth. 
 
 'You? No but you're not afraid of me, Ruth. 
 Good God ! am I going mad ? Don't tell me 
 you're afraid.' 
 
 ' Not now but I have been.' 
 If her white face told the truth the time was 
 scarcely past. Toland stood staring at her for a 
 moment incredulously. Then, staggering to a chair, 
 he flung himself down on it, and leaned upon the 
 table with his face between his hands. 
 
 ' Tell me,' he said. ' I'm learning that there's worse 
 things than having the roof sold over your head.' 
 
 Ruth's heart beat furiously, but she was determined 
 to get her confession over, and met her husband's gaze. 
 ' I knew,' she faltered ' I knew that Mabel was 
 engaged to Rupert Harlin.' 
 < When ? ' 
 
 ' I had guessed it for weeks. Mr Conyngham 
 suggested it long ago. Yesterday she told me.' 
 
 ' And you didn't tell me because you were afraid of 
 me afraid of my violence, eh ? ' 
 
 His calmness frightened her more than any 
 violence now. ' Ah ! forgive me ! ' she cried longingly, 
 going to him with outstretched arms. ' Forgive me, 
 John ! ' but he pushed her away and laughed, striking 
 a chill to her heart. 
 
 ' I'm a little madder than I thought that's all. 
 Don't let us worry over it. The children run away 
 from me. The wife doesn't trust me the land 
 is going this day fortnight, and I'll not be long after 
 it. Then they'll have no one to frighten them 
 Cheer up, Ruth, girl ! There's a good time coming.'
 
 3 io THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Neither of them had heard the step on the verandah. 
 Ruth was clutching the table for support in an agony 
 of fear, and Toland, throwing up his head in mad 
 merriment, swung on his chair when the partially- 
 closed door opened wide, and as Toland's voice 
 died away, husband and wife turned their eyes 
 to see Conyngham's tall figure framed in the door- 
 way. 
 
 Toland sprang to his feet and stretched out his 
 arm pointing. ' Look, Ruth ! ' he cried. ' I told you 
 I was going. Oh, there's a good time coming. Here 
 is a protector for you. He has no land to lose and 
 you will never be afraid.' 
 
 Conyngham strode into the room. He glanced at 
 Toland, but all his eyes were for Ruth ; and Toland, 
 panting for breath, ceased to laugh and glared from 
 one to the other. 
 
 There was a fateful moment's silence. Conyngham, 
 hearing of the elopement from Mallock, had ridden 
 straight away to see if he could offer any comfort or 
 assistance. He had thought Toland's reason tottering 
 in the balance, and now it seemed that it had kicked 
 the beam. 
 
 Those surely were a madman's eyes. His own 
 sought Ruth's. His arms moved from his side in an 
 involuntary movement of protection, and her lids 
 dropped before his glance. To Toland came back 
 suddenly the memory of years ago when Ruth was 
 ill, memory of the suspicion since laughed at and 
 forgotten. The jealousy his sane, generous mind 
 could never harbour sprang suddenly into monstrous 
 existence. He stepped in front of Conyngham, 
 struggling against a mad impulse to grasp his throat, 
 with a great effort of restraint keeping his hands
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 3 1 1 
 
 from creeping up the arms which they clutched like 
 a vice. 
 
 ' Get out of my house,' he said huskily. ' Get out, 
 before mischief happens. You don't know what you 
 are doing coming here to-night.' 
 
 Conyngham stood firm and motionless, leaning 
 forward to passively resist Toland's weight. He 
 looked at Ruth, and the issue of a tragedy hung 
 on a glance or a word from her. 
 
 She was terrified, but loyal love and hope pre- 
 vailed over fear. In a moment she was at her 
 husband's side, with her fingers resting lightly on 
 his arm. 
 
 'John, dear, don't push Mr Conyngham out,' she 
 said, trying to force a laugh, while her teeth chattered. 
 ' But you must not think me rude, Mr Conyngham, 
 for begging you to leave us. My husband and I are 
 terribly upset to-night.' 
 
 A beseeching glance which was unseen by Toland 
 decided Conyngham, in spite of his fears for her. 
 
 ' I am sorry I intruded so unfortunately,' he said 
 quietly. ' My best apology will be to go at once.' 
 
 Toland had insensibly allowed the grip of his hands 
 to slacken. As Conyngham withdrew himself he 
 turned to look at Ruth ; and almost before the re- 
 treating figure had passed the doorway, she flung her 
 arms round her husband's neck, overwhelming him 
 with kisses and tears. 
 
 Outside the little house Conyngham waited long 
 in the shadow. He was no eavesdropper, but however 
 wrong his love, and however brave the woman, he 
 dared not leave her alone in the power of a mad- 
 man, even though it was at her command. 
 
 Again and again he told himself he was a weak
 
 3 i2 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 fool, as he began to realise the strength of the feeling 
 that had grown in silence, that was to be always a 
 secret, and had kept him in spite of many resolutions 
 anchored in the Tonga Valley year after year. Only 
 now did he fully comprehend what his life had missed 
 when he witnessed the loving trust with which Ruth 
 had thrown herself into her husband's arms and he 
 stretched out his own in an uncontrollable gesture of 
 hopeless longing. 
 
 All seemed quiet within. Though only a few yards 
 away he could scarcely hear the voices, and almost 
 hating Toland, with a new insistent jealousy of 
 which he felt ashamed, Conyngham told himself 
 that he was utterly forgotten, and that Ruth's 
 gentle influence had triumphed, securing Toland's 
 threatened reason at least for a time. 
 
 And so it seemed was the fact With a heart full 
 of thankfulness Ruth had felt her husband's arms 
 close round her, quivering ; she had looked into his 
 face and seen his eyes grow soft, as for months she 
 had not known them ; and when he brushed his hand 
 across them suddenly, and, going to his easy-chair, 
 drew her gently towards him, she left him to break 
 the silence, feeling that the dawn was coming after a 
 hideous nightmare which had tortured them. 
 
 Toland did not speak for a long time. When he 
 did his voice was deep and resonant with sane 
 emotion. 
 
 ' You saved me, Ruth. My reason was going, and 
 nothing but you and your love could have brought it 
 back again. How can you care for such a brute 
 as I?' 
 
 ' Don't,' she whispered softly. 
 
 'Yes, I was mad,' he went on, 'but never again,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 313 
 
 Ruth never while you are near me.' He paused 
 and looked slowly round the room filled with Ruth's 
 and Mabel's handiwork. ' It's hard to have to leave 
 the old place, but I'll try to bear it like a man.' He 
 stroked her hair and smiled sadly. ' No. That's not 
 much after all like a woman like you, Ruth.' 
 
 She had no voice to speak, and she would have 
 kissed his hand but that with a sense of shame he 
 wrenched it away. 
 
 ' Then there's Mabel.' 
 
 Ruth started and clung to his arm, but his voice 
 was quiet and even. 'Don't be afraid. I I've 
 learnt what I am. No wonder the girl was frightened 
 of me. I wouldn't like to see her not yet a while, but 
 some day some day I'll forgive her.' 
 
 One look of dumb gratitude flashed from Ruth's 
 eyes ; then the long-resisted strain had its way and 
 she cried uncontrollably as if her heart would break. 
 It was long before Toland could soothe and scold 
 her back to control of herself once more ; and the 
 emotional experience he went through in the time 
 was a healthful one for him. 
 
 Conyngham, still keeping his vigil in the garden, 
 heard the tones of soothing and appeal not those of 
 the same man who had saluted him in the doorway 
 so shortly before. Then his own name caught his 
 ear, and with the blood mounting to his face he stole 
 softly away to where his horse was tethered. There 
 was no reason for him to wait longer. When husband 
 and wife could begin to discuss him quietly together, 
 the wife had no need of his protection, he thought, 
 with a bitter laugh at his wasted championship. It 
 was intolerable to think that he had betrayed him- 
 self, and that the woman he had loved, and her
 
 3 1 4 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 husband, were talking of him not with anger, perhaps, 
 but with pity possibly amused by his infatuation, as 
 they had a perfect right to be and saying to him- 
 self many hard things of Ralph Conyngham, the 
 schoolmaster rode away from Grimsby Farm.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 MEMORIES of the long journey, the arrival in Mel- 
 bourne, and the marriage so different to any that her 
 fancy had ever pictured, were already dreamlike and 
 far away to Mabel Harlin a few days after she had 
 left her father's farm. Even the excitement and the 
 strangeness would not stifle thought. Amid her 
 happiness in Rupert's devotion and the new pleasure 
 of spending money with what seemed reckless ex- 
 travagance on the dresses that her husband insisted 
 she should have, there intruded sharp pangs of 
 conscience, and always as an undercurrent was the 
 longing for news of her parents in the old home. 
 
 Rupert understood her anxiety and did his best to 
 allay it. All would be well, he assured her, when 
 Mrs Toland received the money. To that chance 
 Mabel also pinned her faith. Her hand trembled so 
 when she wrote specimen signatures for the bank, 
 and later, when she filled in the cheque under Rupert's 
 directions, that he laughed, declaring that no one 
 could possibly read such a scrawl ; and then she spent 
 hours on the letter to her mother for an answer to 
 which she feverishly waited. 
 
 Her hurried note of farewell, written at Grimsby 
 Farm, had omitted to give any address, and hence 
 the silence from home, which had hitherto oppressed 
 her, might after all, she kept repeating to herself, 
 have no sinister meaning.
 
 316 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Standing before the long glass one evening she re- 
 arranged the lace at her neck, thinking how deep 
 beneath the surface went the changes effected by 
 dressmakers and a few days. Gowns that she in- 
 stinctively knew men admired and women envied 
 gave her confidence, amid her strange surroundings in 
 a fashionable hotel, that nothing else could have 
 given. It seemed quite natural that a pearl necklet, 
 Rupert's gift, should be gleaming on the throat that 
 had never known anything before but a string of 
 beads or a silver brooch. It was scarcely strange 
 that she and Rupert were going to dine at the table- 
 cThote, and afterwards spend the evening at the 
 theatre, of which her only experience was the childish 
 visit to the upper circle years ago. If only her 
 parents would make perfect by their sympathy her 
 joy in the new life, stretching out in kaleidoscopic 
 hues before her ! In time they must. Her father 
 could not fail to see what a fine fellow Rupert was 
 and to accept their help, because she longed so 
 ardently that it would happen so. 
 
 Rupert was late. She could hear now and then the 
 frou-frou of silks in the passage, and laughter and 
 footsteps on the stairs that led to the great dining- 
 room, and wondered what detained her husband, when 
 presently he entered. He begged for time to recover 
 from the shock of his wife's new magnificence, and 
 then kissing her, praised her beauty and the dress she 
 wore in words that brought a blush to Mabel's cheeks 
 and made her almost as proud as he. 
 
 ' Then you don't think the black velvet is too old 
 for me ? ' she asked, turning slowly round before him 
 like the millinery figures in the windows. 
 
 'You are a Spanish princess from a picture and
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 317 
 
 you would make anything look young. The dress and 
 that lace affair suit you right down to the ground.' 
 
 ' If you are pleased that is all I want.' 
 
 ' Pleased ? ' The emphasised interrogative assured 
 her that he was, and smiling happily, she threw an 
 opera cloak over her shoulders. Neck and arms 
 showed a little fairer beyond the sun line of her active 
 country life. Otherwise one would scarcely guess 
 that she was a stranger to cities, and nothing sug- 
 gested that this was the first evening gown she had 
 ever worn. She knew instinctively how to carry her 
 unaccustomed finery without awkwardness, and the 
 black velvet and pearls suited her fine carriage and 
 her colouring. Only the appropriate dressing of her 
 abundant hair she felt at present beyond her skill, 
 but for this occasion a hairdresser had overcome the 
 difficulty, so on that point too she felt at ease. 
 
 She had forgotten home troubles completely for 
 the moment when Rupert recalled them to her. 
 
 ' I'm sorry I'm so beastly late, Mab,' he said ; ' but 
 it suddenly struck me that there might be a letter at 
 the Wanderer's Club and there was.' 
 
 ' Well ? ' 
 
 He smiled at her impulsive movement towards him. 
 
 ' Good news as far as it went. Your people don't 
 know where we are. But Mrs Toland had been to 
 the Scotts ' 
 
 ' And they wrote to you ? ' she asked in astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 'Good Lord, no! It was Conyngham. He's a 
 trump and a regular old uncle to us, Mab. Mrs 
 Scott told him that there had been no end of a row, 
 but that your father and mother were taking ^it well 
 at present and longing for further news of you.'
 
 3 i8 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 Mab drew a long breath of relief and raised her 
 arms in a gesture almost of thanksgiving, while her 
 eyes filled with happy tears. 'Oh, how thankful I 
 am that you got that letter ! ' she sighed. ' Perhaps 
 everything will really be right now. Mother must 
 have my other letter by this time. I'm actually be- 
 ginning to be glad I married you, Rupert.' 
 
 Her pale blue opera cloak had slipped from her 
 shoulders. 
 
 Rupert picked it up and handed it to her with a 
 proud glance at the queenly young figure, thinking 
 he had no cause to regret his part of the contract. 
 He laughed at the glow of delight that brightened her 
 face and belied the tears glistening on the long eye- 
 lashes. 
 
 ' You are kind,' he said, * and I am deeply flattered 
 but it doesn't occur to you to wonder what my old 
 people think of our performance.' 
 
 She looked at him remorsefully. 'Oh, Rupert, 
 what a selfish wretch I am ! ' she exclaimed, laying 
 caressing fingers on his coat sleeve. ' Have you heard 
 from them too ? There was no room in my thoughts 
 just now for anything but what you told me.' 
 
 Rupert kissed her again, laughing. ' Nonsense, 
 darling ! ' he said. ' My affairs are all right. Much 
 better than I expected. I'll tell you about them at 
 dinner.' 
 
 He had gone to dress before Mabel could question 
 him further, but later on she learnt that things were 
 not much changed at Kumbarra. Mr Harlin was 
 angry and still uttered threats of cutting Rupert off 
 with a shilling, but Mrs Harlin, who had written him 
 a letter of mild rebuke, believed that her husband 
 would accept the position with better grace now that
 
 THE WISDOM Of ESAU 319 
 
 he could in no way alter it. She would write in a 
 day or two, she promised, to scold and congratulate 
 Mabel. 
 
 Though she might have indignantly denied it, Mrs 
 Harlin was in her secret heart not greatly displeased 
 that Mabel and Rupert had run away. She knew her 
 son too well to have had hopes of preventing the 
 marriage, and the elopement disposed of the unpleas- 
 ant prospect of a bourgeois wedding where class dif- 
 ferences and the Scotts would be much in evidence. 
 Harlin said bluntly that since Mabel had shown her 
 good taste by clearing out from the family, and 
 Rupert some glimmerings of good sense by not 
 mixing himself up in functions with a common 
 crowd, in which it would be an insult to ask him 
 to join, he did not so much mind him making an ass 
 of himself. Mabel was a pretty girl, and he should 
 not wonder if she were smart enough to pass as a 
 lady among people who didn't know her father or 
 her uncle. 
 
 Thus the Tolands and themselves were the only 
 people to whom the young couple's elopement was 
 fraught with gravity, and Rupert could, with some 
 show of reason, congratulate himself that he had 
 taken the wisest course. Mabel listened to his en- 
 thusiastic appreciation of his own foresight, smiling, 
 suspending judgment till the reply which she dreaded 
 yet longed for should come from Grimsby Farm. 
 
 At last it arrived. On the breakfast-table one 
 morning she found a letter waiting the first one she 
 had seen addressed to Mrs Rupert Harlin and in 
 her mother's handwriting. She snatched it up with a 
 beating heart. She could not trust herself to read it 
 in the presence of other inmates of the hotel, scattered
 
 3 2o THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 about at adjoining tables, and the waiter who was at 
 her elbow for orders got no intelligible answer, but 
 she shook her head and ran upstairs. 
 
 There she was able to be alone with her letter. 
 Rupert, having business to attend to, had breakfasted 
 earlier and left the hotel. 
 
 Mrs Toland had written very little of their return 
 to the farmhouse on the night Mabel left, but there 
 was enough to let her know there had been a scene 
 that her father had been bitterly incensed, and was 
 only gradually becoming reconciled to her absence. 
 Then came thanks for the cheque, which Mabel was 
 to convey also to Rupert, and she cried to herself as 
 she read. She felt in a way ashamed, and yet happy, 
 at receiving thanks of such a kind from her parents, 
 or rather from her mother, who wrote on behalf of 
 both. She was at the Scotts'. There she had got 
 Mabel's letter and immediately written the reply; 
 for Toland, who was in Tongalong trying to get rid 
 of some unmortgaged stock, would not return till the 
 following day, and for another week there would be 
 no mail from Mallock's post-office. However, Mabel's 
 idea of going for a voyage to England with Rupert 
 was approved of, and even urged by Mrs Toland. 
 She would dearly like to see her daughter again 
 before she sailed, but though she could not bear to 
 say so, she believed it would be wiser not to wait. 
 Her father's affection needed only time to cure his 
 displeasure. Her absence would in itself be a help, 
 and Mrs Toland trusted that at the end of the year 
 Rupert and Mabel would find a happy, loving welcome 
 from her parents in the old home. 
 
 Gentle chiding,forgiveness,advice, affectionate, good 
 wishes, Mabel read again and again with a full heart,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 321 
 
 till she knew almost every line of the long letter. It 
 left her with only a slight sad strain running through 
 her triumphant happiness, that by a bold stroke her 
 husband and she had been able to save the dear old 
 people, in spite of themselves, from heart-breaking 
 ruin. With that to think upon, and preparations for 
 leaving Melbourne for England by the next mail 
 steamer, breakfast had little chance in her thoughts, 
 and, with a bright glow on her cheeks, she was still 
 writing to her mother when Rupert returned. 
 
 On the following evening Mrs Toland and her 
 husband were seated together by the fire in the house 
 that only for a few days more should be their home. 
 
 At least so thought Toland. As the time came 
 near he found it very hard to bear, but the experiences 
 of a week before had a lasting effect, and at the 
 worst, moody silence replaced the fierce outbreaks 
 which he controlled with increasingly painful effort 
 for his wife's sake. She knitted tranquilly, pausing 
 sometimes as if about to speak, and then checking 
 herself with a smile to wait a favourable opportunity. 
 It came at length, when Toland took his pipe out of 
 his mouth and studied her for some time in silent 
 wonder. 
 
 ' I can't understand you, Ruth,' he said presently. 
 ' You don't look like a woman who has been brought 
 to beggary by her husband and will be turned out of 
 her home three days hence.' 
 
 1 What if I am not that woman in any particular ? ' 
 she asked, still smiling. 
 
 ' I am in no mood for riddles, dear,' he answered, 
 with a tired, questioning look. 
 
 ' Then here is the answer.' 
 
 She took Mabel's letter from her pocket, and hand- 
 x
 
 3 2 2 THE WISDOM OF ESA U 
 
 ing it to him, put down her work and watched every 
 movement of his countenance. He glanced first at 
 the enclosure, his thick eyebrows contracted and his 
 lips set close. Then he perused the letter slowly 
 and carefully, and when he had finished stared im- 
 passively into the fire without comment or a glance 
 at Ruth. 
 
 ' Well ? ' she asked, resting her hand on his knee. 
 
 Toland seemed to start from a reverie. 'That 
 letter is well meant/ he said coldly. ' I believe 
 Mabel really is fond of us in spite of what she's 
 done maybe even she persuaded herself that she 
 was doing right ; and young Harlin seems to have 
 some generous impulses. But ' he sighed heavily 
 after a pause, 'it makes no difference, Ruth.' 
 
 ' Why no difference ? Why can't we pay off that 
 mirerable mortgage and be free ? ' 
 
 ' This is why. 1 Toland's teeth were clenched. He 
 did not meet Ruth's questioning eyes, and she had 
 not grasped his intention till he had taken the 
 cheque in his fingers and torn it into fragments, 
 which he tossed upon the burning logs. 
 
 She watched them go. She let her knitting drop 
 on the floor ; then leaning forward, with her head 
 buried in her hands, she fought against this great 
 bitterness and struggled not to cry aloud. 
 
 ' Oh, John ! You don't know what you've done,' 
 she said at last. A piteous note of despair in the 
 almost whispered words roused Toland and brought 
 him to his feet. 
 
 ' I do, Ruth,' he cried. ' I have put self-respect 
 above ease. I have refused to accept our home as 
 the charity of people I have hated. The signature 
 to that cheque was Mabel's, but you know as well
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 323 
 
 as I do that the money was Harlin's. I have refused 
 to sell him forgiveness for his theft of my flesh and 
 blood ! ' 
 
 Ruth had risen too and stood listening with an 
 expression of utter weariness, almost scornful. 
 
 ' You have sacrificed your daughter's happiness to 
 pride/ she answered slowly. 'You have lost the 
 opportunity for the noblest action of your life. You 
 have made us homeless indeed, and you have dis- 
 appointed me ! ' 
 
 She could say no more. It was too hard to bear. 
 Her head shook backwards and forwards ; her lips 
 moved without uttering a sound ; and only when 
 Toland, thoroughly alarmed and cut to the heart by 
 her words, came nearer, did she find voice again. 
 
 A gesture of her hands kept him standing away 
 from her, abashed. ' No ; don't touch me now,' she 
 faltered, with a smile. ' I'm sorry if I was cruel, dear, 
 but I'm upset. I will go to bed.' 
 
 Toland watched her leave the room without a word. 
 There was absolutely nothing to say. For the first 
 time in their lives there had come a deep irreconcil- 
 able difference where no compromise was possible, 
 and only the utter abandonment of the position on 
 one side or the other could ever bring them together 
 again as they had been through all the years that 
 ended five minutes ago. 
 
 She would not yield. He had seen it in her eyes 
 and felt it in her tone, and all without finding a word 
 of protest or defence. Then could he? Or must 
 this barrier, worse than a dozen evictions, remain 
 between them, darkening all the brightness that was 
 left in life? He almost regretted that his maniac 
 violence had gone. Where his wife was concerned,
 
 3 2 4 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 at least, there was no longer even refuge from 
 thought in the fierce intoxication of despair. He 
 was just utterly unhappy, while love and every other 
 impulse fought against his pride, and he felt that all 
 that made life worth living would be destroyed by 
 the victory of either. Estrangement from Ruth and 
 homelessness as fruits of the defeat of love by pride 
 loss of the independence, treasured even above the 
 home which was almost part of himself, as the fruits 
 of its victory. 
 
 Leaning forward in the chimney with his head in 
 his hands, he sat till the fire was out, and still the 
 fight went on. There had long been silence in the 
 next room when it was broken, and through the thin 
 partition Toland heard restless tossing on a pillow, 
 and then a heart-broken sob. Suddenly the fight was 
 ended and Toland stood up with his brain reeling. 
 
 ' Ruth ! ' he cried. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' 
 
 ' I I will write to Mabel and ask her for another 
 cheque.' He had forced the words out in spite of 
 devils striving to hold him tongue-tied, and he waited 
 for the guerdon of his victory. 
 
 The answer came with a pent-up torrent of tears. 
 ' It is too late. She will be on the seas on her way 
 to England.' 
 
 All that her words meant was at first incomprehen- 
 sible, and he could not go to Ruth till he had thought 
 it out. He had conquered his pride he had kept 
 Ruth kept his independence, too, in spite of his 
 willingness to surrender it and he had lost his farm. 
 Above everything stood out the fact that fate had 
 refused to make him Harlin's pensioner. 
 
 It was hard to regret that repentance had been
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 325 
 
 tardy, and not till it came vividly before him that, 
 with the home which belonged to both of them, his 
 tardiness had sacrificed Ruth's dearest hopes, was he 
 able to go to her bedside and on his knees beg for- 
 giveness. 
 
 Ruth granted it before it was asked. 
 
 With her husband's repentance new hope sprang 
 up in her brave contriving mind. It kept her wake- 
 ful far into the night, and with the bright frosty 
 morning it gained strength. It was not to be thought 
 of that they should tamely submit to ruin when 
 salvation had been driven from their doors by a mere 
 accident and was surely still within their reach. 
 
 Might she drive the buggy to Kumbarra? she 
 asked. She would return to the Scotts in the even- 
 ing, and he could understand that there were many 
 things which she wanted to discuss with Mrs Harlin. 
 
 Toland gave his permission with unusual readi- 
 ness, for he was anxious to do all in his power to 
 make amends, and early after breakfast he drove 
 with her to the gate. Ruth urged the old horses in 
 a way that astonished them from her, and wasted no 
 time on her arrival in telling her troubles to Mrs 
 Harlin. She showed her Mabel's letter and told 
 her of the fate of the cheque and of her husband's 
 subsequent sorrow for what he had done. 
 
 Mrs Harlin waxed wrathful and sarcastic, but 
 Ruth's pale face and quivering lips checked her even 
 more than her remonstrances ; and she listened with 
 futile longing for power to grant the request when 
 her friend asked for the loan of another thousand 
 pounds which Mabel would repay. 
 
 With a lump rising in her throat Mrs Harlin 
 shook her head ' If I had it, Ruth, dear, nothing
 
 326 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 would give me so much delight, but every penny I 
 could lay hands on has gone to Rupert, for otherwise 
 he must have asked for his own money and em- 
 barrassed his father.' 
 
 Ruth's face fell with this last grand castle in the 
 air, and she sat in hopeless silence, trying to be 
 brave. Mrs Harlin sought vainly for words of com- 
 fort, but none came. At last she rose impatiently 
 with knitted eyebrows. 'Oh, something must be 
 done ! ' she exclaimed. 'It is too wicked ! too 
 absurd ! ' She looked doubtfully at Ruth. ' I might 
 be able to get the money from my husband.' 
 
 ' No, no ! not that ! ' she cried nervously. ' John 
 would be too angry, and I feel no good would come 
 of it' 
 
 ' It would be just a temporary loan.' 
 
 Ruth rose wearily and held out her hand. ' No, 
 Margaret. Don't talk about it any more. You have 
 been very kind and I am glad I came to you, but 
 I don't think I will stay longer now. Good-bye.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin kissed her, smiling enigmatically. 
 
 ' You must not go yet,' she said ; ' we have a great 
 deal else to talk about, and don't be downhearted, 
 dear, something shall be done.' 
 
 ' Not what you said.' 
 
 Mrs Harlin laughed at the new anxiety in Ruth's 
 face. ' I believe you are as prejudiced as your hus- 
 band,' she said kindly. 'But trust me, mine will 
 not be asked to pay the mortgage or provide any 
 money for a loan to you or Mr Toland. And all 
 the same, I feel confident that you will not lose that 
 farm. Do you trust me ? ' 
 
 ' I can't help doing so,' she answered gratefully,
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 327 
 
 puzzled by the pleased mystery in Mrs Harlin's face, 
 and yet rendered hopeful by it. 
 
 ' That is right,' said Mrs Harlin, gaily. ' Ask no 
 questions, but when you go to sleep to-night, dream 
 of happier times. Now try not to think of those 
 things for a little, but let me show you a letter from 
 Rupert. He is very much in love.' 
 
 Nothing more was said of the mortaged farm. It 
 was the first time the women had met since Rupert's 
 and Mabel's love affair developed, and they spent a 
 long afternoon together talking of the young people, 
 Ruth almost forgetting her own troubles in picturing 
 their delight in each other and in life. 
 
 She drove away much more cheerful than she 
 came. She had never known Margaret break a 
 promise; and, utterly unable as she was to guess 
 how or whence help was to come, the words, ' Trust 
 me ; you will not lose that farm,' kept ringing in her 
 ears, and she believed them.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE morning of the sale had arrived at last, and 
 Toland rose early from the kitchen floor, where he 
 had passed the night rolled in his blankets. No 
 persuasion could induce him to stay at Scott's, though 
 his brother-in-law pressed him to make the farm 
 down the river his head-quarters until he could find 
 a job. He had even, with tactless well-meaning, 
 thrown out hints about himself giving Toland 
 employment if he could find an excuse for sacking 
 a man who was doing a bit of clearing for him as 
 he pointedly mentioned very cheap. 
 
 Sympathy, especially Scott's sympathy, was more 
 than Toland could bear, but he was not sorry that 
 Ruth should be with Bess, and after the sale was 
 over he scarcely knew what he himself should do. 
 
 As the sun was rising he tramped from one to 
 another of the empty echoing rooms, stripped of their 
 furniture which lay piled in lots for the sale, while 
 some of the more precious personal belongings of 
 little monetary worth had been carted away to 
 Scott's to meet there some future fate. 
 
 Only the previous afternoon had he and Ruth paid 
 a last visit to spots enshrined by a sad or tender 
 recollection in their memories, and bade a farewell 
 together to the old home. Then Toland had driven 
 his wife to Scott's and read with her Mabel's happy 
 
 328
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 329 
 
 letter, written just before she sailed, returning in the 
 evening to spend the last few hours on the spot of 
 earth that was almost his handiwork, and face the 
 music on the morrow like a man. 
 
 Ruth had bid him good-bye with brave, loving 
 words. She had even managed to smile through 
 her tears, and, standing at the gate watching him 
 drive off, had once made as though to call him back. 
 He pulled up, she hesitated, made a step towards 
 him and stopped again. No word had come from 
 Mrs Harlin and things seemed hopeless indeed. 
 She could not comfort him with her shred of hope 
 in her friend's promise, but for her the age of miracles 
 was not past, and hope was living still. 
 
 ' It is nothing, John,' she called softly. ' I I only 
 wanted to tell you that I have a presentiment a 
 certainty almost that you will be happier this time 
 to-morrow than you are to-day.' 
 
 ' Bless your superstitions ! Go on believing in 
 them and in me while you can,' he muttered ; but 
 she only saw him smile and wave his hand, and went 
 back to the house impatient for their next happy 
 meeting. 
 
 Now Toland wondered why he had come. It 
 seemed impossible that he should be driven out of 
 his home like a dog. He felt madly inclined to 
 stand in the doorway with his gun to shoot down 
 anyone who dared approach, and then in hand-to- 
 hand fight hold the place against rogues and lawyers 
 till he was overpowered by weight of numbers. Or 
 he would put a match to the walls and watch the 
 new house burn like the old one from the scrub 
 thickets by the creek. 
 
 Other lunatic fancies came crowding while he
 
 330 THE WISDOM OF ESA V 
 
 pursued his aimless, mechanical round, and he 
 laughed bitterly as with an effort of resolution he 
 cast them aside only for Ruth's sake he told him- 
 self. Were it not for Ruth he would embrace the 
 jolly temptations of insanity and make the sale day 
 of Grimsby Farm one long remembered in the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 Going back to the kitchen he rolled up his 
 blankets. With the billy beside them they seemed 
 emblematic of his future life as a tramp and an 
 outcast. He wanted no breakfast. If he were 
 hungry later on, would there not be the sale luncheon 
 with whisky flowing, and no doubt he would be 
 allowed a share. 
 
 He lit his pipe and looked over the hill, starting 
 at every sound that his ear deceived him into think- 
 ing was the rattle of buggy wheels. It was early 
 yet, but an hour or two hence all the vehicles in the 
 district would be driving through his open gates, 
 their inmates holding high holiday, coming with jests 
 and laughter to tramp about his house, moralise on 
 his downfall, and burst into loud guffaws at the 
 auctioneer's witticisms on his poor little household 
 gods. No he could not bear it. It might be 
 necessary to see the salesman on some matters of 
 business, but he could creep back in time for that 
 when the desecration of his lares and penates was 
 over and all the careless crowd had gone. If he 
 stayed to witness it he should make a fool of him- 
 self, or worse. 
 
 Then a new idea came to him. It was so deliciously 
 absurd that he laughed long and loudly as it crossed 
 his brain. But it was a good one and he determined 
 to act on it. Joe was doing well in West Australia
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 331 
 
 and might get him a job. If the daughter could give 
 him a thousand pounds for nothing, surely the son 
 might put his old dad into some work about the 
 mine that would bring him in a pound or thirty bob 
 a week. Anyhow, if he were going to tramp the 
 roads, he would rather do it as far as possible from 
 scenes and faces he knew. There and then he found 
 ink and paper and scribbled some grimly humorous 
 lines to Joe, stating clearly enough, however, what 
 it was he sought. If he posted the letter at the town- 
 ship post-office that morning it would go at once 
 and a whole week would be saved, and he would be 
 away from the farm when a tap of the auctioneer's 
 hammer broke to fragments the materialised result 
 of his enthusiastic young dreams. 
 
 He went mechanically to catch his horse in the 
 little paddock, when he suddenly remembered that 
 it was no longer his. Every animal was on the 
 catalogue for sale that day, and a ride might involve 
 him in a prosecution. Anyhow, he preferred to walk. 
 Then he could hide himself in the scrub by the road- 
 side, and avoid the eyes and the sympathy of neigh- 
 bours gathering for the sale. With a nervous dread 
 of being discovered in the open, he left the house 
 deserted, and striding across his cleared paddocks 
 where the early crops gave ironic promise of bounte- 
 ousness, he was soon travelling at a swinging pace 
 down the scrub-bordered road to Kumbarra. 
 
 It was not long after his departure that the 
 auctioneer and his clerk arrived in a smart Abbot 
 buggy, behind a fast-trotting chestnut, first upon the 
 scene. Calling brought no one to his assistance. 
 The brown gloves, worn presumably to protect his 
 hands from the stain of professional dirty work only,
 
 332 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 were slipped off with a curse on people generally for 
 not coming out to take his horse, the just-lighted 
 cigar was laid aside, and Mr Salaman helped his 
 clerk to unharness, sulky because his small vanity 
 had not been gratified in impressing a single soul 
 by his arrival. But the first comers were not far 
 behind the auctioneer, and soon, in buggies, spring 
 carts, and on horseback, the visitors arrived by 
 dozens. There were drays too, brought by far- 
 seeing ones, who meant to buy pigs, harness or 
 the like, and taking delivery on the spot to combine 
 business with pleasure and avoid the loss of another 
 day. 
 
 The sun shone bright and genial. The wattle on the 
 creek bank just bursting into bloom, the cheerful whistle 
 of the magpies, and a mystified chattering from all the 
 birds of the air, each had their part in lightening hearts 
 and loosening tongues, to an extent of which the most 
 exigeant pleasure-seekers at the sale could not com- 
 plain. Everything was as it should be, and jollity, 
 irresponsibility, brutality reigned supreme. Toland's 
 little garden was soon a flowerless wilderness of heavy 
 foot-prints strewn with broken plants ; Ruth's spot- 
 less floors a sea of saliva, with here and there an 
 island not entirely submerged. The crowd elbowed 
 one another through the rooms and passages. Young 
 women blushed and old women laughed at coarse 
 jokes bandied carelessly in their hearing. Females 
 fingered the house linen with muttering and shaking 
 of heads over darns and iron mould. The elderly 
 of both sexes leaned lovingly by the pigstyes, chaff- 
 ing and betting about the weights, and mentally 
 turning pounds of live pig into bacon at so much 
 per pound. There was a mighty din in the poultry-
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 333 
 
 yard, where a hot, plum-coloured woman with a green 
 umbrella pursued fowls to test their age and fatness, 
 with an admiring crowd of onlookers adding their 
 cackling to that of the hens. Little groups of men 
 told one another what was wrong with Toland's 
 plough, and knowing ones with many winks and 
 grunts divulged the true age of his horses con- 
 tradicted now and then by a man who remembered 
 such and such an animal's foaling. A large woman 
 shaped like a cottage loaf, threatening to rise and 
 burst the black watered silk, made frequent captures 
 of a small toothless husband who had got at a whisky 
 bottle that morning just after she had made him 
 passably clean ; and now and then wrenching his 
 coat collar free of the detaining hand of his breath- 
 less, red -faced spouse, he dived into brief liberty 
 among the legs of the delighted crowd. 
 
 Scott and Jimmy Scott were early at the farm, to 
 represent Toland, on whose account some goods were 
 going under the hammer, in addition to the land and 
 stock, both sold by order of the mortgagee. 
 
 There was not much demanded of Scott but he did 
 the little that he could in Toland's interest, giving 
 information where he thought it would lead to better 
 sales, withholding it where the effect would be con- 
 trary; and now and then ordering the too roughly 
 curious to keep their paws off the household goods 
 which they pulled about and soiled. He was not 
 imaginative or sentimental, but he felt an undefined 
 
 o 
 
 sympathetic anger with all the laughing throng, and 
 surprised his friends by snappy answers to their 
 greetings. Now and then a flash of what it would 
 be to have such visitors on his farm crossed his mind, 
 and he understood Toland better than he had done
 
 334 
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 since the long ago days when they were one in hope 
 and indignation by the camp fire at Kumbarra. 
 
 Once Conyngham touched his arm in the crowd. 
 The schoolmaster had insisted that he would not 
 bother the Scotts while the Tolands were with them 
 and had found temporary lodgings at another farm. 
 He had seen neither husband nor wife since the even- 
 ing Mabel left, and did not wish to do so yet. 
 Probably they would soon bid good-bye to each 
 other and the valley for ever, but he could not pass 
 Toland without a word if he should meet him now. 
 
 There was less indulgence than usual in his 
 habitual half sneer for mankind in general and 
 himself in particular to-day. 
 
 ' Good morning, Scott,' he said. ' Have you seen 
 anything of Toland ? ' 
 
 ' No. I scarcely reckoned he'd be here, though he 
 said something about seeing it through. I'm attend- 
 ing to his business for him.' 
 
 ' Well, he's better away. He would scarcely find it 
 so amusing as you or I do.' 
 
 'Amusing?' Scott stared at Conyngham, dimly 
 suspicious of sarcasm. ' I'd like to wring half a 
 
 dozen of their b necks for 'em especially the 
 
 women's and the auctioneer's ! ' 
 
 Conyngham laughed. ' Do, like a good fellow,' he 
 said. ' I see your brother-in-law's business is safe 
 with you. I can't stand any more of this, so I'm 
 off. Good-bye.' 
 
 He sauntered away towards the long row of horses 
 tethered to the nearest fence, and Scott sulkily obeyed 
 the auctioneer's beckoning to join him among a knot 
 of loud-laughed toadies. 
 
 It was twelve o'clock. The sale had been ad-
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 335 
 
 vertised for eleven, and Mr Salaman was anxious 
 to begin. Scott, he understood, represented the 
 vendor. Scott said he did, and a move was made 
 to the big kitchen to put up furniture, house linen 
 and crockery. The land itself and the stock were 
 to follow in the afternoon, when food and alcohol 
 had roused combativeness and loosened purse-strings. 
 
 Mallock had no fear that the upset price of the farm 
 would be reached, and he trusted his beer and whisky 
 to put ten times the value of the stuff consumed on to 
 the price of horses and cattle, which secured other of 
 Toland's debts that he held. 
 
 The disposal of Toland's effects did not take long. 
 The property collected bit by bit in the course of 
 years, talked over and saved for, almost articulate 
 with associations, went in a few minutes to a run- 
 ning accompaniment of auctioneer's facetite in an 
 atmosphere of stale tobacco, moleskins, dress stuffs 
 and humanity, with scarcely a soul in the room but 
 Scott even dimly remembering that the farce they 
 shrieked or chuckled over was really a poor little 
 tragedy. 
 
 Then came the luncheon on trestle tables outside 
 the house ; and after it, raised voices, more daring 
 profanity and doubtful jokes, a decrease of elderly 
 feminine squeamishness to vanishing point, and an 
 alcoholic exhalation from every knot of men, gave 
 promise to Salaman's experience of brisk bidding 
 for the horses and cattle. 
 
 First, as a matter of form, he had to offer the land 
 for sale, which he prepared to do, feeling some 
 wonder and a little disappointment that Mallock 
 was not present not on Mallock's account, but on 
 his own, since he could not curry favour by con-
 
 336 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 gratulations as he practically presented the mortgagee 
 with the unsold farm. 
 
 The bell rang once more, and mounting a chair in 
 the crowded sitting-room, Salaman gabbled through 
 the conditions of sale Terms, a third cash, the 
 balance payable by promissory notes at six and 
 twelve months respectively. The property to be 
 passed in if the reserve of 1070, covering money 
 lent, interest due, and expenses incurred by the 
 mortgagee, should not be reached. 
 
 The onlookers listened silently, scarcely under- 
 standing the legal jargon, which indeed was rattled 
 through at an unintelligible pace; but the great 
 central fact that the home one man had created was 
 being offered by another man for sale touched them 
 to the quick, and there rippled through the room a 
 little wave of sympathy for Toland. The force of 
 the abstract words, ' Right, title and interest,' 
 reached their hearts, which were unresponsive to the 
 more delicate pathos of the lovingly-mended lace 
 curtains and the two well-worn, old easy-chairs 
 ' one for the big bear, one for the middle-sized bear.' 
 They could laugh at the auctioneer's poor wit, applaud 
 his affected astonishment that the little bear Tolands 
 had not any ; but there was no laughter now that 
 another farmer was going and the hated Mallock 
 once again laying field to field. 
 
 ' Who'll give me a bid for it ? It goes at one 
 thousand and seventy as tidy a little farm as you'll 
 find on the river, with twenty years of a good 
 farmer's work and sweat in it worth more than 
 twice the money. Come on, you moneyed squires 
 and Croesuses ! ' 
 
 His ivory toy poised in the air, the auctioneer
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 337 
 
 paused and curled his moustache with one hand, 
 looking patronisingly down on the upturned rough 
 faces, knowing not one of his tantalised hearers to be 
 good for fifty pounds cash if it were to purchase a 
 proved gold mine. 
 
 4 No offers? You astonish me. Where's all the 
 money gone? ' he resumed tauntingly. ' Only a third 
 cash only ten hundred and seventy ! At less money 
 she's passed in. Is there any offer? ' 
 
 The hammer was already descending, and he was 
 nodding to his clerk, when a man near the door held 
 up his hand and everyone turned to look at him in 
 wonder. 
 
 ' You might have been a bit smarter, my man,' 
 called Salaman, acidly; ' but I'll take your bid if you 
 look alive with it. ' 
 
 ' Eleven hundred pounds. Wasn't that good 
 enough to wait for? ' answered the stranger, calmly. 
 
 There was a loud hum of astonished applause, and 
 the auctioneer had to raise his voice. 
 
 ' Name, please? ' 
 
 ' Mrs Rupert Harlin. ' 
 
 Salaman beckoned impatiently to the stranger to 
 come forward, and he elbowed his way through the 
 gaping onlookers, ostentatiously pulling out a roll of 
 notes as he did so. 
 
 Scott recognised the purchaser then as an old 
 servant of the Harlins whom he had seen on the 
 station years ago. Ruth's faith was justified at last. 
 Mrs. Harlin had racked her brains for a means of 
 saving the farm, and a visit to her Tongalong bankers 
 had confirmed the hope that had sprung into her 
 mind when Ruth was with her at Kumbarra. To 
 raise the mortgage money was beyond her means, 
 
 Y
 
 338 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 but she had overdrawn to meet the deposit, and not 
 a penny of it was Harlin's. 
 
 Scott could not resist having a slap at the auc- 
 tioneer. ' More money than you thought after all, 
 Mr Salaman, ' he said. ' Mr Mallock will be glad to 
 make a sale of it, I suppose and Mrs Rupert's a 
 good mark too, eh? ' 
 
 4 Um ! Damn his theatrical waste of time, I say. 
 By the way, where the hell is Mallock? ' 
 
 Others were asking the same question. Scott 
 wondered were Toland was, and for the first time 
 wished him present; but soon the stock sales en- 
 gaged his attention and he remained till the close of 
 the day at Grimsby Farm, getting a statement of 
 accounts from Salaman and expecting Toland at 
 any minute to return. 
 
 However he put in no appearance. The sun was 
 almost down when Scott and his son passed last of 
 all through the gate of the wrecked and deserted 
 home, in haste to see Ruth and gladden her ears 
 with the great news. The purchase of Grimsby Farm 
 was the absorbing topic of talk and speculation in 
 the home-going buggies, and the opinion was freely 
 expressed that Mallock must have got wind of Mrs 
 Rupert's intention and stayed away to conceal his 
 mortification. Toland, it was evident, could have 
 known nothing or he would not have absented him- 
 self and missed the fun. 
 
 Even though the sale was over Toland was not 
 on his way home. Waiting by the roadside in the 
 morning, he had seen the auctioner the undertaker 
 of his dead hopes drive past, with difficulty sub- 
 duing a desire to spring out and grip the horse's 
 bridle.
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 339 
 
 Then he resumed his tramp, thinking, or rather 
 with disordered thoughts rioting uncontrolled through 
 his brain. 
 
 ' It is your fault ! it is your fault ! ' one voice kept 
 singing. ' If you had trusted your daughter's love you 
 would be at home to-day.' 
 
 ' But there is no fault ! ' he cried almost aloud. ' I 
 have my independence I am not a pensioner.' 
 
 ' Fine independence ! ' sneered another voice in his 
 ear. 
 
 He stopped and started, staring all around him. 
 Who had said that ? Surely there were voices. He 
 could swear he heard them. They contradicted one 
 another ; and one laughed. Perhaps he was only 
 thinking but he could not think so loud, nor so 
 many things at once. No, there were voices calling 
 in his ears ; and he laughed too as he listened to 
 them and trudged on. 'You loved your wife and 
 you yielded for her sake. You are a brave man and 
 independent,' sounded one. 
 
 'That's true,' thought Toland, complacently, 
 throwing up his head; but then came the other 
 voice again. 
 
 'Fine independence! You're an independent 
 pauper you're an independent tramp your inde- 
 pendence will break your wife's heart. You're an 
 independent madman that's what you are ! ' 
 
 Toland stopped dead, with fear-stricken eyes, and 
 pressed his hand to his forehead. ' Ah, God ! no ! 
 not that ! Not that, for Ruth's sake ! ' he exclaimed 
 aloud. ' I'm tired it's the sun my head's queer 
 I must rest a little.' 
 
 The sun was already hot; he groped his way to 
 a shady bank of spring grass beneath a spreading
 
 340 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 peppermint, and flung himself down. Two or three 
 buggies and some horsemen went past while he 
 rested, and he watched them stealthily, with the 
 mocking voices silent for a time. He remembered 
 that he was faint from want of food. He had eaten 
 little on the previous day nothing at all in the 
 evening nothing that morning and constant 
 smoking, though it dulled hunger, could not repair 
 the nervous waste. 
 
 He lit his pipe again and fixed his thoughts re- 
 solutely on the future. He was a young man yet, 
 with twenty years work in him, and he would make 
 a start in the arid West, where there was only 
 gold and sand no green leaf or tree tempting men 
 to the folly of making homes. The letter in his 
 pocket was the passport to a new free life in which 
 he could take his master's money and throw up a 
 job when he chose, with all his worldly wealth upon 
 his back. Yes, the mercenary in the battle of life 
 was the only free man ; and the independent pioneers 
 were fool slaves of the soil. Strange that in his 
 first letter from the valley, he should have boastfully 
 asked his sister to come and share his bondage, and 
 that in his last he should be humbly begging his son 
 to set him free. 
 
 The buzz of insect life, the chattering of birds, 
 and the smell of the spring flowers gradually soothed 
 him, and thinking of the camp by the creek on the 
 night he wrote to Bess, Toland at last dropped off 
 from sheer weariness to sleep. 
 
 Vehicle after vehicle passed him by unnoticed 
 and there was no human creature near when he 
 suddenly awoke and looked round bewildered. 
 Remembrance came all too quickly, and springing
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 341 
 
 to his feet he looked cautiously up and down the 
 road. 
 
 Deep wheel ruts in the drying mud showed him 
 that the holiday-makers had passed in numbers. 
 The sun was high and he bethought him of his 
 letter. If he did not hasten it would not be posted 
 in time. So he resumed his walk, growing more 
 weary at every step, afraid to think lest thought 
 should run away with him and the dreaded voices 
 come again. 
 
 Pictures of the farm filled with people of Ruth 
 crying, or perhaps praying all alone of Mabel in 
 happy ignorance, possibly writing to them at sea 
 such would spread themselves before him, but 
 whenever he heard the buzzing in his ears and felt 
 the madness creeping in, he clasped his hands over 
 them and talked to himself of his letter. ' I must 
 post my letter. I must hurry or I shall be late. 
 It must go to-day it must go to-day.' In a dull, 
 monotonous voice he repeated the words over and 
 over as a charm. 
 
 There was only a mile or two left to cover. He 
 had scarcely taken note of the familiar land-marks, 
 but he was trudging up hill and knew, without 
 raising his eyes, that he was on Mallock's gap. A 
 cutting through the hill summit lay ahead. On each 
 side of him were the steep slopes of an embankment, 
 in the one passable opening of the range through 
 which the Tonga flowed away westward. He paused 
 a moment and looked over into the deep gully down 
 which water trickled through the culvert at the em- 
 bankment's base, wearing great ruts in the dray 
 track of the old days, now lumbered with logs and 
 clothed with grass, trees and budding, bronze-tipped
 
 342 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 scrub. Down far below him Mick had piloted the 
 way when he drove his cart first to Grimsby Farm. 
 Now the road' hugged one slope on a side cutting 
 till the gradient became too steep, when it crossed by 
 an embankment to the other. It was a steep pinch 
 still, and hundreds of times had he traversed the gap, 
 walking his straining horses up the hill and holding 
 them hard on the down grade as he came and went 
 from the post-office. 
 
 This was the last time, and never again should he 
 rattle his buggy down it, homewards, with screech- 
 ing brakes arid the horses' shoes ringing on the gravel. 
 Memories roused by the old track were dangerous, 
 and leaving the causeway behind he climbed on up 
 the red hillside road. Soon he was nearing the 
 highest point. In another half minute he would be 
 in the cutting, and beyond it, only a mile away, lay 
 the post-office on the gentle fall to the plain. The 
 sound of wheels fell on his ear, and stopping still he 
 looked up. A buggy and pair were coming over 
 the hill and just beginning to gather way on the 
 slope. 
 
 In a moment they would be upon him. His first 
 impulse was to hide himself, but there was nowhere 
 to do it. He heard the brake grind on the wheels, 
 recognised the turnout, and with his brain madly 
 whirling stood rooted in the middle of the narrow 
 road. 
 
 It was Mallock's buggy with Mallock in it going 
 to the sale. Mallock gathered his reins tighter and 
 jammed his foot harder on the brake. 
 
 ' Get out of my way, you scoundrel, or I'll drive 
 you down ! ' he called. 
 
 Toland scarcely heard the words. With no thought
 
 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 343 
 
 or intention, powerless against the impulse that urged 
 him, he clutched at the off-side horse's rein. Mai- 
 lock's whip lash whistled through the air and curled 
 round Toland's face and neck. A rough laugh 
 sounded in his ears. With blood dripping down his 
 cheeks with every drop in his body on fire he re- 
 leased the horse's bridle. Mallock called to his horses 
 and drove on ; but he had not gone ten yards before 
 an arm was thrown round his neck, hot, fierce breath 
 was on his cheek, and some words, inarticulate with 
 passion, were hissed in his ear. 
 
 Toland had sprung into the buggy from behind as 
 it passed him and had gained absolute happiness at 
 last, for all the devils in him were stiffening his 
 muscles to strangle Mallock, with no one in the world 
 to interfere. 
 
 Mallock was strong, no coward, and fond of life. 
 Though his face grew blue and he gasped for breath, 
 hand and foot kept their hold on reins and brake. 
 With his right arm he struck out blindly, and forcing 
 his chin down, buried his teeth in Toland's wrist. 
 His throat was suddenly freed, but he was caught 
 again by the shoulders and could almost hear his 
 spine crack as he was bent back over the low seat. 
 The reins dropped, and a look of grey fear came into 
 his face when he saw Toland's eyes glaring down into 
 his. 
 
 The horses were galloping now. The swingle bars 
 rattled on their legs, the collars flopped about their 
 ears and the red slope flew by. 
 
 Toland released Mallock for an instant and looked 
 before him, laughing. Danger brought Mallock's 
 dazed senses back, and feeling himself free, he made 
 a frantic effort to lean forward and catch the long
 
 344 THE WISDOM OF ESAU 
 
 trailing reins, for the buckle was still within reach, 
 caught in the ironwork of the dash-board. But 
 Toland seized him again and forced him back to 
 his seat with overpowering strength, and Mallock's 
 courage gave way. 
 
 'Good God, man! you'll kill us both,' he 
 screamed. Toland hugged him a little closer and 
 laughed. 
 
 The brake was free. Every buggy bolt was rat- 
 tling. Sparks were flying from the gravel, and the 
 causeway lay across their path only a hundred yards 
 ahead. Toland' s arms crushed the life out of 
 Mallock's final convulsive struggle for freedom. 
 
 ' I will give you back your farm, ' he gasped. 
 There was no answer, but a fierce grip, and they 
 were at the embankment's edge. The horses bravely 
 tried the sharp curve; but the buggy, crashing on 
 their quarters, flung them forward, and on the old 
 road, fifty feet below, locked in one another's arms, 
 the mortgager and mortgagee of Grimsby Farm 
 found eternity together. 
 
 THE END