M -3RARY * Of 
 
 AUSTRALIAN ' AlljHORS 
 
 /MOT- ALL- N'VA N 
 
 S CROSS, 
 
 (ADA CAMBRIDGC.) 
 

 i 
 
 . 
 
LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIAN AUTHORS 
 
 NOT ALL IN VAIN 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 Uniform with this Volume. Price 2s. 6d. 
 
 THE THREE MISS KINGS. 
 
 OPINIONS OP THE PRESS. 
 
 Athenaeum. " A charming study of character. . . . The world is 
 indebted to Australia for the work of a lady who, in her second 
 venture, has confirmed her first success." 
 
 Anti-Jacobin. " A clever, amusing novel natural, distinct, and 
 finished." 
 
 National Observer. "A pleasanter tale has not been told these 
 many days. The picture of the three maidens is one of the most 
 delightful in recent fiction." 
 
 British Weekly. "That rare production a novel to be bought 
 and kept for re-reading on languid summer afternoons or stormy 
 winter evenings." 
 
 Observer. " It is a pleasure to read this novel. It is written 
 with freshness and grace, and sustains its interest to the reader 
 throughout." 
 
 Daily Telegraph. "Miss Cambridge has a delicacy of style and 
 a vividness of description which always make her books pleasant 
 to read." 
 
 Leeds Mercury." This novel is well worth reading, and in point 
 of real knowledge of human life, as well as in the skill which is 
 necessary for its literary interpretation, is distinctly superior to the 
 majority of books of its class." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN 
 
 BY MRS. CROSS 
 
 (ADA CAMBRIDGE) 
 AUTHOR OF "THE THREE MISS KINGS," "A MARKED MAN," ETC. 
 
 MELBOURNE 
 MELVILLE, MULLEN, & SLADE 
 
 LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 
 1892 
 
 [All Rights Reserved] 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MR. DUGALD ALEXANDER had the gout rather badly, as 
 old gentlemen in Australia do sometimes, though not very 
 often. In his best health he was an unamiable person, and 
 under these circumstances a brute simply. Young Mrs. 
 Dugald, who had her father and two girl friends staying 
 with her, was at her wits' end to reconcile her duties as 
 hostess and wife to give her guests pleasure, and at the 
 same time to spare annoyance to her lord, who hated to 
 see people happy. Christmas was close at hand; three of 
 her four domestics, under the pretext that they couldn't 
 stand the master's temper, were making ready to depart 
 that they might enjoy the holiday season as Australian 
 servants, sure of a choice of good places at any moment, 
 are privileged to do ; and the nominal mistress of the house 
 was terribly concerned. How to " keep " the sacred festival 
 herself with any sort of decency she was at a loss to know. 
 
 " Do what you like," said Mr. Alexander, as if he really 
 thought such bliss was possible. " I don't care a hang 
 what you do, as long as you don't bother me." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander listened meekly, and meditated. . 
 
 " I could take them out for, "picnics," she suggested, "but 
 for leaving you alone, dear." 
 
 " Pray don't stay in on that account," he snapped vi- 
 ciously. " I'd be only too glad of a little peace from their 
 everlasting giggling and cackling." 
 
 " We might even," she proceeded, in a pondering tone, 
 " take a tent and camp over Christmas in the ranges, so as 
 to save all fuss in the house if only you " 
 
 "Oh, pray leave me out of the question, /don't care. 
 You know I can't eat Christmas dinners. Go, and wel- 
 come, and stop away for a week the longer the better, as 
 far as I am concerned. Leave me old Kate and I can do 
 
 M624675 
 
. ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 very well without the rest of you very well indeed, I 
 assure you." 
 
 This was enough for one day. Next morning Mrs. Alex- 
 ander humbly asked if she might invite the boys down, in 
 order to provide companions for the girls. The boys were 
 her two step-sons, both her seniors in age, at the present 
 moment joint managers of a station of their father's in the 
 upper Murray district. 
 
 "No," thundered the old man, "you mayn't. I won't 
 have my property left to go to the dogs. And I won't 
 have the boys thrown at the heads of girls without a 
 penny." 
 
 " Nell is the only one without a penny, Dugald, and she 
 and Hugh are perfectly devoted ; you might have seen that 
 the other night. When he played his violin caterwauling, 
 you called it, and made him stop in the middle the tears 
 were in her eyes. She said she had never heard anything 
 so beautiful. Polly will have fifty thousand pounds, at 
 least. Father says so." 
 
 " Well, you may ask one of them. Jock's as good as en- 
 gaged and made a sensible choice, for a wonder so you'd 
 better have Forbes. And get Hugh for the other girl, if 
 she's so fond of him. He can make a fool of himself, if he 
 likes; that's his own concern, not mine. But here 
 Agnes !" 
 
 She was slipping from the room, but returned hastily. 
 
 "Yes, Dugald?" 
 
 " You mind you sort 'em right, now. I'll have no son of 
 mine entangling himself with paupers remember that. 
 You make Forbes keep with Polly." f 
 
 " Oh, that won't be difficult," she laughed, delighted with 
 her prospective liberty and fun. " They are old admirers. 
 When she stayed with the Andersons in the winter there 
 were great flirtations so Jock says." 
 
 The old man sneered and grunted, but with less than his 
 usual ferocity. His wife glided away on tip-toe and sought 
 her young friends, to whom she poured out her plans for 
 Christmas from a full heart. 
 
 " We'll get a tent, and we'll pack it in the station waggon, 
 with some mattresses and blankets and some cooking 
 things, and plenty of provisions all we can want for three 
 or four days ; some of our food must be cold, but a good 
 deal we can cook in camp. You girls can take your sketch- 
 ing things, and perhaps a book or two; the men will have 
 their guns, and Hugh must bring his violin. And we'll go 
 to the Eagle's Nest and the Silver Waterfall and the Black 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 7 
 
 Tarn anywhere we like," said the poor little woman, in a 
 voice that fluttered with girlish ecstasy at the idea of such 
 sweet independence. 
 
 Stealthily they set about their preparations behind the 
 ogre's back. Hugh Lloyd-Price, a near connection of the 
 family, was almost on the spot, and Forbes came down 
 from Wandaroo as fast as Cobb & Co. could bring him; 
 both young men being charmed to seize the golden oppor- 
 tunity vouchsafed to them. The weather matter of first 
 importance was all that could be desired ; settled summer 
 days, hot and bright, but without north winds and sultri- 
 ness, and nights of beauty such as people who sleep in 
 their rooms with blinds down all the year round have no 
 idea of. Contrary to reasonable expectation, the 24th of 
 December dawned, and nothing had happened to blight the 
 enterprise, which had seemed a thing too good, under the 
 circumstances, to come true. 
 
 The girls got up early to gather fruit and vegetables, 
 and the waggon was ready to start by nine o'clock. The 
 hampers were bountifully stored with all the good things 
 proper to the season, elaborately packed, with wet cloths 
 to keep them cool. The turkey, stored away in a nest of 
 white napkins by itself, was ready cooked, glazed and gar- 
 nished; the beef was also cold, and the lamb and the 
 chickens, and various other savoury meats. It could not be 
 helped. But the pudding was carried in a bag of course, 
 to have its final boiling in the gipsy pot; and there were 
 all the materials for making the sauce. It was intended, 
 moreover, to supplement the mince-pies with many little 
 impromptu sweets and relishes omelettes, anchovy toast, 
 and so on, not to speak of the wild game that was to be 
 broiled and stewed when the men had shot it. A very 
 good time was planned for, if only if only the Fates would 
 be moderately kind ! 
 
 They were. Mr. Alexander witnessed the departure of 
 the cavalcade, and did nothing worse than call his wife and 
 guests a pack of fools for choosing to roast themselves alive 
 when they had a cool house to sit in, and prophesy sun- 
 stroke and other disasters which alarmed nobody. 
 
 " Good-by, dear/' said his wife, standing on tip-toe to 
 kiss his purple face. " I do hope you won't be lonely !" 
 
 " Never mind about me," he replied, with a magnanimous 
 air. " So long as you enjoy yourself, my loneliness is of 
 no consequence. If I do get worse and die before you come 
 back, it won't matter much. Nobody would be heart- 
 broken." 
 
8 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "Oh, don't say that, Dugald! Would you would you 
 like me to stay with you?" 
 
 " What ! and send these boys and girls into the bush by 
 themselves? Come, don't pretend, Agnes. You know it's 
 too late to say that now. Here, take her, Baird, and look 
 after her as well as you can. I daresay you have more 
 influence over her than I have." 
 
 "I'll take care of her," said the other old gentleman 
 cheerfully, as he helped his daughter to her seat at his side ; 
 and he suggested that they had better be setting off, before 
 the day grew hotter. He was an active little grey man, an 
 early colonist and a consummate bushman, to whom had 
 been given charge of the commissariat transport which was 
 to lead the way. The buggy with the young people was 
 to follow in an hour's time. Agnes, for various amiable 
 reasons, had chosen to accompany her father ; and it was 
 recognized that the fate of the expedition trembled in the 
 balance as long as she was within her husband's reach. 
 Once she was away safely, the buggy might take its time. 
 An eager assent rose from the verandah. 
 
 " Yes, yes, yes ! We are too late, as it is. Go on, Mr. 
 Baird. We shall catch you up in no time." 
 
 Mr. Baird went on with alacrity, and as much speed as a 
 pair of powerful plough horses could compass with such a 
 heavy load behind them not only tent and bedding and 
 provision hampers, but changes of clothes for all, the men's 
 guns, Lloyd-Price's violin, the male and female overcoats, 
 and a miscellaneous assortment of odds and ends. In ten 
 minutes they were out of sight of the house one of the 
 largest and handsomest of the bush houses of the district 
 and the secret anxiety which had held father and daughter 
 mute was at an end. 
 
 "Kind, good fellow," ejaculated Mr. Baird, by way of 
 opening conversation. " Rough on the outside, but the 
 best heart in the world. I must take care of you, Agnes, 
 or I don't know what he won't do to me." 
 
 Mr. Baird had been the author of his daughter's marriage, 
 and therefore insisted that it was a success. 
 
 In defiance of his vicarious solicitude, she threw back 
 her gossamer sun-veil and drank the hot air and light 
 through parted lips and winking eyes with joyous satisfac- 
 tion. 
 
 " Oh, how sweet it is to be out of doors with nobody 
 but you, father !" she sighed. 
 
 "Yes, my dear, yes; it's very nice. It's very kind of 
 you to say so. One gets tired of being much in the house, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 9 
 
 even when it's such a house as yours and few young 
 women have such a beautiful home. Why, when your 
 mother married me she had nothing but a slab hut to live 
 in, and it hadn't even windows to it only slits, just wide 
 enough for a gun-barrel. How would you have liked that? " 
 
 Agnes had answered that question so often that she 
 didn't think it worth while to answer again that she would 
 probably have loved it. 
 
 "Indeed, she didn't have that all at once," the old man 
 proceeded, repeating an oft-told tale. " Only the tilt of a 
 dray to start with, and then a brush-gunyah, and then a sod 
 hut; for we had to build yards before we could build a 
 house. A house, I call it ! only four rooms and a lean-to 
 kitchen. We thought it a fine place when we did get it, 
 but I should like to see what you young folks would say 
 to a husband who had nothing better to give you." 
 
 Agnes was silent. 
 
 " I built it with my own hands I, and a couple of men 
 I had. We felled the timber, and the bullocks hauled it in ; 
 and we hewed out the frame and mortised it together, and 
 split and trimmed the slabs, and flattened the sheets of 
 bark ; and when it was all up, she lined the walls with calico 
 and made arm-chairs out of empty barrels, and tables and 
 cupboards out of packing cases. That was all the drawing- 
 room furniture she had no satin curtains and grand pianos 
 and fine things such as you are used to. And, until we got 
 a married couple just before you were born, not a white 
 woman's face did she see not a soul of her own sex had 
 she to speak to. How'djiw like that sort of thing, eh?" 
 
 " Sho had you," said Agnes. 
 
 " Oh, indeed she hadn't ! Whole days together, when I was 
 away splitting and fencing, she was at the hut, with perhaps 
 only Jimmy ; and never knew the minute that she mightn't 
 be surrounded by blacks. Not that she cared for blacks 
 any more than she did for snakes and centipedes. She 
 kept fowls and pigs, and had her dairy to attend to ; and 
 she could shoot as straight as any man of us. Did I never 
 tell you how the blacks attacked the place one night when 
 she and your aunt Bobby were alone, with only a stockman 
 and his wife and the boy, and we got back only just in time 
 to save them?" 
 
 Oh, Heavens! Had he not told her, and others in her 
 hearing, a hundred times? She looked over her shoulder, 
 and wondered anxiously whether the buggy had started 
 yet. 
 
 The buggy had started, and was rapidly drawing near to 
 
io NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 them. Mr. Alexander had superintended its departure, and 
 " sorted" the young couples properly, so that Polly Hawker 
 sat on the front seat and Nell Cunningham behind. Polly 
 was a gay and pretty and fascinating young woman, with 
 no brains to speak of; and Nell was a shy and humble- 
 minded creature, who wrote poetry in secret, and thought 
 her junior host (seen but yesterday for the first time) was 
 the nearest approach to her ideal man of anybody she had 
 ever known. Forbes was certainly an elegant figure 
 amongst the young bushmen of the day, and besides his 
 handsome face and form, he had a distinctly cultivated 
 mind. As he drove his spanking team over the noiseless 
 dust, he recited the two first cantos of " The Lady of the 
 Lake" without a mistake which was regarded as a clear 
 proof of it. When he got as far as " The summer dawn's 
 reflected hue," they were within speech of the waggon. 
 
 Hugh Lloyd-Price, though not a pretty man, was a fine, 
 burly, bearded fellow, who made fun of high-flown senti- 
 ments, while cherishing the tenderest respect for them in 
 his secret heart. He should have fallen in love with Miss 
 Cunningham, who would have suited him admirably ; and 
 he had made a very good beginning, as has been pointed 
 out, with his violin and her sympathetic tears. But when 
 Forbes came down and began visibly to interest himself in 
 the only stranger of the party when, in declaiming such 
 couplets as 
 
 *' Her goodness and her worth to spy, 
 You need but gaze on Ellen's eye," 
 
 he permitted himself to flash a glance at her over his shoul- 
 der and she responded with a blush then Hugh and Polly, 
 with a mutual desire for retaliation, turned their attention 
 to each other. Miss Hawker did not boast unduly when 
 she declared she could make any man fall in love with her, 
 if she really set herself to it ; and Hugh, with his soft heart 
 and confiding nature, was the least likely of men to resist 
 her will. So, with the object of making an old lover jeal- 
 ous, she laid her snares for a new one ; and he, failing a 
 more promising attachment, walked into them readily. 
 Thus are our most careful plans frustrated in this world. 
 
 The party plodded on steadily all the morning, sometimes 
 keeping together and shouting small jokes from one vehicle 
 to another, and sometimes parting to let the buggy horses 
 have a spin, and at noon they reached the lower spurs of the 
 ranges whose wild recesses they were going to explore. 
 Here a halt was called on the margin of a creek ; the horses 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. n 
 
 were taken out, a corner of the waggon was unpacked, and 
 lunch was spread under the trees. Lloyd-Price made a fire, 
 and Polly roasted potatoes, while Nell set the table on the 
 grass, and Forbes cooled beer and wine bottles in the run- 
 ning stream. Addressing themselves to their first camp 
 meal, they ate ravenously; then they sprawled upon the 
 ground the men smoking in voluptuous peace ; then they 
 had tea. After that they harnessed up and ascended further 
 into the mountains, to the Black Tarn, a little water hole in 
 a hollow of the hillside, which marked the limit of their 
 first day's journey. In that sheltered nook they set up 
 their tent, washed, brushed, and dined elaborately not 
 quite so elaborately as they intended to do next day, but very 
 nearly ; and then the twilight gathered about them a lit- 
 tle chilly, although it was Christmas eve and they replen- 
 ished the tea-kettle fire, and sat round it and told each 
 other tales. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE blue of the ranges turned to black. Those waves 
 upon waves of primeval gum-forest, soft as sapphire velvet 
 in the sun-tinted dusk, showed but their delicate upper 
 edges against the sky a sky that was shining still, though 
 it was full night. Plovers cried plaintively from the valleys 
 below, and curlews called from the far-away hills, which 
 repeated each long-drawn wail in echoes that seemed to 
 come from a distant world. The frogs filled the air with 
 that shrilling bubble of sound which is the note of wood- 
 land solitude ; and small rustlings and scratchings amongst 
 the trees betrayed the neighbourhood of curious opossums, 
 peeping down upon the camp-fire and the pilgrims that 
 little orb of light and life, detached and alone in the illim- 
 itable silence and darkness, suspended in the infinite like a 
 new star. 
 
 " This," said Lloyd-Price, lazily, " is quite a novelty in 
 Christmas eves, ain't it?" 
 
 " Aye. But I remember an even stranger one," said Mr. 
 Baird, whose chance had come. " It was the first Christmas 
 eve that Agnes ever saw, and it was as near as possible 
 being her last. Ever heard about that, Miss Cunningham?" 
 
 Miss Cunningham was the one member of the party who 
 could say, honestly, that she never had. 
 
 " It was when Agnes was only a few weeks old. Just 
 
12 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 before she was born I had got up a married couple, you must 
 know, and a sister of my wife's, whom she wanted to be 
 with her, had come up along with them. We had no public 
 conveyances in those days a mail once a month, perhaps, 
 and dray-loads of stores two or three times a year, so of 
 course we were glad of any escort we could get, as I couldn't 
 leave home myself ; and two of our neighbours who hap- 
 pened to be travelling up at the time offered to bring 
 them. Old Bob Russell was one, Hugh young Bob he 
 was then and the other was Leigh Pomeroy, who after- 
 wards married my sister-in-law." 
 
 " The same sister-in-law?" inquired Hugh, tinkling a 
 string of his violin. Forbes knew the story by heart, and 
 entertained himself with a rapt contemplation of Nell Cun- 
 ningham's fire-lighted face. 
 
 "The same," said Mr. Baird. "Roberta Hay wood we 
 called her Bobby there was nothing else we could call her. 
 Well, you know, they were both gentlemen, as we all were 
 in those days as it was before the gold and we knew them 
 intimately ; they lived but thirty miles away from us, and 
 often dropped in for a game of whist. But they were young 
 fellows, like myself, and perhaps it was not quite the cor- 
 rect thing to put Bobby in their charge ; though there was 
 the married couple, and it was the only arrangement possi- 
 ble under the circumstances. In those primitive times we 
 couldn't afford to be fastidious about appearances, and 
 Bobby was always staid and sensible. However, they set 
 her down at the door and went straight on to their own 
 place, without stopping for bite or sup, and we soon found 
 that Bobby wasn't at all pleased about her journey, and 
 had a particular grudge against Pomeroy. I couldn't be- 
 lieve that he had misbehaved himself, and when I ques- 
 tioned the married couple, they said that both the young 
 gentlemen had treated Miss Haywood like a queen Mr. 
 Pomeroy particularly. They used to keep watches all 
 night, turn and turn about, with loaded rifles, lest the 
 blacks should come near when she was asleep." 
 
 " How long were they travelling through the wilderness 
 in a dray together, with no chaperon but a married couple?" 
 asked Mr. Lloyd-Price, who had ceased thrumming. 
 
 " Two or three weeks, I suppose. Of course, it might 
 have been awkward for a young girl, and she thrust upon 
 their hospitality, as it were." 
 
 The young men groaned unctuously in concert. 
 
 " Lord ! If such luck would only come to me !" 
 
 " Ah ! Those were the jolly days !" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 13 
 
 The girls laughed sympathetically, and Mr. Baird turned 
 on them with an air of elderly reproof. 
 
 " Be thankful you don't live in such days," said he ; " that 
 you are so much better off than we were -" 
 
 " But we are not !" they cried, interrupting him. 
 
 " That you can sleep in peace of a night in your comfort- 
 able homes, with all the luxuries of civilization round 
 you " 
 
 " We'd rather be uncivilized and make journeys in a bul- 
 lock dray," said Polly, audaciously. Her eyes danced in 
 the flame of the camp-fire, and Hugh drew them on himself 
 with a twang of a fiddle string. 
 
 " We wouldn't quarrel, would we?' he breathed, in a 
 feeling undertone. 
 
 The little flirt replied that she didn't know about that, 
 and tossed a wisp of grass into his face when no one was 
 looking. Forbes, whose mood grew more and more poet- 
 ical, gazed with ardour into Nell's downcast countenance, 
 and was pleased when he presently drove her to hide her 
 embarrassment with a handkerchief. 
 
 " What a heavenly night it is !" he sighed into her ear. 
 
 " It is," she sighed back, and timidly put down her hand- 
 kerchief to look at the stars. Then they looked at each 
 other. Forbes edged a little closer, laying his head on the 
 hem of her spreading gown. Agnes was rapt in a vision 
 of those old days, when women were free to enjoy better 
 things than satin curtains and grand pianos ; and Mr. Baird' s 
 narrative proceeded. 
 
 " We sheared just after Bobby came a sort of shearing 
 it would have amused you young fellows, with your fine 
 sheds and wash-places ; and the blacks took that opportunity 
 to harry the out-stations more than usual. They not only 
 scattered the flocks when they were feeding about in the 
 daytime, but they attacked the brushwood yards at night, 
 and speared the shepherds ; and, as you may suppose, we 
 had none to spare. I said to my poor wife that I'd tried 
 kindness and letting them alone long enough, and that I'd 
 stand no more nonsense; that I'd send for a detachment of 
 native police and give them a lesson they wouldn't forget 
 in a hurry. She was in a great fright, fearing they would 
 retaliate, but Bobby said we should be ashamed of our- 
 selves for not having done it before letting poor fellows 
 be murdered in our service without lifting a hand to pro- 
 tect them; and I quite agreed with her. So, the minute 
 shearing was over, the black troopers came, apparently 
 delighted with the job, and we got Russell and Pomeroy, 
 
14 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 and every man and gun within fifty miles of us, and started 
 off. We were out three days 
 
 "I'd like to have been with you," said Lloyd-Price, 
 breaking a pause. 
 
 Polly's eyes applauded the aspiration. Nell shivered. 
 
 " No, no, my boy," said Mr. Baird, in his reproving tone. 
 " Don't wish that. We were light-hearted enough about it 
 then, but I don't like to remember it now. Be thankful 
 you live in times when there's no necessity to take a 
 brother's life to preserve your own." 
 
 " Call that black beast my brother! It's lucky we live in 
 times when duelling is out of fashion." 
 
 .The old man hurried over the brilliant episode on which 
 a professional story-teller would have dwelt at length. 
 
 " Then we came home, and all was quiet for a long while. 
 Agnes was born, and my poor Janet was as happy as the 
 day was long though what you girls would think of having 
 to however, it was the same with most settlers' wives in 
 those days ; and a special providence seemed to watch over 
 them, for accidents seldom happened. Pomeroy came 
 while she was still in her room, to ask how she was ; and 
 of course we expected him to stay, and she told me to give 
 him my bed and take the sofa ; but Bobby said she hoped I 
 should do no such thing, as it was not proper to have gen- 
 tlemen visitors at such a time. We scouted this ridiculous 
 idea, which wasn't according to our code of etiquette, you 
 may be sure, and Pomeroy was my best friend besides ; but, 
 all the same, that minx wouldn't go near him stuck at 
 Janet's bedside with the baby on her knee, though he was 
 watching the door and listening for her all the time; of 
 course it was for her, as he knew he couldn't see Janet. 
 And all at once he jumped up and said he must go, that 
 Russell was expecting him back some rubbish of an excuse 
 he made ; but it was plain he felt he was not wanted, and 
 I couldn't persuade him to stay. It was the hottest hour 
 of the day, and I said to Bobby that he was in for a sun- 
 stroke, if the blacks didn't pot him, before he got home. 
 She just got up and marched out of the room, as if I had 
 insulted her. When she came back she looked as if she 
 had been crying, but neither of us dared tax her with 
 it. 
 
 " Well, in a week or two it was Christmas, and my wife 
 was all anxiety to get Pomeroy back again. I said I 
 wouldn't be a party to bringing him over if he was to be 
 treated to the cold shoulder, but she said it would be all 
 right and insisted on having him. Nothing was said to 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 15 
 
 Bobby, that I could find out, but she must have known 
 what was in the wind, though she pretended she didn't, 
 looking as meek and innocent as a lamb. Pomeroy and 
 Russell were to be asked for a week Christmas week and 
 I was to ride over and fetch them. 
 
 " Needs must when one's wife drives. I started off be- 
 fore daylight in the morning, found our young neighbours 
 only too ready to accept her invitation, and the three of us 
 got back just after nightfall. My word! If we didn't ride 
 that night ! And if we had been five minutes later five 
 minutes in a thirty-mile ride why 
 
 A dramatic pause. The shadowy figures round the camp- 
 fire drew closer to each other. Mrs. Alexander, sitting 
 apart, with hands clasped round her knees, laughed care- 
 lessly. She thought it wouldn't have mattered very much 
 as far as she was concerned. 
 
 " I had left one man at home the other was taking out 
 the shepherds' rations and a black boy we called Jimmy, 
 from a distant tribe. Though we thought we had settled 
 our own blacks, and had no more fear of them, I told these 
 two to keep a good lookout and not stray from the home- 
 stead during my absence ; and I also left my dog Watch, 
 who well deserved his name, and was the best guardian of 
 the lot. Well, the girls had been cooking and preparing 
 all day, and were sitting down in their best bibs and tuckers, 
 with the supper spread and the lamps lighted and every- 
 thing ready, waiting for us to come home, when this dog, 
 snoozing on the kangaroo skins that Janet had made into a 
 hearth rug, just opened his eyes and growled a little a 
 sort of rumble inside of him, without lifting his head. No 
 one else could hear a sound, and the evening was as still 
 as possible. Both front and back doors, which faced each 
 other, stood open to let what air there was blow through. 
 Janet was rocking the baby's cradle with her foot, and 
 Bobby was knitting a shawl for it pretending to be in- 
 different to Pomeroy 's coming, Janet said. All at once 
 Watch began to draw in his breath and snarl, and then he 
 bounded off the hearth rug and down the back passage into 
 the yard, barking with all his might. Bobby thought it 
 was because he heard us coming, and went on knitting as 
 if that wasn't worth disturbing herself for; but my wife 
 knew the old dog didn't greet his master so, and it came 
 over her in a moment what it was. She just said * Blacks ! ' 
 and snatched up the baby ; and there they were, yelling all 
 round the house, and Mrs. Murphy, our woman servant, 
 running in screaming from the kitchen, and Pat, her hus- 
 
16 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 band, bolting the door behind her just as the first flight of 
 spears rattled on the planks and slabs." 
 
 Lloyd-Price sat up restlessly he again wanted to have 
 been there ; he forgot to look at Polly, who comforted her- 
 self with the reflection that Miss Roberta Haywood was 
 now an old woman of forty-five, at least. Nell Cunningham 
 shivered with dread of what was coming next, and Forbes 
 drew a little cloak over her shoulders with lingering ten- 
 derness of touch. 
 
 " You can't," said Mr. Baird impressively, " imagine a 
 much worse fix for lone women to be in, and you may all 
 be truly thankful that no such dangers surround you in your 
 comfortable homes." 
 
 This was meant for Agnes, who positively yearned for 
 them for anything to break the monotony of material 
 well-being which seemed to stifle her the more dangerous 
 the better. 
 
 " My poor wife, who used to be so bold and fearless, lost 
 her head completely ; she said it was the baby that made 
 her a coward, but Bobby was as good as a guard of soldiers 
 a miracle of a woman. It was she who saved them all. 
 She flew to the front, which was the sitting-room door, 
 shut, barred and barricaded it with the furniture, and how 
 she moved those heavy things in the time I don't know; 
 then she ran to the back, where Pat helped her to build 
 a similar fortification ; and as these were the only outlets of 
 the main building, the windows being merely loop-holes in 
 the wall, this gave them a minute's breathing time while 
 she got out the fire-arms a couple of guns and a pistol 
 that were kept in a cupboard in my room. She made Pat 
 load them, and put a rifle into Janet's hand, having bundled 
 the baby and Mrs. Murphy into a corner together ; and she 
 told my wife to fire at blacks if she could, and if she couldn't 
 to fire at nothing, so as to frighten them and to make us 
 hear if possible. Then she blew out all the lights but one, 
 and went to a window-hole herself, and blazed away ; the 
 barrel she stuck out got wedged with a bone spearhead, 
 and she killed the man behind it she killed five of them 
 altogether. They were swarming all round the place, try- 
 ing to get in, thrusting their spears through the chinks; 
 some of them were ransacking the kitchen and others try- 
 ing to break into the locked store ; there must have been 
 scores hundreds and no one to defend my wife and child 
 but that girl, shp ^nd Pat, who was all the time calling on 
 the virgin and saints to help him, instead of giving his 
 whole powers to help himself, as she did. No one knew 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. I? 
 
 where Jimmy hid himself, and poor Watch yelled with the 
 savages outside until they killed him. Oh, she was a fine 
 creature, was Bobby Haywood, with all her pride and per- 
 verseness." 
 
 " I kiss her feet," said Lloyd-Price, with some emotion, 
 kneeling upon the grass. He knelt because it appeared to 
 him unseemly to sprawl on his back in the presence of so 
 noble a woman, though she figured only in an old man's 
 tale. 
 
 " Kiss mine, ' said Polly, pertly. 
 
 He promptly kissed hers, and she took the opportunity 
 to toss his cap into the fire, whence it was rescued (to 
 Agnes's satisfaction) by Nell. The rescuer burnt her hand 
 in the act, and Forbes tied it up in a silk handkerchief. 
 
 " Well, this went on," said Mr. Baird, pursuing his story, 
 '* for some time I daresay only for a few minutes, but it 
 seemed like hours to the poor things inside ; and then those 
 devils put a fire-stick to the roof. We were just riding 
 over a rise a couple of miles away, and we saw the light 
 flicker up, and then we saw the black figures capering about. 
 My God! if we didn't swear! if we didn't ride! Pomeroy 
 simply shrieked when he realized what was happening, and 
 raced away from me and Russell, though we were digging 
 in our spurs and lifting our poor tired brutes along at a rate 
 that killed one of them my poor Tomboy, who had done 
 the double journey that day. We didn't think we could 
 possibly be in time, however fast we rode, and but for that 
 girl we shouldn't have been. But she was equal to the 
 occasion, even then. As soon as she smelt the smoke and 
 saw the blaze, she told Pat to tear down the barricade in 
 front. 'We must fight them outside,' said she, 'and do the 
 best we can until the gentlemen come home they can't 
 be long now. ' And while he got the door open, she charged 
 the guns ; and then she planted herself beside him on the 
 threshold, shoulder to shoulder, and fired at the now dis- 
 tinct bodies of the black fellows, as cool as any old soldier 
 at bay in a besieged fortress. When Pomeroy got near 
 enough to see her, there she stood in the light of the burn- 
 ing roof, and those she was protecting behind her ; and the 
 spears were slanting across her white dress and over her 
 head one of them stuck into a pie on the supper-table^- 
 and there was a red patch on her sleeve, growing bigger 
 and bigger, and drops falling from her elbow on to her 
 skirt" 
 
 Miss Cunningham gasped, and Forbes took her hand to 
 steady her, unobserved by his stepmother. 
 
i8 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " When / got near enough to see her, half a minute after- 
 wards and those demons melted away like smoke as soon 
 as we appeared she was lying in a dead faint in Pomeroy's 
 arms, and he was kissing her with all his might and main. 
 I thought how she'd give it to him afterwards for making 
 so free with her when she couldn't help herself, but as 
 soon as she came round so as to understand things, she just 
 put her arms round his neck and kissed him back again, as 
 bold as you please." 
 
 " Bravo !" shouted Hugh. " Let's drink her health, and 
 long life to her, wherever she may be !" 
 
 " She's in England now," said Mr. Baird, "the mother of 
 grown-up children. Her husband came in for family prop- 
 erty a few years after their marriage, and they went home." 
 
 " If ever I go home, I shall make a point of looking up 
 my great aunt," said Forbes, " and telling her how her 
 memory was honored on this auspicious anniversary. I'm 
 going to put on the kettle for whisky toddy, Agnes. We 
 can't drink her health without something to drink it 
 in." 
 
 And the fire was replenished and light refreshments 
 brought out, while the old man wound up the oft-told tale. 
 
 " She wasn't hurt, to speak of. Pomeroy dressed her 
 arm and bound it up. That young imp, Jimmy, came out 
 from his hiding place, and scrambled up the roof and put 
 out the fire, Pat handing the buckets of water up to him. 
 E\^n the supper wasn't spoiled. And we had a delightful 
 Christmas, after all. It was no festive season for the poor 
 blacks the troopers' carbines were busy amongst them for 
 a long while but it was a high old time for us, especially 
 for Pomeroy." Mr. Baird had to admit that they were good 
 times, with all their hardships and dangers. 
 
 "Not better than this," said Forbes, with his head on 
 Nell Cunningham's gown. 
 
 " No, indeed ! echoed Lloyd-Price, touching his violin 
 with fingers that were feeling the inspiration of whisky 
 toddy. 
 
 " Sing something," said Polly, when silence fell. 
 
 They sang a few old songs, separately and together, to 
 the great concern of the opossums and numerous birds that 
 had long settled themselves for the night ; it was a weird 
 thing to hear the airy echo of their voices and the violin 
 beating about the ranges, ever so far away, and the sense 
 of utter solitariness that it gave them quenched their music 
 by degrees. Agnes nodded in her detached nook; Mr. 
 Baird, with his back to a tree, began to breathe audibly ; 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 19 
 
 the solemnity of the starry night became more and more 
 impressive. 
 
 " Hark!" whispered Nell, suddenly. " What's that?" 
 
 Only a curlew wailing like a lost spirit amongst the 
 infinite worlds. Never was a bird-note more tragically 
 wild and sad, more affecting to the imagination of the lis- 
 tener, who hears it in the lonely Australian bush, in the 
 loneliest hours, across what seems an immeasurable dis- 
 tance of unpeopled space. In the hushed intervals the yet 
 ghostlier and more far-away plaint of a mopoke was heard 
 a mere shadow of a sound, though clear as a tolled bell ; 
 and the nightingale, with its charming versatility, is a 
 homely and barn-door sort of creature (to the ear) compared 
 with that bird of the southern night, that has but its one 
 pathetic note. And then, again the curlew cried, and all 
 the echoes cried in answer, as in uttermost desolation and 
 despair. 
 
 " That's my idea of the banshee," said Lloyd-Price, lis- 
 tening. 
 
 " Oh, don't!" implored Polly, with a shudder. 
 
 " Girls," said Agnes, rousing up, "it feels horribly late. 
 Let us go to bed." 
 
 They went, drawing the curtain of the tent behind them. 
 The men rolled themselves in their blankets, and lay down 
 on the warm, dry grass by the smouldering fire. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 MORNING, even in these latitudes, comes earlier tnan 
 people who never sleep out of their beds suppose; the 
 break of dawn upon Australian hills is a particularly choice 
 spectacle. Probably there is no air in the world so deli- 
 cately pure and fine as that which takes the light and the 
 long shadows when our forest solitudes are slowly turning 
 to the sun ; and probably that is the reason why the bush 
 is so beautiful in the changes of the day, with so little col- 
 our and variety of its own. The yellow stars were pale, 
 but not yet quenched, and the transparent sky showing 
 merely an opaline background to the velvety profile of the 
 eastern ranges, when the men rose out of their blankets, 
 dipped stealthily in the tarn, and made off with their guns 
 to reconnoitre a distant swamp before the wild-fowl were 
 on the wing. But when the women got up, not having 
 heard the departure of their companions, the sun, just lift- 
 
20 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ing to the horizon, was filling the tent door and their daz- 
 zled eyes with light, revealing one after another little 
 ripples and feathers of rose-coloured cloud, where no clouds 
 had been, flaming to the zenith like the tongues of celestial 
 fire in sacred fable. And it was still not 5 o'clock. 
 
 Nell Cunningham walked out upon a ledge of granite 
 overlooking the valley from which they had climbed yes- 
 terday, and shaded her eyes with her hand. Soon Agnes 
 followed, and put an arm round the girl's waist. " Isn't it 
 lovely?" they said one to the other, basking in the sea-wide 
 prospect and the indescribable atmosphere ; and Nell won- 
 dered casually where the men had gone to. There was a 
 fire of beautiful red embers, that looked as if it might have 
 been burning all night, and the kettle was filled, and a 
 bucket of water standing at the tent door; but the men 
 themselves were required to make this dawn-scene perfect, 
 and Agnes wondered which of them was most needed in 
 the present cast. 
 
 " We had a charming evening," she remarked, tentatively. 
 
 " Yes, f> sighed Nell. 
 
 " How nicely Hugh plays the violin ! and one would never 
 think it to look at him." 
 
 " He does, indeed. 'Alas, Those Chimes' has been in 
 my ears all night." 
 
 Mrs. Alexander was satisfied, and turned her attention to 
 domestic affairs. Polly, having packed up her kit and 
 mattress inside the tent, came bustling out, rolling up the 
 sleeves of her cotton gown. 
 
 "What! Forbes not here?" she cried, looking round. 
 " I thought they were remarkably quiet. I suppose they 
 have modestly withdrawn in order not to embarrass us at 
 our morning toilets. Give me one of the chickens, Agnes. 
 That fire is really too lovely ! cook something I must. Let 
 us have a nice broil ready by the time they come back." 
 
 Thinking how charming Polly would look in the eyes of 
 Forbes when devoting herself to the preparation of his 
 breakfast, Agnes hastened to get out a fowl, and the box 
 containing their cooking condiments, while the heiress tied 
 herself into a big apron, raked the red coals and buttered 
 the gridiron. But it was now getting on for 6 o'clock, 
 and before the broil was on the fire, two of the men, Mr. 
 Baird and Forbes, returned gameless, and hastened to 
 make themselves useful. Agnes smiled with pleasure to 
 see her step-son cast himself down at Polly's side. She 
 was kneeling on the grass, vigorously hacking at the chicken 
 to get out the breast-bone, and he took the knife from her 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 21 
 
 hand, not without a tussle, and finished the dissecting proc- 
 ess, while she flourished the pepper-box under his nose. 
 They were full of absurd antics. He wanted very much to 
 take charge of the gridiron, and she wouldn't let him ; he 
 told her she would ruin her complexion and also set fire to 
 her petticoats, and she rewarded his benevolent importuni- 
 ties by boxing his ears. This was not Agnes's idea of 
 making love, for she had her ideas, poor little soul, though 
 she was married to an ogre ; but still it seemed to her the 
 style that would be characteristic of such a gay and cheer- 
 ful pair. 
 
 Then Hugh Lloyd-Price came into camp, not on foot, 
 but riding a perspiring steed ; and he bore at arms' length 
 a little billy of new milk, which he must have brought a 
 considerable distance, and which, on dismounting, he 
 proudly offered to Nell. She took it with one of her pretty 
 smiles Agnes fancied with a blush and thanked him and 
 praised him for his thoughtfulness, then handed the can to 
 her hostess. 
 
 Agnes waved it back benevolently. "You and Hugh 
 can make the coffee, dear," she said, " and I will lay the 
 cloth." And she left her friend to display her domestic 
 talents to the potential husband, who watched the process 
 of the coffee making in thoughtful silence listening to the 
 nonsense between Forbes and Polly all the time. 
 
 It was a merry and a hungry breakfast-party which sat 
 and ate until the sun was high and hot. Then it washed 
 its plates and dishes, packed everything up, struck camp 
 and started for the Silver Water-fall, a romantic glen with 
 a little cascade in it, some four or five miles distant. It 
 was not only the prettiest spot in the neighbourhood, but 
 it was the highest point that the waggon could reach; and 
 there Mrs. Alexander intended that Christmas proper should 
 be spent the turkey and plum-pudding eaten. All the 
 morning the pilgrims climbed and climbed, four out of 
 the six on foot the most of the way, to ease the horses up the 
 rough and heavy track. Agnes walked with Nell, and 
 Forbes with Polly, so everything was as it should be. 
 Hugh, with the buggy, reached the water-fall first; and 
 returned to help the waggon over a steep pinch that the 
 plough-horses alone were not equal to ; and, with one thing 
 and another, the little party, reeking and panting, did not 
 cast anchor in their haven until long after the hour ap- 
 pointed for that stage of the proceedings. 
 
 It was a grateful resting-place when they did get to it 
 peaceful and still, in the shadow of rocks and trees, with 
 
22 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 the cool sound of water dripping from ledge to ledge and 
 gurgling away under the ferns. There was a snug corner 
 for the tent, and a sweet little shady lawn whereon to lay 
 the cloth for dinner ; there were plenty of dry sticks about, 
 for the fire, and boulders of all sizes for making a stove ; 
 in short, it was the very place for the purpose. As the 
 pedestrians came in out of the scorching glare, red-faced, 
 tousled, breathless, with hats on the backs of their heads 
 and pocket-handkerchiefs round their throats, looking as 
 happy as possible, but declaring themselves utterly dead- 
 beat, they exclaimed with one accord that it was the very, 
 very place, and flung themselves in ecstatic satisfaction 
 upon the ground. 
 
 There was no thought of unpacking or settling anything 
 until everybody had had a rest. Lemonade was got out 
 for the ladies and whisky and soda for the men ; and they 
 took a snack of cold fowl and ham, and did not trouble to 
 spread the cloth. After this the men lay prone on the grass 
 and smoked ; they said they would get up presently and 
 set the tent in its place, shell the peas, scrape the horse- 
 radish, and do whatever else was required of them. Mrs. 
 Alexander answered that they might go to sleep if they 
 liked, until 5 o'clock, and sat down with her girls on 
 either side of her to discuss the order of the cookings for 
 the Christmas feast, which was to be celebrated in the cool 
 of the evening. 
 
 Only Mr. Baird went to sleep. Forbes and Hugh lay for 
 some time regarding the girls from under their hat brims 
 with much persistence, and Polly tickled their noses with 
 a blade of grass. The inattention of her companions lulled 
 Agnes into a reverie that presently took the form of dreams ; 
 and, freed from supervision, the young men and maids 
 pursued their own devices in a manner suitable to the oc- 
 casion and the laziest hours of a summer day. They 
 plucked dry stalks with succulent root-ends, and chewed 
 them; they poked spiders with sticks; they hunted lizards 
 through the warm stones; they interested themselves in 
 the manoeuvres of ants. There was an ant that Nell Cun- 
 ningham, now a buxom matron in cap and spectacles, 
 will cherish in the secret chamber of memory to her dying 
 day. Forbes, lying beside her, sucked a brittle thread of 
 grass and dropped it between them, and that ant came up 
 and laid hold of it with an instant determination to carry 
 it off. The creature was about half an inch in length, and 
 the stalk was fully four inches, and any ant with a grain of 
 sense must have seen that the task was hopeless ; yet for 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 23 
 
 two hours did this preposterous insect strain and struggle, 
 with the pluck of the hero who never knows when he is 
 beaten; and no one saw the end of it; years afterwards 
 Nell wondered whether he was going on still. Forbes took 
 no notice of the oscillations of the stick, which he could 
 see out of the corner of his eye, and which remained to the 
 last in the place where he had laid it, until he wanted to 
 draw Nell's attention to himself; then he said, "Look at 
 this," and when she looked her head nearly touched his, 
 which was an attitude to be preserved as long as possible. 
 
 If that ant had any share of the sagacities attributed to 
 his tribe, it could only have been exercised to propitiate 
 the omnipotent powers with boot-heels ; otherwise he was 
 a born idiot. There were plenty of little stalks lying round 
 which he could have taken for whatever purpose he had in 
 view, but he would not look at them, even when they were 
 thrust into his jaws; the one impossible stick he would 
 have, and no other. If Forbes frightened him away from 
 it, he rushed back after a few wild circlings, and fell upon 
 it with redoubled energy ; if Nell took it from the ground, 
 he piteously felt about in the air and almost seemed to cry 
 for it till she gave it back again ; when they left him undis- 
 turbed to his work, he bent himself to it with a concentrated 
 passion of determination that seemed to say he would con- 
 quer or die. It was really pathetic. He caught hold 
 of the stick at one end and pulled it, first forwards and 
 then backwards, as if he would burst with the strain ; then 
 tugged at the other end in the same way; then tried to 
 hoist it in the middle. Finding these efforts vain, he pro- 
 ceeded to bite it into joints this took a long time so that 
 the thing would bend and turn, which he seemed to consider 
 an advantage. He grasped one joint after another from 
 the outside, and, backing off from it, tried to drag it that 
 way ; then took the inside angle and pushed forward like a 
 bridled horse; and it was all in vain. Other ants came 
 along, running over him and his stick, but none of them 
 attempted to interfere, and he asked for no assistance ; it 
 was his own affair entirely. " And we've always been told 
 that ants are so clever," Forbes murmured into his com- 
 panion's ear. 
 
 " It's better than being clever, to be so nobly foolish," 
 she murmured back. 
 
 "Do you think so? Do you really think so?" 
 
 " Those practical little fellows, who are evidently ants 
 of the world, with a single eye to the main chance, how 
 sordid and commonplace they are, compared with this little 
 
24 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 piece of absurdity who wants he knows not what some- 
 thing better than mere daily bread, something grander 
 than earth can give him !" 
 
 " Yes, yes, you are right. I often feel that there is some- 
 thing something worth all the money and material pros- 
 perity, something without which nothing else satisfies " 
 
 Etc., etc., etc. 
 
 Agnes was roused from her siesta by a hand on her arm, 
 and opened her eyes upon a blush-dyed face. 
 
 " Agnes," whispered Nell, " my hair is coming down! 
 
 " Well, my dear," sleepily, " put it up again." 
 
 Polly would have thought nothing of her hair coming 
 down. She would have stuck all her hair-pins into her 
 mouth, and shaken out and replaited her glossy braids, 
 without feeling any need of a tent to hide in. But Miss 
 Cunningham was almost morbidly modest in these things. 
 
 " Come into the bush, Agnes," she urged. " Say we are 
 going to gather flowers for the dinner-table. We ought to 
 get some flowers." 
 
 To please her, Polly was called upon, and they went into 
 the bush ; and there she did her hair. There, indeed, all 
 three did their hair, taking what appeared to be their only 
 chance of making any toilet for dinner. They went a con- 
 siderable distance before they began, to preclude the danger 
 of unseemly discovery ; and when they had done, they went 
 still further, with the object of finding suitable decorations 
 for the Christmas table. High up as they were, they were 
 still in the region of thick forest ; no bump of locality was 
 possessed by any one of them, and a more confusing coun- 
 try did not exist. The natural consequence ensued they 
 lost themselves. And they were more than an hour away 
 before they found it out ; for after they had been flitting 
 hither and thither like butterflies, from bush to bush, gradu- 
 ally putting their respective bouquets together, they turned 
 to go back to camp, and contentedly trudged a mile or more 
 under the impression that they were making their way 
 thither, when in fact they were heading in a totally oppo- 
 site direction. 
 
 Nell hummed the air that Hugh had set running in her 
 head, as she tripped along : 
 
 " Still he slumbers, how serenely! 
 Not a sigh disturbs his breast. 
 Oh, that angels now might waft him 
 
 To the mansions of the blest!" 
 
 " He probably does," said Polly impudently. " You can 
 be his angel and waft him presently." And she, too, lifted 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 2J 
 
 up her voice and sang with energy, to a tune of her own, a 
 quotation from one of Forbes' stock recitations : 
 
 " * At length, with Ellen in a grove 
 
 He seemed to walk, and speak of love.' " 
 
 "I wish," said Nell, crimsoning, "that you wouldn't be 
 so ridiculous." 
 
 " Then I won't," returned Polly, who was amiability it- 
 self. But she continued to sing from " The Lady of the 
 Lake," which argued a gratifying sympathy with Forbes* 
 literary tastes : 
 
 " * My hope, my heaven, my trust must be, 
 My gentle guide, in following thee.' 
 
 Though your name isn't Ellen, Agnes, it's you I mean." 
 "Are you following me?" said Agnes who had been 
 
 rather lost in her own musings. 
 
 " Well, naturally, since neither Nell nor I have been here 
 
 before, and she is so obviously preoccupied. 
 
 ' Weird women we ! By dale and down 
 We dwell, afar from tower and town.' 
 
 And she's far and away the weirdest. But, I say, 
 Agnes !" 
 
 They came suddenly to an opening in the scrub, where 
 the ground fell away at their feet, displaying a wide valley 
 with hills on the other side of it, which they did not seem 
 to recognise. The shadows in that valley were taking a 
 deep indigo-blue tint, rich as landscape colour could never 
 be in a less exquisite air ; and the light on those opposite 
 hills, changing their garment of grey gum-trees to a robe 
 softer than the pile of curling plush, was making the blunt 
 peaks flame like the Mount of Transfiguration, in hues of 
 vermillion and violet that no words could describe. It was 
 beautiful, but it was not what they were looking for. 
 
 " Where are we?" cried Agnes, with a bewildered stare. 
 
 " I don't know," said Polly, " but I thought of course that 
 you did." 
 
 " I haven't an idea! Have you, Nell?" 
 
 " No, and, now I think of it, we ought to be facing the 
 sun, instead of having it at our backs." 
 
 " Of course we ought. How stupid ! And none of us 
 with a watch on ! I wonder what the time is?" 
 
 "A good deal later than it should be," said Polly. "I 
 hope they have got the potatoes and peas ready, or we 
 shall be having our dinner in the dark. Come, let's hurry ! 
 Where, in the name of fortune, art we?" 
 
26 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 They turned and turned again, got confused and agitated, 
 and thought they had better cooee to their men. Lifting 
 their voices, separately and together, and listening with 
 beating hearts for the response, they realised that they 
 were indeed lost so far from their protectors that the 
 loudest of those shrill, small cries could not reach them. 
 The sun was setting with the abnormal haste that he always 
 displays on these occasions, and panic, fear assailed the 
 wanderers. 
 
 " What shall we do?" they wailed to one another. 
 
 Heaven only knows where they wandered in their strug- 
 gle to get home. East, west, north and south, they ran up 
 and down, calling, sobbing, shouting till their throats were 
 sore. They could have borne up, as they told one another, 
 if it had not been for the Christmas dinner ; it was the cer- 
 tain prospect of its destruction and the ruin of the festival 
 so elaborately planned which broke them down and made 
 them childish in their distress. The thought of the terrible 
 fright their men would be in about them was not half so 
 bitter. 
 
 Night, unmistakable, black night, came on while they 
 were still as lost as ever. In the darkness they stumbled 
 and bruised themselves over sticks and stumps and the 
 outcropping granite that, like the debris of ruined cities, 
 was piled and strewn up and down the hillsides, making 
 every promising path impossible. The little night sounds 
 of the bush startled them continually ; the fear of snakes 
 came upon them ; their tender feet limped, and their backs 
 ached with fatigue. The calmness of despair was settling 
 upon their souls, when they happened by the blindest acci- 
 dent to strike the track of the waggon where it had strug- 
 gled along a siding, cutting up the turf a siding the 
 steepness of which would daunt the bush driver of these 
 days, accustomed to his made roads, even in mountain 
 wilds. 
 
 The wanderers identified the spot and the marks upon 
 the ground, and followed the latter strange to say, in the 
 right and not the wrong direction with great difficulty 
 (even having to seek the aid of matches from Hugh's 
 match-box, which Polly happened to have in her pocket, 
 which circumstance Agnes had not the energy to inquire 
 into), but with a determination not to swerve from it, and 
 so, faint and footsore, they arrived at the Silver Water-fall 
 at length, about two hours after the Christmas dinner should 
 have been served. 
 
 Of course they found the camp empty. There were no 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 27 
 
 men there : there was no dinner, nor any sign of one ; the 
 very fire had died down into a handful of white ashes. 
 The tent was put up and the mattresses laid within it, and 
 the waggon was half unpacked. At that stage everything 
 had been left, apparently, and they well knew for what 
 reason. Again they cooeyed and called and shrieked, 
 again without hearing any sound in response; and then 
 their nerves failed them altogether, and they sat down on 
 the ground and cried. 
 
 This was only for a minute or two. Agnes proposed a 
 little refreshment, and they took a crust and a glass of 
 wine apiece, and heartened themselves up. " They may 
 be out after us all night," said Agnes, " but they will come 
 home sometime they won't get lost. And when they come, 
 they will be as worn out as we are." So they made the 
 fire up again, got a meal ready (which did not include green 
 peas or sauces) and did what they could to make the camp 
 look comfortable. At short intervals they cooeyed and lis- 
 tened, climbing the crags around them to do it, until they 
 saw by a watch left in a man's waistcoat on the ground 
 that it was 10 o'clock clear now, and the stars all out; 
 and then they nearly went into hysterics at the sound of a 
 gun firing and the faint volley of mountain echoes accom- 
 panying the report. 
 
 " Cooee ! Cooee eel! COOEE EE EE ! ! ! " 
 They screamed all together, again and again, and presently 
 shouts answered; and they danced a wild jig in the excite- 
 ment of the blessed moment, tired as they were. The 
 shouts came nearer and nearer, and soon the young men, 
 puffing like grampuses, tumbled into the camp, calling out 
 to Agnes that Mr. Baird was not far behind. 
 
 She allowed them to pass her with a hurried word of 
 welcome and thanksgiving, and went down the hill to meet 
 her father, whose old legs were like to fail him after his 
 severe exertions. 
 
 She met him about a hundred yards away, and when he 
 saw her he broke into querulous reproaches, which quickly 
 ceased when he discovered that she was more weary and 
 overwrought than he. Then he asked her what he should 
 say to Dugald, when that devoted husband demanded an 
 account of how she had been taken care of ; and then they 
 sympathised together over the ruin of the Christmas feast. 
 
 " We can have no proper dinner now," said the poor little 
 hostess, in a tone of hopeless resignation. " We can't boil 
 puddings and things at this time of night, and it's no use 
 half doing it." 
 
28 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Never mind," her father consoled her. " It's not the 
 first time that Christmas junketings have been interrupted, 
 as I was telling them last night. I remember your poor 
 mother " 
 
 " Oh, well. I suppose if we have turkey and pudding to- 
 morrow, it will be all the same," Agnes broke in. " It's 
 fortunate the weather isn't sultry, and the things are all 
 keeping well." 
 
 They climbed the last pinch arm in arm, hoisting each 
 other in turn, and, rounding a point of rock, stood in the 
 blackness of its shadow on the threshold of the camp. 
 There they paused and Agnes uttered a moan of dismay 
 and despair. 
 
 "This," said she, when she could speak, "is the last 
 straw." 
 
 Well-defined between the camp-fire and the now palely- 
 shining sky, two groups of figures, each composed of a 
 young man and a young woman, disclosed themselves to 
 the chaperon's view. On the pole of the waggon sat a 
 burly form in its shirt-sleeves, a form surmounted with a 
 bushy beard and a downward-slanting slouch hat, which 
 could only belong to Hugh ; and beside him, leaning upon 
 him entirely blending with him, indeed was Polly. Yes, 
 Polly ; for only Polly wore a dark gown navy-blue linen 
 with smart braidings about it and it was on a dark back- 
 ground that Hugh's encircling arm was outlined. On a 
 granite boulder nearer to the fire squatted Forbes; the red 
 light showed every curve of his slender figure, and every 
 line of his handsome face, clean-shaved but for the care- 
 fully trimmed moustache ; and he had Ms arm round Nell. 
 Her face was hidden in his breast, but of course Agnes 
 knew it must be Nell because it was not Polly. And Nell 
 was the eldest daughter (out of seven) of a mere profes- 
 sional man, who had as much as he could do to feed and 
 clothe his family from day to day. 
 
 " What," cried Agnes, terror-stricken, " oh, what, what 
 will his father say to me !" 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DOUBTLESS the amount of happiness enjoyed by the little 
 party as a whole was increased largely when Hugh and 
 Forbes engaged themselves to the wrong girls, but its cor- 
 porate fun was gone. Supper by the light of the stars and 
 the camp-fire was a distressingly silent function, and the 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 29 
 
 baiting-place of wit was not availed of as it should have 
 been. Most of the next day was spent by the affianced 
 couples in getting away from each other and from their 
 chaperone, who, pretending to be absorbed in a thrilling 
 novel, sat and sighed in solitude, or took useless counsel 
 with her father as to how Dugald was to be approached. 
 The belated Christmas dinner was excellent, as far as it 
 went, and " Alas, Those Chimes !" and " Alice, Where Art 
 Thou?" breathed sweet enchantment into the night that 
 followed ; but, when daylight came again there was a gen- 
 eral impression that it was time to return to the world and 
 assume responsibilities. Accordingly the horses were put 
 to, and the cavalcade descended, in half the time it had 
 taken for the ascent, from the delectable mountains to the 
 level of common life. 
 
 Lloyd-Price and hisjfiance'e had nothing to fear. He was 
 well off and had no father, and she was well off and had 
 one whom she could twist round her little finger; but 
 Forbes and Nell Cunningham were full of trepidation and 
 concern. They kept these feelings from each other, but 
 confided them to Agnes ; and that little woman, whose own 
 apprehensions were so much more serious, bade them with- 
 stand to the death whatever powers might be arrayed 
 against them. 
 
 " What is money compared with love?" she asked of her 
 step-son, whom she applauded for breaking from the mer- 
 cenary traditions of his house ; " and what if he does make 
 him suffer," she said to Nell, in the quiet of the night, as 
 they lay in each other's arms, looking at the stars through 
 a rift in the tent roof ; " what does anything matter, now 
 that you belong to each other?" She might be killed for 
 having allowed it to happen, but with her last breath she 
 would encourage these wise ones who had chosen the better 
 part, instead of selling themselves as she had done. This 
 she had determined as soon as the first shock was over. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was a dreadful moment when she alighted 
 at her house door and old Kate informed her that Mr. 
 Alexander had been very bad all the time she had been 
 away. He had not really been very bad, and old Kate had 
 coddled him to his heart's content, but after encouraging 
 his wife to leave him, he had deeply resented her desertion, 
 as is the way of selfish invalids. She had been gadding 
 about and enjoying herself, while he had pined alone in 
 pain, and it was necessary to avenge this outrage to give 
 her to understand that she was a heartless and undutiful 
 woman, an ungrateful wife to a husband who had, so to 
 
30 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 speak, picked her out of the gutter to spoil her pleasure 
 as thoroughly as possible, and thereby restore the connubial 
 relation to its proper balance. 
 
 Instead of meeting her on her arrival he left her to seek 
 him in his own apartment, and received her with shut eyes 
 and grimly narrowed lips. 
 
 " Oh, Dugald, dear, I hope you have not been worse and 
 wanting me?" she cried, with an abject kiss. 
 
 " You took good care to go where you couldn't be found 
 if you were wanted," he answered, with cutting calmness. 
 
 And then she fawned and protested, and he sneered and 
 jeered, until she was reduced to tears and repentance for 
 having presumed to forget her place and mission; after 
 which he felt better, and sent for his son. 
 
 " Well, my boy, so you've found time at last to remember 
 your father's existence? And what was the picnic like? 
 You are pretty sick of it, I expect, by this time." 
 
 " It was frot," said Forbes, discreetly, " and the mosquitoes 
 were certainly a nuisance." 
 
 " I should think so. Of all the idiotic notions that ever a 
 silly woman took into her head " 
 
 " Oh, it wasn't so bad. Agnes is a capital manager, and 
 so unselfish and we all wanted it, you know." 
 
 " Wanted to get away from the company of a sick man, 
 and the trouble of waiting on him yes, that was only nat- 
 ural; it's the way of the world. And I suppose you boys 
 have been making no end of fools of yourselves, with two 
 girls hanging round you night and day. For my part, I 
 don't call it decent." 
 
 " We had a tent," said the young man, " and Agnes." 
 
 " Oh, I know the sort of chaperon she'd make ! She has 
 just been contriving the whole thing so as to catch you for 
 her friends got 'em up on purpose, of course. A woman 
 has no shame when it's a question of getting a man's neck 
 into the noose, especially if he has money in his pockets. 
 But, mind you, those Hawkers are not to count on me. I 
 have nothing to do with it. If you've been making an ass 
 of yourself you must take the consequences. The girl has 
 got plenty of her own." 
 
 " Miss Hawker, "said Forbes, smiling uneasily, " has not 
 honoured me as you suppose. She has chosen a better 
 man." 
 
 " What?" Mr. Alexander sat up in his chair. 
 
 " Hugh proposed to her on Christmas day, and she has 
 accepted him." 
 
 " And you mean to say you have let fifty thousand pounds 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 31 
 
 slip through your fingers when you had such a chance of 
 securing it, and the girl throwing herself at your head as 
 she's been doing!" 
 
 " She never did, though we've always been good friends, 
 and she's not my idea of a wife too frisky, though a nice 
 little thing for a game of play." 
 
 " Oh, I don't care if you don't. There's as good fish in 
 
 the sea " The old man stopped and glared. Something 
 
 in his son's face struck him. " You haven't been but of 
 course you haven't you wouldn't be such an infernal idiot 
 if I thought that I'd disinherit you on the spot by God, 
 I would! I'd never own you for a son of mine again." 
 
 " Father," said Forbes desperately, " you don't mean what 
 you are saying you don't know the circumstances, you 
 don't know her. Such a good cook and housekeeper 
 economical and saving, where a wife like Polly would 
 squander money wholesale she would make me rich in 
 the end by her carefulness and cleverness, she would, 
 indeed. Agnes says " 
 
 " Agnes ! I'll teach Agnes to play these tricks with my 
 family bringing her beggarly acquaintances into this 
 house " 
 
 " You must not blame her, father. It is not her fault." 
 
 " It is her fault. Send her to me this minute. This is 
 the result of her precious picnic, is it? Just what might 
 have been expected ! Tell her I want her, and tell her to 
 send that designing minx packing " 
 
 " Father, you must you must let me explain." 
 
 "I tell you I won't have it, sir!" roared the old man, 
 standing up and shaking his fist. " I won't have it!" 
 
 Agnes heard these high words and braced herself to meet 
 the storm ; with her came Nell, who had also been hover- 
 ing near. Forbes looked at his betrothed in anguish, sign- 
 ing to her to go away ; but the gentle girl was brave, and 
 marched into the room dauntlessly. 
 
 " Look here, madam," said the irate father, foaming, 
 " you think you have made a great catch, don't you? You 
 and Agnes think you have done a wonderful fine thing, 
 with your picnics and your galli van tings ! Well, you are 
 mistaken. If you marry my son you will marry a beggar. 
 He has nothing but what he gets from me, and I won't 
 give him a penny and I won't leave him one. He can just 
 choose between us." 
 
 Miss Cunningham, who was thought to be a person on 
 whom anybody might trample, met these insults with the 
 greatest dignity. 
 
32 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Your son," she said, " shall not be beggared for me. I 
 will choose for him. I give him tip; I wouldn't marry him 
 now if you asked me on your knees. Good-by, Forbes. 
 Agnes, will you please tell me when I can catch the coach 
 to go home to my father?" 
 
 Mr. Alexander spluttered and was silent. The girl turned 
 and walked away, and Forbes rushed after her. Agnes 
 stood in tears, and upon her her husband fell in a rage that 
 was increased rather than diminished by the sudden and 
 unexpected withdrawal of its justification. She bore up 
 with courage for a time; she even attempted to express 
 her sentiments of indignation and sympathy on behalf of 
 the true lovers who had been so badly treated ; but for her 
 temerity she was taken by the arm and shaken, and the 
 spirit was shaken out of her. 
 
 There were tragic scenes that night. Forbes begged of 
 Nell not to cast him off, and his step-mother (in the back- 
 ground) supported his petition, regardless of the dreadful 
 consequences ; and Nell admitted that he was not to blame, 
 and kissed him in farewell and wept upon his shoulder. 
 Nevertheless, the girl adhered to her determination not to 
 take from him his prospective fortune and his father's fa- 
 vour, and insisted on being conveyed out of the house 
 where she had been so grossly insulted at the earliest pos- 
 sible moment. So the next morning she was driven to 
 meet the coach, escorted by Mr. Baird, who also felt him- 
 self de trop under the circumstances, and pleaded pressing 
 business at home as an excuse for cutting short his visit. 
 Agnes kissed her friend fervently, and whispered, " Some 
 day some day it will all come right." And doubtless Nell 
 expected that it would when Forbes (in a back passage) 
 strained her to his breast and implored her not to forget 
 that she was the only woman he would ever love. Her 
 nome was in Tasmania, which in those days was much 
 farther off than it is now ; and when she arrived there after 
 a tedious journey she was a long, long way from Forbes 
 much longer than she had any idea of. In point of fact, 
 she never saw him again. She waited and waited silently, 
 assuming that all was over, but secretly expecting that he 
 would contrive by some means to bridge the gulf between 
 them; then she gave up looking for his return, and in 
 course of time was wooed and won by another. 
 
 When the Christmas party was dissolved Hugh and 
 Polly having departed to the Hawker mansion, where the 
 current of their affairs ran as smoothly as heart could wish 
 and only Forbes was left under the paternal roof, then 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 33 
 
 the old man, who had got his own way so easily, was moved 
 to feel compunctious and uncomfortable. He^was human, 
 after all, and he did have the gout badly. His wife's 
 dejected looks did not distress him what he chose to do or 
 not to do was none of her business but it fretted him to 
 see the bright young fellow who was a part of himself (and 
 so infinitely superior to other men's sons) mooning about 
 the place, without a word for anybody, looking the picture 
 of despair. Poor boy ! It was not his fault, but the fault 
 of designing females who had laid snares to ruin him. 
 
 Mr. Alexander took a sudden and heroic resolution. 
 
 " Look here," said he, " you have often wanted to travel 
 when I haven't been able to spare you ; what do you say to 
 a trip now? Shearing's over, and nothing particular doing. 
 I'll give you a couple of thousands, if you like, and you 
 may stay away till you have spent it." 
 
 Forbes thanked his father listlessly and intimated that 
 he had no heart for travel or for anything just now ; one 
 place was the same as another to a blighted man. But by 
 and by he changed his mind and thought it would be a 
 good thing to detach himself from painful associations for 
 a time. By degrees the fascination of the prospect grew 
 upon him and his broken heart began to mend. After all, 
 he had known Nell Cunningham for a short week only. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ONE year later, having had the best of good times in the 
 interval, Forbes Alexander found himself on the way to 
 spend Christmas with a family named Hammond, whose 
 eldest son had married Esther Pomeroy (the daughter of 
 Roberta Hay ward, that used to be), a young lady for whom 
 our hero had for several months cherished a deep attach- 
 ment, that was now in process of wearing off. The head of 
 the Hammond family was a squire in a small way, living, 
 when he was at home, in a solid ancestral house near the 
 east Norfolk coast, with his village at his gates and his 
 hereditary acres of land and water around him a district 
 that was not known to fame in those days, as it is now, nor 
 thought to be beautiful in any way. The lonely meres and 
 marshes, unpainted and unsung, were a by-word for deso- 
 lation, particularly in winter time, when grey sea fogs 
 overspread them and the reed spears rattled like dead bones 
 in the wind; but the Hammonds' house in the midst of 
 
34 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 them, with its red windows shining, was notorious for its 
 cheerfulness at that season. Not even Agnes's Christmas 
 camp, sweet memory that it was, could compare with the 
 festival that our young hero helped to celebrate under this 
 hospitable English roof. 
 
 James Hammond met him at the nearest railway station, 
 and drove him home in a high dog-cart through the mist 
 and the mud along the dyke-bordered roads. What a contrast 
 to the gleaming plains and gum-scented forests, soaked in 
 purest sunshine, through which he had driven with Nell 
 Cunningham twelve months (but it seemed twelve years) 
 ago ! Like a ship sailing through the open darkness the 
 dog-cart moved, a dim black shape upon the horizon, visi- 
 ble at a great distance in the glow of its twin lamps. Anon 
 it was lost in thick reed-beds and hedges, through which 
 wide-spreading fen waters gleamed at intervals like sheets 
 of ground glass. Trees and houses gathered, phantom-like, 
 about its path; hovels and thatched cottages groups of 
 farm-buildings with their dark cones of stacks beside them, 
 and their skeleton orchards and gardens. As they drove 
 the young men, who had a comparatively old acquaintance, 
 talked their talk of gun and rod of the ways of wild fowl, 
 the weight that pike and eel attained to, the unsuspected 
 capabilities of the unhandy looking Norfolk wherry, and 
 so on until they came to the squire's village, on the out- 
 skirts of which loomed an old house that took the attention 
 of the stranger. Solidly outlined on the still faintly trans- 
 parent sky, it revealed that superfluity of gabled roof and 
 aspiring chimney which never failed to appeal to him as a 
 new-world hunter of the legendary and the picturesque. 
 He asked, as soon as he saw it, the question that was so 
 frequently on his lips " What place is that?" 
 
 " Weep Hall," said his companion. " Odd name, isn't it? 
 King Charles was once hidden in the secret chamber, and, 
 losing heart, broke out a-weeping and thereby betrayed 
 himself to his enemies that's the origin of it. History 
 doesn't seem to authenticate the circumstance, but so 
 much the worse for history. We are all quite sure that it 
 was so. There's the very secret chamber to prove it. It 
 opens into the hall chimney, half way up." 
 
 " How interesting! Is it what you call a seat?" 
 
 " It was once, but nothing remains of the old family 
 except some brasses and things in the church. It's been a 
 farmhouse for a good while. Now it isn't even that there 's 
 only a field or two belonging to it." 
 
 " Who lives there?" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 35 
 
 " An old soldier and his daughter. Old, I call him, but 
 he's on the young side of fifty yet. Shot at Inkerman. 
 There's a bullet in his chest now pierced the lung had 
 to take some rib out chronic empyema, you know, and 
 that sort of thing, and he's wasted away in consumption 
 and all twisted o' one side a dreadful wreck! Besides 
 having a leg off above the knee. Anybody else would have 
 got done with such a job in a week, especially seeing the 
 sort of surgery they had on the field in those days." James 
 Hammond was studying for the medical profession, and 
 did more than justice to the strides it had made in his own 
 adult lifetime. " It's wonderful how he holds out. He's 
 got such a cast-iron constitution and such pluck as you 
 never saw. More than that, he's been nursed by" he 
 paused as if to choose his words " by a person who under- 
 stands the art of keeping people alive one who's just as 
 plucky as he is." 
 
 " Why," said his companion, with a sudden effort of mem- 
 ory, " surely that must be Colonel what's-his-name?" 
 
 "Not colonel major; Major Knowles." 
 
 " The father of a lady I know a neighbor of mine in 
 Australia Mrs. Joseph Anderson." 
 
 " He has a step-daughter of that name in Australia. Joe 
 Anderson used to go to school with my eldest brother. 
 They both went courting to Weep Hall, and a lot of other 
 fellows. Miss Belle Mrs. Anderson that is now was a 
 very pretty girl." 
 
 " She's pretty now, and looks a girl still. She asked me 
 to go and see her people, and gave me their address. But 
 such a lot of them wanted me to see their people, don't 
 you know, and I didn't trouble to keep the addresses. I 
 had an idea the place was called Smile Hall. But really I 
 had forgotten all about it." 
 
 " Oh, well, you must go and call on them now you're 
 here. It would be a real kindness. He must have an 
 awful life of it, though he never complains to anybody, for 
 he can't walk about now; and she she hardly ever leaves 
 him never goes out like other girls. My sisters are try- 
 ing to get her to come to our ball next week, because 
 there's an old aunt there now, who can look after him while 
 she's away; but I know she won't. I've betted Carry a 
 pair of gloves that she won't." 
 
 " Is she like Mrs. Anderson?" 
 
 " No. There's full ten years between them, for one thing. 
 Major Knowles married a widow older than himself; Mrs. 
 Anderson was her daughter by the first husband. Miss 
 
36 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Knowles at the time of the battle was not more than four 
 or five. Her mother died when she was seven or eight, 
 and Belle married not long after. Those two," with a 
 backward nod in the direction of the receding house, " have 
 been all in all to each other ever since. They're more 
 like brother and sister than father and child." 
 
 " Well off?" 
 
 " Oh, just middling half-pay and a little something. 
 Enough for two people, living as they do." 
 
 " Pretty?" 
 
 " Who? Katherine?" James Hammond paused, and then 
 said in a guarded way : " I don't think people call her pretty. 
 Very nice-looking a thorough lady, and all that and^wv/." 
 
 " Oh, I know," the Australian interrupted, with a laugh. 
 " That describes her sufficiently. The sort of person we 
 ought to admire, and yet somehow never do." 
 
 " I don't know about that," said James. " I think a good 
 many people admire Katherine Knowles." 
 
 " Do you?" 
 
 Again the answer came slowly. " My brother Neil does. 
 He admires her tremendously. You don't know my brother 
 Neil? He's at Yarmouth, in the herring trade. He'll be 
 down to-morrow night for Christmas." 
 
 " That's the big fellow, isn't it?" 
 
 The speaker knocked the ashes from his pipe and put it 
 in his pocket, being warned that he was near his journey's 
 end; and, finding it rather a bore to have to look up 
 Mrs. Anderson's relations when he wanted to enjoy him- 
 self, presently forgot all about them in the society of ladies 
 who, whether they were good or not, were undoubtedly 
 pretty particularly Miss Carry. 
 
 A fine old English house, big, substantial, unpretentious, 
 full of warmth and comfort, was the home of the Ham- 
 monds, and a delightful place for a nice young man to visit 
 in the Christmas season. The particular nice young man 
 in question and English society, as far as it was acquainted 
 with him, voted him extraordinarily nice, all things con- 
 sidered thought better of English society than he had ever 
 done when he passed out of the desolate night into the 
 bright hall, where the family, supplemented by a number 
 of gay young guests, were drinking tea round the Yule fire. 
 They welcomed him as if he were a long-lost brother after 
 the fashion of welcomes in his own country, only in his 
 country there was no such background for charming figures 
 as here. It reminded him of Christmas pictures in the 
 Illustrated London News. A pair of schoolboys left off 
 
NOT ALL "IN VAIN. 37 
 
 roasting chestnuts on a superfine steel shovel (which, when 
 it was red-hot, they placed upon the hearth-rug) to take his 
 cap and his fur coat; and old Mrs. Hammond, with her 
 knitting in her mittened fingers, got up to welcome him in 
 a sweetly maternal manner. His older friend, Mrs. Pom- 
 eroy, a majestic woman, who went to court on occasions, and 
 looked the last person to have fought blacks through loop- 
 holes in a slab hut, or to have heard of such doings, 
 extended a cordial hand to him, which was a very special 
 favour; and Esther, her daughter, wife of the Hammond 
 who had been at school with Joe Anderson, met him with 
 sisterly smiles and held up her new baby, the idol of the 
 family, to show him what a perfect beauty of a baby it 
 was. He was very fond of Esther still, though growing 
 resigned to the ill-luck which had disposed of her to Tom 
 Hammond before his arrival in England ; but that did not 
 prevent him from being fascinated by the good looks of one 
 of her sisters-in-law, who brought him tea and pressed hot 
 muffins upon him. He had been raving of Esther in his 
 letters to her Australian cousin, when thanking that lady 
 for introducing him to her relations ; so " thoroughly En- 
 glish," he said; "not to be compared with dear Nell, of 
 course a wholly different style still an exquisite creature 
 as I ever saw." But when he wrote to Agnes at Christmas 
 he did not mention Mrs. Tom Hammond, and gave a page 
 or two to a description of the incomparable Miss Carry. 
 
 In the midst of this pleasantest of pleasant company he 
 sat down to talk and to drink tea, and to become immedi- 
 ately absorbed into all the interests of the house. The 
 young folk clamoured to know whether he would act in their 
 private theatricals, and what character would suit him 
 best. 
 
 " We are to have them on Wednesday," said Barbara 
 Hammond, who was the eldest daughter, and engaged; 
 "and the ball afterward. 'Little Toddles' is the piece. 
 Do you know it? Oh, it's great fun. Mr. Thwaites" 
 smiling at her fiance, who turned the scale at seventeen 
 stone " is to be Toddles, because he's so funny, and has no 
 beard or whiskers. Esther has made him a petticoat body, 
 tucked, and a white muslin garibaldi." She stretched out 
 her arms to indicate the immense size of those garments, 
 and the company laughed all round. " I'm going to be his 
 step-mother," she added, at which the laugh became a roar. 
 " And Jim was to have been his papa. But he doesn't care 
 anything about it all he thinks of are his dry medical 
 books ; and he is dreadfully stupid and lumbering. Neil is 
 
38 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 worse ; he's like an elephant on the stage quite unman- 
 ageable. Perhaps you could do the papa?" 
 
 " What ! At five days' notice?" 
 
 He modestly assured them that he was a stick of sticks, 
 while confessing to some experience of amateur play-act- 
 ing. But she said she knew better; any one could tell 
 from the look of him that he wasn't that, whatever else he 
 might be. Carry smiled an emphatic confirmation of her 
 sister's opinion, while the brothers bade them test their new 
 recruit before they committed themselves. He presently 
 went to his room, feeling quite like a member of the family, 
 and even (for, as has been indicated, he was much given to 
 sudden fancies of this nature in the days of his gay youth, 
 before his great experience came to him) thinking it possi- 
 ble that he might actually be so some day. A vision of the 
 pretty youngest daughter accompanied him, and looked on 
 while he tied one cravat after another before he could 
 achieve the perfect bow that satisfied him. Her hair was 
 like gold, and her dimples charming ; and a more delightful 
 household to marry into could hardly be imagined. 
 
 He went down when he was dressed, looking particularly 
 distinguished and graceful not a bit "colonial," as the 
 ladies remarked to each other and found the company 
 assembling round the bright hall fire. It was a great hall, 
 that was much frequented at all times, but just now was 
 the common sitting-room of the house. The drawing-room 
 had its carpet up, and was wholly given over to promiscu- 
 ous dances, tableaux, and other holiday entertainments. 
 The stage for the theatricals was built in its large bay 
 window, through which the actors had to retire by way of 
 a garden-path to the school-room when they wanted to dress 
 themselves. Some of its sofas and arm-chairs were now 
 disposed amongst the antique furniture of the hall, with an 
 effect that was very comfortable. A few ladies sat on them 
 old Mrs. Hammond in a snuffy gown and diamonds, Mrs. 
 Pomeroy, simple and stately in black velvet, a meagre ex- 
 governess returned to spend the holidays, and two school- 
 girls in pig-tails. Mr. Pomeroy, a stout and rosy country 
 gentleman, with no sign of romantic adventures about him, 
 and Mr. Hammond, white-moustached and wizened, warmed 
 themselves at the broad fire, with coat-tails over their arms ; 
 and spruce young men sauntered around in their gleaming 
 shirt-fronts and shining pumps. Then the young ladies 
 came drifting down the stairs, like Jacob's angels down 
 the ladder, fair Carry the last and loveliest, in a long white 
 robe, with a white flower in her hair. She blushed and 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 39 
 
 fluttered as she descended, encountering the ardent eyes 
 of the Australian guest ; her own blue eyes fell, and all her 
 dimples came out. 
 
 "My dear," said young Mrs. Hammond to her sister-in- 
 law, Barbara, " did you see that? My plans are evidently 
 going to prosper. I am determined to marry that young 
 man for his good and Carry is the very wife for him. I 
 brought him here on purpose, and he begins straight off. 
 So does she and I don't wonder, for he is a perfectly 
 delightful fellow. Mark my words, she will be Mrs. Forbes 
 Alexander by this time next year." 
 
 Barbara nodded. " We shall have to make it a condition 
 that he doesn't take her to Australia, away from us. She 
 couldn't live the life your mother used to do." 
 
 " Oh, you little stupid !" ejaculated Mrs. Tom ; " as if any- 
 body did, in these days !" 
 
 What Forbes Alexander wanted very much was to take 
 Miss Carry in to dinner, but this bliss was denied him, and 
 the honour of being selected by his hostess for herself did 
 not console him for the disappointment. Nevertheless, he 
 made himself very agreeable in conversation with that 
 lady, to whose motherly heart he had already endeared 
 himself, and had his reward later on, when " Little Tod- 
 dles" was rehearsed, followed by an impromptu dance in the 
 empty drawing-room. Such a merry, jolly, happy even- 
 ing he had never spent in his life, he said, when he lit the 
 ladies' candles at midnight, and wistfully watched them 
 trooping upstairs, before betaking himself to the smoking- 
 room. The ideal English Christmas of which he had heard 
 so much was more than realised. 
 
 Next day was the 24th, and the Christmas-tree was set 
 up in the drawing-room, and the mistletoe bough suspended 
 in the hall, the floor of which was heaped with green stuff, 
 out of which wreaths and other devices were evolved for 
 the festive adornment of wall mouldings and picture frames ; 
 and the village church was decorated. This latter business 
 was undertaken by certain members of the party, while 
 the rest attended to the preparations in the house ; and it 
 unfortunately happened that Alexander had committed 
 himself to the Christmas-tree too deeply to extricate him- 
 self before he discovered that Carry Hammond was bound 
 for the village. 
 
 " But I will join you as soon as I can get away," he said 
 eagerly, looking at Barbara, but addressing the younger 
 sister. " I have promised Mrs. Tom that I will fix the 
 tapers and there are a hundred of them and hang the 
 
40 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 things to the top branches. But we shall not be able to 
 see after four o'clock, and then I will come and fetch 
 you." 
 
 He punctually fulfilled that promise. The other young 
 men who were not already at the church were sailing home 
 across the marshes with Neil Hammond, whom they had 
 gone to meet in the morning, and he walked nay, he ran 
 to the village unaccompanied. When he got there it was 
 all but dark, and the interior of the old church, which the 
 brightest summer noon could not clear of shadows, was an 
 impenetrable mystery to any one not accustomed to it. 
 The young ladies were still at work, by the aid of some 
 candles which they had found in the sexton's cupboard 
 under the tower, and which only made darkness visible to 
 the stranger's eyes. He peered about for a face he knew, 
 and discovered Barbara and young Thwaites at the altar- 
 rail ; they were encircling every little column of the balus- 
 trade with a corkscrew wreath, and only four out of nine 
 were finished. 
 
 " You are not going to do all that to-night, are you?" he 
 inquired, lifting a coil of the wreath, which lay in yards on 
 the floor around them. 
 
 " We are so," cried Barbara, with the flippancy of a young 
 lady on familiar terms with the sacred edifice, " if we have 
 to be here till morning. No, you can't help us. There 
 isn't room for three." 
 
 " Evidently not," he rejoined, with a laugh. " Can't I 
 help anybody else?" 
 
 " I don't know. Carry is in the pulpit with Mr. Brand." 
 
 " Who's Mr. Brand?" ' 
 
 " Our vicar. They are putting their wreath round the 
 sounding-board." 
 
 He made his way to the pulpit and looked up eagerly. 
 The vicar a red-faced and grey-haired vicar, he was 
 pleased to see was laboriously nailing a thick rope of 
 evergreens to the cornice over his head, bending himself 
 backward in a way to dislocate his spinal column. Carry 
 was holding up a loose part of it in one hand and her can- 
 dle in the other, the faint light all the light this rural 
 sanctuary was ever furnished with, save that of sun and 
 moon touching her pretty face with a ghostly glow that 
 was quite celestial and enchanting. 
 
 " Can't I help you?" the spectator pleaded urgently. 
 
 "No, thanks," replied Mr. Brand, who did not recognise 
 a new voice, and was wholly occupied with his decorations. 
 " There's only room for two here." 
 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 41 
 
 " Can't I take your place, Miss Carry? Your arms must 
 ache." 
 
 "No, thank you," she repeated, looking down on him 
 with her dimpled smile. " I think I can do it best." 
 
 The young man continued to stand in the clerk's seat 
 beneath the reading-desk, which was the middle deck of 
 the structure, gazing at the fair face and white hands above 
 him, the candle illuminating his visage also, so that she 
 could see how rapt he was. And then James Hammond 
 came along good-natured Jim, who had been working like 
 a navvy all day. 
 
 "Look here," said Jim, "we shall be a good hour yet 
 before we've done, and you are no use here. Suppose you 
 take the opportunity to run down the road to Weep Hall?" 
 
 " Eh? What for?" inquired Mr. Alexander. 
 
 " To see Major Knowles to do Mrs. Anderson's commis- 
 sion. It is not more than half a mile straight road and 
 the old fellow would feel it a kindness, I know. It's not a 
 particularly merry Christmas Eve for him." 
 
 " Oh, bother !" was the response to this proposition. 
 " There isn't time for that now. I am in waiting on your 
 sister. I said I would see her home." 
 
 " We won't go home without you. Mrs. Brand is going 
 to give them tea at the vicarage to warm them. It will be 
 getting on for six before we're ready to start. I've sent for 
 the waggonette. You may as well go now, don't you think, 
 while you've nothing else to do? Mrs. Anderson will have 
 written to him to expect you, and he is sure to know you 
 are with us." 
 
 " Oh, he won't know. And if he does I'm only just come." 
 
 " All right. Just as you like, of course. Only I thought 
 well, you see, Miss Knowles is here, and my sisters are 
 very likely to speak of you." 
 
 " Which is Miss Knowles?" 
 
 Jim looked through the vault-like gloom at the various 
 figures flitting round the candles, but could not identify 
 Miss Knowles. However, the suggestion of imminent com- 
 munication with her, and some pricks of conscience with 
 respect to the treatment Mrs. Anderson's commission had 
 received, overcame a natural unwillingness to substitute 
 duty for pleasure, and our young man decided to go. 
 
 " I suppose I may as well and get done with it, "he said, 
 resignedly, buttoning his furred coat. " Tell Miss Carry, 
 if she asks for me, that I will be back in half an hour," 
 
42 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 THE evening seemed almost light after the starred black- 
 ness of the church, and, as Jim had said, it was a straight 
 road to Weep Hall. Hedges bordered it, and fields with 
 more hedges, for this was not the fen, pure and simple 
 that peaty waste which had no fence save the dykes that 
 drained it but an oasis that was an island in the sedgy wil- 
 derness hundreds of years ago. The old house in which the 
 ubiquitous king had sought shelter in vain under such pa- 
 thetic circumstances stood behind a noble hedge of laurels, 
 a little back from the road, with an old garden and immemo- 
 rial elm-trees around it picturesque in a high degree even 
 in naked winter time, when there was light enough to see 
 it. Just now the gathering darkness was fast obliterating 
 all its bold outlines, leaving nothing distinctly visible but 
 a great latticed window set in an eight-foot wall, two-thirds 
 of which was masonry and the rest ivy, almost as solid and 
 impenetrable as stone. This window was full of rosy fire- 
 light, that streamed out over wet lawns and laurel bushes 
 till it touched the confines of the muddy road. By its 
 light the visitor easily found the gate and his way in. He 
 traversed the path from gate to porch with alert, assured, 
 straightforward stride, threw a tourist's glance at the con- 
 spicuous window, which displayed its ivied mullions and 
 lozenge panes to great advantage, and entering the cavern- 
 ous porch, knocked on the stout door sharply. A neat old 
 woman in close cap and lilac print apron opened it, having 
 lighted herself through the dark hall with a candle, which 
 she placed on a table behind her. 
 
 " Good-evening," said the stranger pleasantly. " Is Major 
 Knowles at home?" 
 
 " Well," said the old woman, whose voice was grim, but 
 whose face he could not see, " he's not likely to be anywhere 
 else, without it's the church-yard. Did you wish to see him?" 
 
 " If it's not inconvenient. I am Mr. Alexander Forbes 
 Alexander from Australia will you tell him? I think his 
 daughter, Mrs. Anderson, has written to him to expect 
 me she asked me to call. But if he is ill I am staying in 
 the neighbourhood I can come again at any time." 
 
 He handed her his card, of which she took no notice. 
 
 " Come in," she said, opening the door wider and then 
 shutting it sharply behind him. " I've heard them talking 
 about you. They had given you up." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 43 
 
 " I have been very much engaged," the young man mur- 
 mured, as he groped after her through the shadows of the 
 stone-flagged hall the hall which had the chimney with 
 King Charles' secret chamber in it dank and dark as the 
 church where all that was mortal of the monarch's host 
 reposed. Then the door of the room with the effulgent 
 window was suddenly opened in his face a low-ceilinged, 
 oak-panelled room, with faded, homely furniture and 
 Major Knowles was revealed by his ruddy fireside, half 
 sitting and half lying in a pillowed chair. 
 
 " The Australian gentleman come to see you," said the 
 servant, and abruptly departed. Mr. Forbes Alexander 
 hastened across the room with the frank and kindly air that 
 was an unfailing passport to the good graces of a new 
 acquaintance. 
 
 " Glad to see you, Mr. Alexander," was the prompt wel- 
 come he received, in a weak but cordial voice; and the 
 speaker extended a bony and bleached left hand. " You'll 
 excuse my not rising." 
 
 " Yes, yes," the young fellow answered quickly and ear- 
 nestly, grasping the claw-like fingers with the firm tender- 
 ness of a woman (for, now that he was about it, all his kind 
 heart was interested in his errand). "Your daughter has 
 told me of your dreadful wounds. Pray don't move, and 
 tell me if I am intruding. I see you are very ill." 
 
 Major Knowles signed to his visitor to take a chair, for 
 the slight movement he had made to receive him brought 
 on a fit of coughing which arrested speech. When the 
 paroxysm was over, he made a little proud apology for his 
 abject condition. " Arms and legs I could have done with- 
 out, but lungs lungs are the very devil, sir. A scrap of 
 bone in the lung tissue I'm not sure that it wasn't merely 
 a shred of my uniform practically killed me, though I've 
 taken such an unconscionable time to die. Fifteen years 
 and seven weeks it is, exactly. However," he seemed to 
 pull himself together, as if ashamed of complaining about 
 such a trifle " my lungs, like the rest of me, were at the 
 service of my country. I don't grudge them for a moment." 
 
 Young Alexander murmured " Yes," sympathetically, 
 not venturing to offer pity in a case like this. The old 
 woman came in carrying a pair of lighted candles in old 
 chased candlesticks, and a pair of silver snuffers on a tray ; 
 she set them on the table, drew red damask curtains across 
 the great window, poked the fire, and heaped fresh coals 
 upon it. Then he could see his host plainly a ghastly, 
 distorted figure, the wreck of a once splendid man, not yet 
 
44 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 fifty, and with a certain soldierly dignity in him still, some- 
 thing that seemed to say it was stubborn courage of soul, 
 more than abnormal toughness of body, which had with- 
 stood the inevitable for so long. His sunk eyes were steady 
 and calm, his prominent jaw resolute, his emaciated cheeks 
 clean-shaved, and the handsome moustache kept neatly 
 trimmed the kind of man who would never really surren- 
 der to his ghostly enemy while he had a breath left in him. 
 
 He also examined his visitor for a moment when the light 
 was strong enough, and liked what he saw the modest self- 
 possession of the young fellow's pose and manner, and his 
 general air of kindliness and good breeding, which was 
 more striking than his good looks, though he was very 
 good-looking. Strangers were rare, and usually unwel- 
 come, in this house, but in the present case the stranger 
 was invited to take off his great-coat. 
 
 " I cannot stay long just now," he said, unbuttoning it, 
 " but I shall gladly come again if you will allow me. I am 
 visiting in the neighbourhood for a week or two, with the 
 Hammonds. They have been very kind to me. This after- 
 noon" producing his watch " I promised to fetch the 
 young ladies home. They are decorating the church." 
 
 " Yes. Haven't they done yet? It is too dark to see 
 anything." 
 
 " They've got some candles out of the belfry cupboard. 
 But I can't imagine how they can work by such a light. 
 They look like explorers in a cave." 
 
 " There'll be some handsome decorations on the coats 
 and gowns of the congregation, at any rate. You met my 
 daughter?" 
 
 " I had not that pleasure. By the time I got down it was 
 too dark to distinguish one lady from another." 
 
 " It is very rarely she is from home. The great diffi- 
 culty of my life is to get her to go out and entertain her- 
 self. She is like her mother in that way. Her mother 
 came to the Crimea to nurse me." Each sentence was 
 broken by a cough. " Just now a maiden aunt has come 
 to keep Christmas with us. Katherine thinks she is sitting 
 with me, but I imagine she is getting the history of all 
 that's happened since she was here last from the house- 
 maid upstairs. Would you mind helping me to shift my 
 position a little? Thank you. You have a very good knack 
 of it. Yes ; but for Miss Freeman my daughter would have 
 been in. She seldom goes more than as far as the garden 
 gate from me." 
 
 " I have heard;" murmured Alexander, " how devoted Miss 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 45 
 
 Knowles is to you." He recalled Jim Hammond's descrip- 
 tion of her not pretty, but good with no pleasure in the 
 idea presented, but his assumption of interest and admira- 
 tion passed very well for the real thing. 
 
 " She's my nurse and housekeeper, and my woman of 
 business all I want; we've had nobody else since we sent 
 away the aunts and governesses, when she was tall enough 
 for long frocks," proceeded Major Knowles; and then he 
 stopped to cough. " She is my real daughter, Mr. Alex- 
 ander. Mrs. Anderson is my step-daughter, and, to tell 
 the truth, I scarcely know her. She was at school during 
 the few years my wife and I were together, and she mar- 
 ried very young. It was really very kind of her," he added, 
 " to remember us. How is she?'* 
 
 " Well, it is some considerable time since I saw her. I 
 ought to have delivered her messages sooner," said Forbes 
 Alexander. " But somehow, what with one thing and 
 another oh, I believe she's very well. There was a new 
 baby just before I left. Beautiful children she has and a 
 wonderfully handsome woman herself, looking as young as 
 ever." 
 
 " She was thought to be a fascinating girl, "the step-father 
 remarked in a dispassionate way. " And it was certainly a 
 piece of great good fortune, under the circumstances, to get 
 her married to a decent fellow. Anderson is a decent 
 fellow, isn't he?" 
 
 " A capital fellow. I'm a neighbour of his in the Murray 
 district, and I know him well. He is universally re- 
 spected." 
 
 " I'm very glad of that. When her mother left her to 
 me or, rather, left me to her I had a pretty anxious time. 
 She liked me, I think, in a kind of way, but she quite real- 
 ised the fact that I was not her blood relation, and she 
 thought herself full old enough to manage her own affairs. 
 Her own affairs were a good deal more to her than mine 
 that was natural and they were much mixed up with those 
 of young men who used to boat and fish in this neighbour- 
 hood, and whom I was physically unable to cope with 
 at least, I heard a good deal to that effect from the aunts ; 
 but I daresay they exaggerated. The aunts the lady 
 upstairs was one of them took care of me and the house 
 then, because my wife's daughter hadn't time; and they 
 never got on together, and I, of course, was not able to find 
 out where the blame lay. Yes, I was very glad to see her 
 settled. I think Anderson was about the best of them, and 
 she might easily have chosen the worst. There was noth- 
 
4<5 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ing to prevent her. I liked the little I saw of him, and he 
 appears to have made her a good husband." 
 
 "The best of husbands," Alexander said, furtively look- 
 ing at his watch ; for, owing to frequent fits of coughing, 
 this little narrative had taken time, and time was precious. 
 
 "I am delighted to hear it from so good an authority," 
 said Major Knowles; "that she is well and happy, and 
 things in general satisfactory. It will be good news to my 
 daughter. For some reason or another, that I can never 
 understand, she adores her sister, whom she hasn't seen 
 for half her lifetime. Certainly Mrs. Anderson can write 
 a very pretty letter." 
 
 The young man smiled, for he knew Mrs. Anderson's 
 letters, though he did not know her particularly well ; then 
 he became grave again, and suggested that it was a pity 
 two only sisters, so attached as these, should be separated 
 by the width of the world from one another. 
 
 " Why shouldn't you be all together?" he made bold to 
 say. " Have you never thought of going out? It's a splen- 
 did climate for lungs." 
 
 He blushed for his own want of tact when he noted the 
 grim amusement on the crippled soldier's face. 
 
 " No," said Major Knowles, " I have never thought of going 
 out. But since I have heard of your being here, an 
 acquaintance of Anderson's, I have been anxious to have a 
 talk with you about your country. I have been thinking it 
 would be the best thing for my girl to go there for a bit, 
 when I'm put underground; and I want to know about the 
 Andersons, and whether she would be all right with them. 
 I may say to you in confidence, though you are a stranger, 
 that I am very anxious about my daughter's welfare after 
 my death." 
 
 " Naturally," murmured the young man, in his sympa- 
 thetic voice. 
 
 " She will be able to keep herself, but will have nobody 
 belonging to her except the aunts, whom she doesn't care 
 for, though they are good souls in their way; and I don't 
 wish her to stay on in this house alone she couldn't stand 
 that. I want her to get away from the things that will 
 remind her of me as soon and as far as possible you under- 
 stand? And she'll do whatever I advise her." \ 
 
 " I am sure," said the young man earnestly, " that Ander- 
 son and her sister would welcome her with open arms, and 
 do everything in the world to make her happy anybody 
 
 would. But I trust it will be a long time before before " 
 
 , "I don't think it will," said Major Knowles, replying to 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 47 
 
 the expressive pause. " I fancy this is to be my last win- 
 ter really the last though I'd be glad to go on for a few 
 more, even under the present conditions. Log that I am, 
 my girl wants to keep me, and I want to stay with her. 
 It's foolish, but we can't help it. After all, you know, 
 there's no certainty that we shall ever meet again." 
 
 Forbes Alexander was more reluctant to go than he had 
 been to come, but was obliged to break off the conversa- 
 tion just when it was becoming interesting. He had only 
 allowed himself half an hour, and three-quarters had 
 passed. He could not keep the Miss Hammonds waiting. 
 
 " But I will come again next week," he said, as he stood 
 up and buttoned his coat ; " on Monday, if possible if that 
 will be convenient to you." 
 
 " Quite quite. All times are the same to me." 
 
 And then they wished each other good-night, and the 
 conventional happy Christmas, and the young man hurried 
 away. 
 
 " After all," he thought to himself, " I am glad I went." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE half-dozen candles in the church were reduced to one, 
 which, in a horn lantern, held on high by a tow-headed boy, 
 enabled the grumbling sexton to collect the larger part of 
 the " rubbidge" which the young ladies had left behind them. 
 Daylight was required to discover the litter of small leaves, 
 the dabs of tallow, the stray pins, and tacks, and hanks of 
 twine that lurked around altar and pulpit and amongst the 
 high-walled pews. The young ladies themselves were 
 drinking tea at the vicarage close by ; its front door stood 
 open, implying a hasty visit. On the dark road outside its 
 garden gate loomed the substantial bulk of the Hammonds' 
 wagonette, beside which stood Jim and Thwaites, stamping 
 and flapping their arms across their chests. There was no 
 snow, but the night was raw and cold ; and the thought of 
 the wayfarers from Yarmouth, who had chosen to beat home 
 across the wind-swept marshes at such a season, made Alex- 
 ander shiver. 
 
 " Come along!" cried Thwaites; " we're waiting for you." 
 And Jim sang out, " Girls hi !" And several furry figures 
 came out of the house and trooped toward them, chattering 
 together, and calling good-nights to invisible friends. 
 
48 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Prettier than last year/' Forbes heard them say, as the 
 gate swung behind them; " if only that old wretch doesn't 
 meddle. I never feel sure that we shan't find all our work 
 undone in the morning, and the old boughs back again." 
 As they approached the lights of the carriage he saw that 
 a stranger walked between the two Miss Hammonds. 
 
 " This, "said Barbara, "is Miss Knowles. Mr. Alexander 
 Miss Knowles. We will drive her home, Jim, as no one 
 else is going that way. It won't take a minute." 
 
 " Of course we'll drive her home," replied Jim quickly; 
 and the girl thanked them without protesting, and allowed 
 herself to be handed up to her seat. Forbes could not see 
 her plainly, but thought she had a pleasant voice. He had 
 no shyness himself, and began at once to talk to her of his 
 visit to her father and his acquaintance with Mrs. Anderson. 
 
 " It was so very kind of you to go and see him," she said, 
 " only I do wish I had been at home. I have been longing 
 so to hear about my sister." 
 
 "I shall give myself the pleasure of calling again," he 
 rejoined. 
 
 "I'll see that he does," said Carry, nodding archly. "I 
 will bring him myself." 
 
 " And you are to come to us, Katherine," said Barbara, 
 from the corner where she nestled, it was shrewdly sus- 
 pected, in the curved arm of Mr. Thwaites. " It's perfect 
 nonsense for you to say you can't, now that your aunt is 
 with you. Why, she took care of your father entirely when 
 you were a child, and he was a deal worse than he is now." 
 
 "No, he wasn't," said Miss Knowles. 
 
 " At any rate, for an hour or two now and then and espe- 
 cially for the ball. He'll be in bed and asleep by the time 
 you want to start, and you know he wishes it ; he told me 
 so himself. I shall just go in with you now," concluded 
 Barbara, suddenly determined, " and speak to him about it." 
 
 " Please, don't," pleaded Miss Knowles. And Jim, look- 
 ing over his shoulder from the box-seat, growled out, 
 " Don't bother her let her do what she likes best." 
 
 " She shall do what her father wishes, and what is good 
 for her," replied Barbara, " and I am not going to stand any 
 more of her nonsense. Here she's been away from him 
 now for two or three hours, and nothing has happened ' 
 
 " How do I know that nothing has happened?" interrupted 
 Miss Knowles, with a note of real anxiety in her voice. 
 
 "Well, we'll soon prove that," and the carriage drawing 
 up at the gate of Weep Hall, Barbara sprang to the ground 
 before her friend alighted. Alexander, who sat by the 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 49 
 
 door, was already in the road to assist them, and he natu- 
 rally opened the gate and piloted them through the now 
 unlighted garden, which resulted in his being asked into 
 the house again by Miss Knowles. 
 
 Entering the warm sitting-room, they saw the major 
 reclining in his chair, as usual, vis-a-vis with the aunt, a 
 lackadaisical looking old person in gay attire, industri- 
 ously knitting him a woollen waistcoat which he was not 
 destined to wear. The elderly servant was setting the 
 table for tea not afternoon tea, but the homely meal that 
 would have been dinner in a larger establishment. 
 
 " There," said Barbara, flourishing her hand, "there he 
 is, you see, as comfortable as possible I daresay enjoying 
 the relief of being rid of you for a little while." She effu- 
 sively greeted the surprised pair, and was overpoweringly 
 kind in her compassionate inquiries after the invalid's 
 condition which was the way of all the Hammonds, except 
 Jim. Major Knowles began to cough, and his daughter 
 hastened to interpose between him and his too agitating 
 visitor. " Don't flurry, Barbara don't talk, father," she 
 said, in a low tone of authority; and with a swift and 
 apparently effortless movement she eased his hunched-up 
 attitude and troubled breathing, while he politely protested 
 against the notion that Miss Hammond flurried him. 
 Watching them both, the Australian visitor said to himself, 
 " Jove, how strong she is !" Then, as she drew herself up 
 and stood quietly, with a hand on the readjusted pillow, 
 he surveyed her fairly for the first time, and concluded that 
 Jim had very stupidly described her. Pretty she was not, 
 as he had said, and it was equally certain that she was 
 good ; but, without being able to define what it was in her 
 that made both terms equally inappropriate, he recognised 
 a higher charm that for which, though it is the greatest 
 that a woman can possess, no adjective has yet been 
 invented that which we understand, but inadequately 
 express, by the poor word interesting. She bore the signs 
 outside as well as in, which is not commonly the case. A 
 tall, well-developed, well-bred girl, she was technically 
 plain, but virtually beautiful, her irregular-shaped, wide- 
 browed, square-jawed face having a quality of grave sweet- 
 ness and intellectual strength that made it impressive and 
 attractive to the cultivated eye. He looked at it intently 
 for a few seconds, while she looked as frankly and interest- 
 edly at him ; and Carry Hammond's dimples began to pall 
 and her grace and colour to grow insipid. Poor Carry sat 
 in the waggonette outside, hugging herself in her sealskins, 
 
50 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 and little thought that she was being cut out by a girl in a 
 frieze jacket, whose nose turned up. But so it was. 
 
 Barbara made her appeal to Major Knowles, that he would 
 insist on sending Katherine to the ball ; and he granted it 
 at once. He said she should go if he had any power to 
 make her. The aunt chimed in with little platitudes about 
 the necessity of occasional recreation for young people, 
 and hoped she was capable of taking care of her brother- 
 in-law she who had once been his sole earthly support. 
 And Katherine patiently submitted to be disposed of. 
 
 " I will go, "she said, " if you wish it, father, provided you 
 are feeling fairly well. I know Aunt Ellen would take the 
 best care of you, if you were not, but you wouldn't ask me 
 to dance and pretend to enjoy myself while you were suf- 
 fering. I couldn't do it." 
 
 " I don't intend to be suffering," said Major Knowles. " It 
 will do me good, as Miss Hammond says, to get rid of you 
 to have Aunt Ellen all to myself for once." 
 
 The old lady simpered and looked deprecatingly at her 
 niece. Katherine smiled serenely. 
 
 " Then that's settled," exclaimed Barbara. " And now 
 we must hurry away we're so awfully late. G^^-night, 
 Major Knowles, and thank you so much. Good-night, 
 Katherine dear. We shall send for you, of course." 
 
 Katherine said nothing until she was alone with her vis- 
 itors at the hall-door ; then she earnestly begged that she 
 might not be sent for. Dr. Heath and his wife, she said, 
 would take her up with them. 
 
 " But of course we shall send for you," was Barbara's 
 prompt reply. " One of the boys will drive down, and 
 nothing that I could say would stop them. If you make 
 any fuss about that I'll go back to your father again and 
 ask him to settle it. Dr. Heath, indeed! Why, he's as far 
 from Weep Hall as we are." 
 
 " I wish I might be allowed to escort Miss Knowles," said 
 Alexander. 
 
 " No, no," said Barbara. " None of the actors must leave 
 the house." 
 
 " Is Jim one of the actors?" asked Katherine, quickly. 
 
 " No, he's thrown it up, and a good job, too. He had no 
 more heart in it than a piece of wood. Mr. Alexander is 
 to be the papa; he does it splendidly." 
 
 " Oh, come now, Miss Hammond " 
 
 " So you do. But, oh, Katherine, you should see Bill ! 
 We've got a flaxen wig for him long ringlets hanging 
 down. You'll die of laughing when you see him." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 51 
 
 Katherine, instead of parting from them in the porch, 
 sauntered with her visitors to the garden gate. Jim called 
 out as they drew near, " Well, what's the result?" 
 
 " Oh, she's corning, of course," Barbara called back. " She 
 has given her word in the presence of witnesses. And now 
 she's making a fuss about being sent for. Of course you'll 
 fetch her, some of you, and be glad of the chance." 
 
 " Rather," responded Jim. 
 
 Katherine came close to the wheel and looked up at him. 
 " Will you come for me, Jim?" she asked. They all heard 
 her, and smiled amongst themselves. 
 
 " Won't I?" he replied. " If you'll let me. What time?" 
 
 " About eight, I suppose." 
 
 " All right. I'll be at your door at eight, if I'm alive." 
 
 " Thank you. Good-night, everybody." 
 
 " Good-night," they cried in chorus. "A happy Christ- 
 mas, Katherine!" 
 
 As the carriage rolled away into uninhabited darkness 
 some of its smiling occupants broke into audible laughter. 
 Forbes Alexander called out gayly, " Well, Jim, I hope you 
 feel flattered." 
 
 " He needn't," Barbara interposed. " It isn't that she 
 wants him, but that she doesn't want Neil." 
 
 " Why, I thought everybody wanted Neil," said Mr. 
 Thwaites, who, being a fine figure of a man himself, was a 
 little jealous of his more massive rival. 
 
 " Not Katherine. He used to torment her when she was 
 a child lift her up against her will, and set her on high 
 shelves, and so on and she has never forgiven him. It's 
 most amusing. She won't speak to him if she can help it. 
 But he '11 circumvent her, all the same; he'll insist on fetch- 
 ing her instead of you, Jim." 
 
 " He won't," said Jim, quietly. 
 
 " Why, what could you do to stop him? My poor dear 
 boy, if Neil chose to do a thing, he would do it, for all you" 
 
 " Not if it was teasing her." 
 
 " Oh, that's Jim's constant cry," laughed Carry. " Don't 
 tease her don't press her don't ask her to do things let 
 her alone. As if she were a weakly baby, instead of one 
 of the most strapping and strong-minded young women that 
 ever stepped. Jim, you owe me a pair of gloves." 
 
 " Not yet, Carry."' 
 
 " What, you think she won't come, after all?" 
 
 " It's an even chance at present. Wait till she does come; 
 then I'll give you half-a-dozen, if you like." 
 
 Mr. Alexander, listening to all this, wished he had not 
 
5* NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 aired his opinion so freely about Miss Knowles before know- 
 ing something of her. Clearly he had made a mistake in 
 suggesting that she was one of those persons whom their 
 friends felt they ought to be fond of, but never were. With, 
 perhaps, the exception of Miss Carry, whose attitude was 
 doubtful, all seemed fond of her. He himself was con- 
 scious of a tendency that way, and a disposition to side 
 with Jim in preventing Neil from teasing her. 
 
 " I thought you said your brother liked her so much," he 
 remarked. 
 
 " I don't believe it's liking a bit," said Carry, " but just a 
 man's perversity just because she snubs him." 
 
 A young lady in the carriage, Miss Lena West, thanked 
 Carry for this hint. " I have been wondering what I could 
 do to find favour with Mr. Neil," she frankly admitted. " I 
 shall at once begin to snub him." 
 
 "You couldn't rival Katherine," said Barbara. "You 
 couldn't do it as thoroughly as she does." 
 
 "You'd think," Carry continued, "that she'd been the 
 spoiled darling of half-a-dozen London seasons, and that 
 Neil was a a curate. I have no patience with her. And I 
 wonder how he can bother himself to try and please her, as 
 he does." 
 
 " I daresay," suggested Miss West, knowingly, " that she 
 has discovered the right way of managing him " 
 
 " There's the cutter," Jim broke in roughly, pointing into 
 the darkness with his whip. " They've got home." 
 
 No one else could see the cutter, but they exclaimed with 
 delight at the news, and urged him to make haste. 
 
 " What a cold voyage they must have had ! Oh, the dar- 
 ling, I hope he has got here safe ! How delicious to have 
 him in the house again! Mr. Alexander, you've never 
 seen our big brother oh, there he is ! Neil ! Neil ! How 
 are you, Neil?" 
 
 The house door was open, and the light within revealed 
 the figure of the new-comer on the door-step ; it bellowed 
 an answering greeting that might have been heard a mile 
 off. " Hullo ! What do you mean by not being at home to 
 receive me?" 
 
 " By Jove," Alexander muttered, as he and Carry rose 
 from their seats together, " I don't think I ever knew what 
 it was to feel small before." 
 
 " He's the only fellow I've ever met that can beat me,'* 
 laughed Thwaites. 
 
 Barbara's lover was a creditably big man, but Neil Ham- 
 mond was a giant, His size made him famous wherever 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 53 
 
 he was known, and his athletic powers and exploits, com- 
 bined with what is called a " hearty" disposition, gave him 
 an immense popularity with his young contemporaries. His 
 great bulk was finely proportioned at present, though it was 
 evident that he would run to fat early, and he had a moder- 
 ately handsome, ruddy, rather animal face. His voice was 
 thick and jovial, he swaggered somewhat, he ate and drank 
 largely, and he was the pride and joy of the Hammond 
 family. Tom, the elder, a simple fellow of the sporting 
 farmer type, and quiet, studious Jim, the younger of the 
 three grown sons of the house, had to hide their diminished 
 heads when the gallant Neil came home ; and they did so 
 cheerfully, and as a matter of course. It was quite a 
 natural thing that this domestic hero, whose attentions 
 were prized by so many, should squander them mainly 
 upon Katherine Knowles, who from her earliest childhood 
 had feared and hated him. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE belated church decorators scattered hastily to their 
 rooms to dress for dinner, and reassembled in the dining- 
 room one by one. There, round the hospitable table, they 
 talked deafeningly, all at once, pouring out the news to 
 Neil, who wanted to know everything, and particularly 
 how Katherine and her father were getting on. 
 
 " What do you think, Doctor Jim?" he roared at his 
 brother, who sat the length of the table from him. " Is the 
 old fellow going to hold out through another winter?" 
 
 " I should say not, "replied Jim, " if it was anybody else." 
 
 " I suppose you're looking after Katherine, eh, mother? 
 When anything happens, you'll make her come here to us?" 
 
 " Certainly, my dear, if possible," the stout matron 
 responded. " Unfortunately, it isn't so easy to make Kath- 
 erine do things." Mrs. Hammond had a little natural 
 grudge against this girl, on her son's behalf, under her 
 overflowing benevolence. 
 
 " I like her for it," said the grey-moustached squire. " I 
 like to see a woman with some substance in her." 
 
 " Plenty of substance," whispered Carry to her neighbour, 
 Alexander. 
 
 The young man glanced at the slight figure of the 
 speaker, but said nothing. 
 
 " At any rate, I've made her do one thing that we wanted," 
 
54 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 said Barbara, complacently. " She has promised to come 
 on Wednesday, if her father is no worse." 
 
 "What? To the dance? Well done!" Neil flushed in 
 triumph. " You'll make her stop all night, Bee?" 
 
 " She won't. As it is, she'll be fidgeting all the time for 
 fear her father should die before she gets back." 
 
 " I'm going to fetch her and take her home," said Jim. 
 
 " Oh, are you?" his brother retorted quickly, with a rather 
 truculent laugh. 
 
 " I am," said Jim. 
 
 "We'll see about that," said Neil. And he poured him- 
 self out a fifth glass of wine and became very uproarious. 
 But it was Christmas Eve, when etiquette demands an 
 uproar. 
 
 " Oh, how different the house is when he is in it !" the 
 adoring family exclaimed. " How he du 'liven us up !" the 
 servants echoed. " No being dull where Master Neil is." 
 
 There was no dulness that night, at any rate. The tra- 
 ditional " Merrie Christmas" of the illustrated papers was 
 fully realised in this old country house, to the immense 
 satisfaction of the Australian visitor, who had never quite 
 believed in it. There were games in the hall after dinner, 
 and snap-dragons for the children, who shrieked with 
 delight; kisses under the mistletoe, of which the lion's 
 share were secured by Neil, who was no respecter of per- 
 sons, and was quite prepared to take by force what he could 
 not get by legitimate strategem. When Miss West, in pur- 
 suande of her scheme for ingratiating herself, violently 
 struggled and boxed his ears, he caught her up as if she had 
 been a baby and set her on the high chimney-piece, where 
 she squealed helplessly, with her pretty toes dangling in 
 the air, to the ecstatic joy of the onlookers. It occurred to 
 Alexander that the big man had taken a little more wine 
 than was good for him, and presumed upon his privileges 
 as a hero, but no one else appeared to think so. Even the 
 old father, who was a born gentleman, chuckled at this 
 manifestation of what was called "'Neil's fun"; and though 
 the mother, shaking like a jelly, declared he was " too bad 
 altogether," it was quite evident that she didn't mean it. 
 Even Miss West herself was not really indignant. 
 
 " You wretch!" she exclaimed. " You fiend! Take me 
 down ! Mr. Tom Mr. Jim save me from him ! How can 
 you stand there and see a helpless woman treated in this 
 way !" But her anger was all affectation. 
 
 Neil towered before her, and swept her would-be rescuers 
 behind him. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 55 
 
 " You shall come down when you promise to give me a 
 kiss," he cried, so that all the household could hear him, 
 including the servants on the stairs. 
 
 " I won't give you a kiss," she protested. " I'll die first." 
 
 " Then stop where you are. " 
 
 Jim's smile was not one of merriment, and Alexander did 
 not smile at all. 
 
 "You don't admire this sort of horseplay," said Jim, 
 approaching his friend. 
 
 " Oh, yes, I do," said Alexander; " I think it's a perfectly 
 delightful evening." 
 
 " You don't look particularly delighted." 
 
 " Well, the fact is I was just trying to imagine Miss 
 Knowles in that position." 
 
 Jim was silent for a minute. Then he said slowly, " You 
 don't wonder that she shuns him?" 
 
 " No. But I do wonder at your brother's want of discrim- 
 ination." 
 
 " Katherine was fifteen when he played her that trick." 
 
 " I should think it would have been the same if she had 
 been five." 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 Jim did not want to pursue the subject, and walked away. 
 Miss West made terms of surrender and was released, and 
 the gay riot proceeded until the waits came up from the 
 village and sang their carols under the windows, and were 
 brought in to warm themselves at the hall fire while they 
 consumed mince-pies and beer and hot elderberry wine. 
 After that the children retired to hang up their stockings 
 for Santa Claus, and the old folks stealthily followed them, 
 and the young men and maidens lingered together to talk 
 nonsense, as their manner is, regardless of the flight of time. 
 And at last, when the church bells were heard at midnight, 
 they too scattered to bed, wishing each other a happy 
 Christmas as they went. 
 
 Christmas morning brought the excitement of presents 
 on the breakfast plates presents clandestinely prepared, 
 and supposed to come as a complete surprise to the recipi- 
 ents, who knew all about them ; and the usual Sunday aspect 
 supervened. The large party went to church, some on foot, 
 some in the family carriage, the walking ladies in bright 
 petticoats, with dark skirts looped up above them, as was 
 the convenient muddy-road fashion of those days. Neil 
 was not a regular church-goer, but he accompanied his 
 family on this occasion to please his mother, to see the 
 decorations, and to meet Katherine Knowles who was not 
 
56 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 there. In her pew he only saw the maiden aunt, a con- 
 servative person of the worldly-pious stamp, wearing a 
 gorgeous bonnet over her obvious wig, and pensively atti- 
 tudinising, with her head on one side. Like ninety-nine 
 out of every hundred women who had the honour of his 
 acquaintance, she admired the second Hammond son im- 
 mensely, and fluttered with pleasure when he intentionally 
 waylaid her after church. 
 
 "Merry Christmas, Miss Freeman! Glad to see you 
 again ! " he shouted, nearly wringing her feeble hand off. 
 " Where's Katherine this morning?" 
 
 " Merry Christmas to you, Mr. Neil, and delighted to see 
 you looking so well" handsomer than ever, said her 
 coquettish old eyes. " Oh, my niece is obstinate, as usual. 
 I said to her, 'My dear, if you can leave your father for two 
 hours while you amuse yourself with trifles' " she indi- 
 cated the decorations with a disparaging hand " ' you can 
 surely leave him for an hour and a half for the purpose of 
 worshipping God. ' I was quite ready to sacrifice myself 
 that she might have the privilege she is so often of neces- 
 sity deprived of. But no; she would not stir from his 
 side." 
 
 " What nonsense ! I was hoping we might get her to 
 come up to-night to look at the children's tree. She took 
 such an interest, they tell me, in making things for it." 
 
 " She won't, Mr. Neil ; it is no use to ask her. Having 
 consented to go out on Wednesday, she'll stay in till then, 
 I know. In vain I tell her that I am quite equal to the charge 
 of my brother-in-law. And I am sure he would enjoy a little 
 quiet talk with me sometimes. He has said as much." 
 
 " Anybody would enjoy it," said the gallant Neil. " Look 
 here, Miss Freeman, suppose I come down to-night on the 
 chance? If she wouldn't come up, perhaps you would, eh?" 
 
 Miss Freeman declined this offer with grateful thanks. 
 She was sure her niece would not be persuaded, and as for 
 herself, she was an old-fashioned person she liked to spend 
 Christmas as a holy day and not a holiday. So Neil went 
 home rather grumpy, and with a settled determination to 
 get the better of Katherine somehow. 
 
 The Christmas dinner was celebrated in the middle of 
 the day, so as to include the whole family, big and little ; 
 it lasted for the best part of two hours, after which an inter- 
 val of repose was imperative. At nightfall the victims 
 revived, and pulled themselves together with large doses 
 of tea ; then they had more tea, with a superfluously abun- 
 dant cold collation, crowned by the many-tiered Christmas 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 57 
 
 cake. The Christmas-tree made the evening glorious, and 
 the exigencies of digestion, combined with an irresistible 
 feeling that it was like Sunday after all, sent the whole 
 party to their beds at an early hour. 
 
 The next day was really Sunday, and realising this, there 
 was a disposition on the part of several to question the 
 justice of its demands, under all the circumstances ; they 
 were felt to be premature, to say the least. Neil lay in 
 bed until nearly lunch time, and yawns were prevalent 
 amongst those who did not. It was as near an approach to 
 a dull day as the Hammonds ever knew in holiday time. 
 
 But Monday came, and life resumed its festive activity. 
 The men went out to shoot and to fish for pike, and to do 
 errands for the girls, who were plunged in their multitudin- 
 ous preparations for the great Wednesday. There were 
 decorations again, rehearsals for the play, stage furniture 
 to contrive, the supper arrangements to attend to; inso- 
 much that Alexander, finding himself in urgent request, 
 half regretted that he had promised to repeat his call upon 
 Major Knowles so soon. He might justifiably have excused 
 himself this time, and was adjured by the young ladies to 
 do so ; but there was an attraction at Weep Hall now, and 
 he was faithful to his plighted word. " I promised to go 
 and tell them about their relatives in Australia, "he pleaded 
 to Carry, when she pouted at his desertion of her, " and a 
 promise is a promise, you know." 
 
 " Then I shall go with you, "she declared, throwing down 
 the stage curtain on which she was engaged. 
 
 " Do," he urged. " The walk will refresh you. 
 
 She flew to put on her things, and returned with Mrs. 
 Tom, who had kindly volunteered as chaperon. One of 
 the school-girls thought she would like to go too, and Mrs. 
 Tom considered four a better number than three. So they 
 set forth in a party, two and two, the latter pair leading 
 vigourously, and the potential lovers bringing up the rear. 
 Mrs. Tom was very stylish in full paniers and a Grecian 
 bend, with a small hat slanting from the top of her chignon 
 to the tip of her nose; Carry was certainly lovely in her 
 sealskin jacket, which ended at the waist, her red petti- 
 coat, and her little pork-pie toque. Her fashionably dis- 
 tended hair gleamed in the grey twilight, like a globe of 
 light, and her face was like a flower on the winter land- 
 scape. 
 
 But when they reached Weep Hall the comparatively 
 colourless Miss Knowles put the beauty of the Hammond 
 family into the shade. Alexander sat between father and 
 
58 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 daughter, while the aunt withdrew his companions from 
 the vicinity of the invalid, for whom one visitor at a time 
 was a little more than enough ; and, as he chatted about the 
 Andersons, answering all her frank and quiet questions, he 
 became more and more impressed with the fact that Kath- 
 erine was extremely interesting. She had none of the airs 
 and graces, the superficial brightness, of conventional girl- 
 hood, and yet she was singularly vivid in her more sub- 
 stantial way. He himself was an intelligent man, who 
 had achieved some distinction at school and college, and 
 read and travelled with a receptive mind ; he was beyond 
 the stage at which an empty-headed prettiness could satisfy 
 him. While generally susceptible to female charms of all 
 kinds, he particularly delighted in a companionable female 
 mind associated with a body that was fairly worthy of it. 
 Even outwardly she grew upon him, with her fine phys- 
 ical symmetry and her strong, frank face ; inwardly he found 
 her full of pleasant surprises. In spite of her restricted life 
 she knew what was going on in the world as well as he did ; 
 she had, moreover, read the things he had things political 
 and social, which were not in the line of women's interests 
 in those days as they are now. Intimations of her famil- 
 iarity with questions of the time fell from her unconsciously 
 in the course of a conversation which he sustained with the 
 same sincerity and seriousness as if talking with a man. 
 Yet she was very modest and simple. One could infer the 
 father from the child, he thought, and he said as much. 
 
 " We march together, in a general way," she replied, 
 smiling, " and we discuss everything. But we don't neces- 
 sarily agree. There are many ways in which, he says, I 
 show that I am younger than he is." 
 
 " Naturally," said the young man. But he did not quite 
 grasp her meaning. 
 
 After a while she turned aside to converse with Carry, 
 who had been sitting in discontented silence between the 
 two groups ; and Alexander looked with interest at some 
 books that were lying on a table near him. One was a 
 recently published edition of Clough's poems, which as yet 
 he had only heard of and not seen. Turning over the 
 leaves he found her name written on the title-page, and 
 under it, "From J. H." Who, he asked himself quickly, 
 was J.H.? And he divined at once that it was James Ham- 
 mond. This set him thinking. A few minutes later Kath- 
 erine passed the table to perform some little office for her 
 father, and, without seeming to be aware that he had no- 
 ticed it, quietly removed the book and slipped it into her 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 59 
 
 work-basket, which she set away in a dark corner. And 
 this increased his curiosity. 
 
 But now Mrs. Tom Hammond rose from an interesting 
 whispered dialogue with Miss Freeman, and asked him, 
 rather to his confusion, whether he intended to stay there 
 all night ; and the pleasant visit was over. The little party 
 took a quiet leave of the invalid, one by one, and Kathe- 
 rine lighted them through the vault-like hall to the iron- 
 studded oak door. No one had spoken to her of Neil's 
 return, and she never once alluded to him Alexander no- 
 ticed that. But no sooner had the little party gained the 
 road, leaving the house closed behind them, than they met 
 the giant hurling down the sloppy footpath with the evi- 
 dent intention of joining them in their call upon her. 
 
 " Why, what are you in such a hurry about?" he called, 
 roughly. 
 
 "Hurry!" echoed Mrs. Tom. "We've been there a full 
 hour, at the very least, and shall have all we can do to get 
 home in time for dinner." 
 
 " Mr. Alexander is so fascinated with Katherine that he 
 can't drag himself away from her," added Carry, with 
 rather a foolish giggle. 
 
 Neil wanted to know why they hadn't told him they 
 were going, and was obviously put out by his ill-luck in 
 being five minutes too late for the privilege they might 
 have procured for him, which he found so difficult to get 
 for himself ; then, turning back with them, he walked for 
 awhile without speaking at Alexander's side. As there 
 was not room on the footpath for three abreast, Carry 
 joined her sister-in-law in front. 
 
 Presently Neil said abruptly, " You were there on Fri- 
 day, weren't you?" 
 
 Alexander did not like the tone, and replied, rather stiffly, 
 that he was. 
 
 " That young lady," proceeded Neil, after a further inter- 
 val of silence, " is my future wife. I may as well tell you 
 now as later." 
 
 " Indeed !" his companion responded coldly, though con- 
 siderably taken aback. " I understood that she was not 
 engaged." 
 
 " No more she is. But I mean to have her." 
 
 " You can't have her if she won't Jhaye you." 
 
 " She will have me. I'm only waiting till her father is 
 dead," said Neil. 
 
 The Australian was a fairly discreet young fellow, and 
 he thought it best to say no more. But, naturally, the 
 
60 NOT ALL 127 VAIN. 
 
 effect of Neil's arrogant declaration was to create a rival 
 on the spot of one who otherwise might never have been 
 dangerous. 
 
 " Why," said Alexander to himself, with the proper 
 spirit of a man, '* why should he have her anymore than I?" 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NEIL had declared that he and no one else should fetch 
 Katherine to the ball, but when it came to the point he 
 knew better than to do anything so foolish. He reserved 
 himself for the opportunities that he foresaw would follow 
 her arrival at the house, and Jim was allowed to go forth 
 to Weep Hall unmolested. As the night was clear, he 
 ordered his dog-cart, into which he put all the rugs and 
 wraps that he could lay hands on, and drove himself, with 
 a stable boy on the back seat. 
 
 He found the major tucked up in bed, in his warm cham- 
 ber adjoining the sitting-room where he still lived in the 
 middle of the day; Katherine had wheeled him in and- 
 superintended his painful evening toilet before beginning 
 on her own. Now, in her contiguous bedroom, whence she 
 watched over him by night, she was hastily dressing her- 
 self, while Miss Freeman and the housemaid looked at her. 
 
 The old woman, Lydia, admitted the young man, and 
 took him at once to her master's bedside. It was evident 
 from the greeting he received that he was no stranger 
 there. He sat down, and asked gently, " How do you feel 
 to-night, sir?" 
 
 " Between ourselves, I feel I'm pretty well used up, Jim," 
 was the faint answer, for the getting to bed had been 
 exhausting, and the effect of supper to drench him in a dis- 
 tressing perspiration. " I begin to find it too much trouble 
 to cough." 
 
 " You must try to fight against that," said Jim. " What's 
 old Heath giving you now?" He walked to the chimney- 
 piece and opened one or two bottles from the row stand- 
 ing there, sniffing and tasting their contents thoughtfully. 
 Then he returned to the bedside. After a short interval, 
 during which he noted the ineffectual cough, and some 
 other new signs that had their meaning for the initiated, he 
 said, with a grave frankness that indicated the sincere 
 character of both : " You'll tell me if there's anything you 
 want me to do for you? I am not going back just yet." 
 
 " I wish you could see me through," said the invalid. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 61 
 
 " If I've got to give in, I should like to do it decently, and 
 not make a disgusting spectacle of myself for poor Kathy 
 to remember. I wish you were my doctor, Jim you 
 might help me in that." 
 
 " I'll help you all I can, sir," said Jim, simply. 
 
 " A comfortable opiate, my boy that ought to be the 
 treatment for the last stage. Jim, the thing I wish above 
 all others is that you were my son." 
 
 " You can't wish it as I do," the young man replied. 
 
 " I have been wondering whether it would be right or 
 wrong to speak to her " 
 
 " Wrong," Jim broke in quickly. 
 
 " Would it? You can't think how thankfully I'd die if I 
 could know she had you to take care of her." 
 
 " Well, she has. I'm going to take care of her, to the 
 best of my power." 
 
 " Your power won't be much, unless she marries you." 
 
 " But she mustn't marry me to please you. Indeed, she 
 wouldn't even for you she wouldn't. She must do it to 
 please herself. And, so far, the idea hasn't come into her 
 head." 
 
 " I should say that was your fault. It's your business 
 to put it there, "isn't it? Why, in my young days " 
 
 " Yes, I know don't talk and tire yourself. I say noth- 
 ing because I see she looks on me as a brother, which 
 makes it useless, don't you know. I have been like her 
 brother since she was a child, and and it's better to be 
 that than nothing. By and by it may grow to something 
 more if it doesn't it won't be my fault. Either way, my 
 life is hers." 
 
 " It will come right, please God," murmured the dying 
 man. " Only you mustn't in the mean time let her fall into 
 Neil's hands." 
 
 " She'll never allow herself to do that." 
 
 " A girl is very helpless without father or mother." 
 
 " Not Katherine. She won't be helpless." 
 
 " Oh, she's a woman, after all. Women are always at a 
 disadvantage with men like him. He would have no scru- 
 ples. Jim, until you have done your course, and got estab- 
 lished for yourself, she'd better go to Australia to her 
 sister." 
 
 " Whatever she decides herself that is sure to be the 
 best," said the young man gently. " Don't worry about her 
 don't talk any more now. I'll come down again, when 
 you feel fresh. Let her see you quiet and comfortable 
 before she goes. She'll be here directly." 
 
62 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 He rose and poured out a dose of medicine, and brought 
 it to the panting man. Soon after taking it he began to 
 cough with the extra power it had given him, and Jim lifted 
 him in his arms. He was a mere skeleton covered with 
 parchment skin, patched here and there with plaster where 
 a joint had protruded, and the way his shirt hung upon the 
 bony prominences was ghastly. His one leg was puffed 
 with dropsy, and the withered stump of the other, long a 
 stranger to the wooden bucket in which he had gallantly 
 stumped about for so many years, offered still more sig- 
 nificant evidence of the rapid disorganisation going on. 
 The young medical student said nothing, but the sufferer 
 read his thoughts. 
 
 " Getting about time to give up now, isn't it, Jim?" 
 
 " Almost," said Jim. 
 
 " But not to-night not for a week or two yet, Jim. We 
 won't spoil a merry Christmas if we can help it. Lay me 
 down, my boy I feel easier now." 
 
 Jim laid him down, and Katherine came into the room. 
 
 " Oh, Jim, I am so sorry to have kept you waiting, but I 
 am ready now," she said hurriedly. " Are you all right, 
 father? I heard you coughing." 
 
 " As right as possible, my girl. That cough has relieved 
 me. Heath has hit on the right stuff this time clears my 
 chest splendidly. Tell him, if you see him, that I am much 
 better to-night." 
 
 Jim rose to hurry her away before she could see the 
 reaction from this little outburst. " He really is much 
 easier," he said; " he will sleep till you get back." 
 
 At her father's request, she opened her cloak to show 
 him her white gown, and her fair, full throat with a string 
 of old pearls round it ; then she kissed his bony forehead, 
 lingeringly, as if she could not bear to leave him, and was 
 beguiled from the room. 
 
 " How do you think he is?" she whispered, when they 
 reached the hall. 
 
 ' Easier," said Jim again. 
 
 ' He doesn't seem to cough so much, does he?" 
 
 ' No ; his cough is less. Give me your slippers, Kath- 
 erine." 
 
 ' Is it a bad sign, Jim?" 
 
 ' Nothing is bad that means ease from pain," he answered, 
 evasively. " But look here, Katherine, if / were his med- 
 ical attendant, I should say, don't encourage him to make 
 such efforts as he does persuade him to keep in bed for a 
 bit. It would conserve his strength save him a lot." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 63 
 
 " He's afraid to begin it," said Katherine, " lest he should 
 never be able to get up again." 
 
 " Oh, don't mind about that. He'd feel much better. 
 You try it to-morrow morning. He can lie in the sitting- 
 room, all the same, if he likes that best. I'm going to 
 write for a water-bed for him. Then he'll be as comfort- 
 able as possible." 
 
 " How good you are !" she ejaculated heartily. " And he 
 has such faith in your medical knowledge you don't know 
 what he says of you. I wish you'd come and see him 
 oftener, Jim." 
 
 " I'll come every day, if I may, as long as I'm at home," 
 he returned promptly. 
 
 " Do. You always cheer him and me, too." 
 
 Jim did not exult at this flattering tribute, but he was 
 glad to know that he had done a service to both father and 
 daughter in sparing the former the task of confessing that 
 h,e could no longer leave his bed. 
 
 Miss Freeman came to the door to see her niece depart, 
 and to exhort her to have no concern whatever on the in- 
 valid's account. Jim helped her into the dog-cart, and 
 rolled her with clumsy tenderness in his numerous rugs. 
 "I hope your dress isn't one of the crushing sort," he re- 
 marked, after crushing it as flat as possible. " I thought 
 you'd rather have the dog-cart than the carriage." 
 
 " Much rather," she replied. " And my dress won't crush 
 it's silk. In point of fact, it's the same dress I wore at 
 your coming of age. I hadn't time to get another." 
 
 " You could never get another to suit you better," he 
 rejoined, remembering how beautiful he thought her in that 
 soft and simple robe, which set off her figure so wonder- 
 fully. " That's over two years ago, Katherine." 
 
 " It is," she laughed. " But, happily, it was not so much 
 in the fashion then as to be hopelessly out of it now." 
 
 " I wasn't thinking of that," he said. 
 
 They did not talk much on the way, Katherine being 
 adjured to keep her mouth covered from the cold air ; but 
 when the illuminated house appeared before them she 
 shook her face out of the shawl he had swathed around it 
 to discuss the question of her return home. " I don't want 
 your father's horses and men brought out again, "she began, 
 and he instantly interrupted her. 
 
 " Only one horse, Katherine, and that my own ; and no 
 man at all unless you like except me. Me you must put 
 up with, in any case." 
 
 " Not necessarily. If I can find any one coming away 
 
64 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 early, who can conveniently take me, I should prefer 
 that." 
 
 " Would you? Then we'll find somebody." 
 " But if not for I can't leave my father a whole night 
 if I must depend on your kindness you will come with me 
 yourself 7" 
 
 " That's understood," he replied, " of course." 
 " I hate to put people to so much trouble, but I know you 
 don't feel it a trouble, Jim." 
 " I'm very glad you do know that, Katherine." 
 The usual quiet road was alive with vehicles, from the 
 carriages of the county families, including that of a much 
 revered local nobleman and his party, to the gigs and soci- 
 ables of the superior farmers; the drive was full of them 
 going and coming, and the front entrance of the house 
 crowded with arriving guests. So Jim took a back way to the 
 stable-yard, and quietly introduced Katherine by a side door. 
 She ran up to Barbara's room, to shake herself out and put 
 on her gloves and slippers; having done which, she was 
 privileged to assist at the toilets of the actors, who were in 
 the agonies of their final preparations. Carry was got up 
 as a most charming " slavey" inpink print, with a white cap 
 and apron, and was being supported under a threatened 
 attack of stage fright by Mr. Alexander, who, in the short- 
 waisted and tight-sleeved coat that Squire Hammond had 
 been married in about forty years previously, still man- 
 aged to look graceful and self-possessed. Barbara was 
 gorgeous in modern costume, and the huge Thwaites quite 
 as killing as had been expected. He had been discovered 
 at an earlier stage trying to dress himself putting on his 
 skirts at the wrong end, and hauling them up as he did his 
 trousers, whereby stitches had " given," and things in gen- 
 eral been put out of gear ; but Mrs. Tom had taken him in 
 hand, and turned him out as he should be ; and nothing was 
 necessary to ensure him the honours of the night but that 
 he should live up to his appearance in the matter of acting. 
 Now Mrs. Tom was downstairs, helping her mother-in-law 
 to receive, and the rest of the non-performing members of 
 the family had been driven off as useless hindrances. Kath- 
 erine, who was sensible and clever and an intimate of the 
 house, was implored to assist in the green-room during the 
 progress of the play, and readily consented, to the great 
 satisfaction of the Australian guest. 
 
 He was quite definitely in love by this time, being, as we 
 have before remarked, a rapidly susceptible young man. 
 The sight of her in her white silk dress, forgetting her 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 65 
 
 troubles for the moment to laugh at the preposterous 
 Thwaites, had the effect of inducing this condition, to 
 which Neil had so strongly predisposed him. The plain, 
 glove-fitting robe, low at the neck and trailing on the floor, 
 was the most effective garment that was ever contrived for 
 making the best of a beautiful figure ; and the sparkle of 
 gaiety in her striking face suggested an all-round com- 
 pleteness of human charm that had been wanting, though 
 he had not noticed it, in his first impression of her. Pretty 
 Carry, who had simply nothing in her, had almost ceased 
 to interest him, in spite of her cap and apron. But his 
 manners were so good, and her vanity so strong, that she 
 was not yet aware of it, though vaguely suspicious. 
 
 They all repaired to the school-room, which was in the 
 state of chaos usual in a place not required for company 
 on the night of a ball, the procession led by Little Toddles, 
 who insisted on exercising the privileges of his assumed 
 sex in a ridiculous manner chiefly by kissing " the papa," 
 who strongly objected to the proceeding. 
 
 " Don't be more of a fool than you can help, Thwaites," 
 he was provoked into saying, when his supposed child tried 
 to sit upon his knee. But Katherine cried out : " Let him 
 let him ! A little foolishness more or less when he's so 
 transcendently foolish already ' And she was inter- 
 rupted by a shriek from Alexander, as, incited by her 
 indulgent attitude, seventeen stone came down with all its 
 weight upon his legs. 
 
 They were as merry and silly as so many children, and 
 shiveringly excited over the ordeal that was now so near, 
 when suddenly Neil burst in upon them, red-faced and res- 
 olute, on the hunt for Katherine. 
 
 " Oh, there you are !" he exclaimed, in a deep tone of tri- 
 umph, such as might have become a detective officer who 
 had run a clever criminal to earth. " How do you do, 
 Katherine?" He held out his hand, which she touched 
 coldly, drawing herself up with a sudden stateliness that 
 was pleasing to witness from the Australian's point of 
 view. " I have come to fetch you to the ball-room. All 
 the audience is seated by this time." 
 
 " I am not going to the ball-room," she replied. " I am 
 going to stay to help them here." 
 
 " We shall never get through without Miss Knowles to 
 hearten us," said Alexander. " We are all in a blue funk 
 as it is." And Thwaites declared that they couldn't do 
 without her anyhow. 
 
 "Well, you'll have to try," said Neil, coolly. "I'm not 
 
66 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 going to have her stuck away here, when we get her so 
 seldom. I'll send you some champagne to hearten you. 
 And Esther will be round in a minute." 
 
 When the sisters saw that it was dear Neil's wish to have 
 her, they surrendered her at once, Carry being particularly 
 generous in the matter ; and, too proud to make a fuss, and 
 feeling protected in the crowded house from what she 
 dreaded most, Katherine silently submitted to be led away. 
 
 " Give me the first dance, Miss Knowles," called Alex- 
 ander after her. 
 
 " And me the second," shouted Thwaites. 
 
 " With pleasure," she answered, almost in the same 
 breath. 
 
 Neil banged the school-room door, and offered his arm 
 in the half-lighted passage. She pretended not to see it. 
 
 " Look here," he broke out roughly, "if you're going to 
 treat me like a dog, as you're so fond of doing, I tell you 
 plainly that I am not in the mood to stand it. I haven't 
 seen you for months, and and I won't stand it, Katherine. 
 I've as much right to civil treatment as the others, and 
 more because I care for you more. Come, which is it to 
 be?" he halted, and held her back by a powerful hand on 
 her bare arm (it was some small mercy, she thought, that 
 he had his gloves on) "peace or war, Katherine?" 
 
 She only looked before her with straining eyes, and in 
 the distance she saw Jim coming across the hall. The sight 
 of that insignificant figure brought a sigh of relief to her 
 rigid lips. 
 
 " How can you be so absurd?" was all she said, and they 
 moved on, for Jim was approaching them. But in her heart 
 she exclaimed, again and again, " Why did I let them per- 
 suade me? I might have known how it would be." 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE ball-room was full of guests, sitting on rows of 
 chairs and forms, in expectation of the rising of the curtain 
 in the bay window. As Neil and Katherine entered many 
 eyes were turned upon them and many whispered com- 
 ments passed to and fro. " Is that a case? She'll be a fort- 
 unate girl if it is. What a magnificent fellow, to be sure ! 
 And she's really not so very plain carries herself well, 
 which, after all, is the great thing." A few remarked on 
 her heartlessness in gadding about when her father was 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 67 
 
 dying, and others were glad to see the poor girl having a 
 little fun, like other girls. But she heard nothing. 
 
 Neil found her a chair half-way down the room, and 
 planted himself beside her. Jim on entering had retired, 
 as was his habit, to the background. After much whisper- 
 ing and rustling, both before and behind the curtain, the 
 mechanism on which so much ingenuity had been expended 
 worked successfully, and the stage appeared to view. 
 Carry, in her bewitching costume, occupied it, with her 
 long-handled broom. The audience cheered her warmly, 
 and she turned and bowed which, Alexander told her 
 afterward, she ought not to have done. Then she began 
 to soliloquise in a flat voice, arid it became evident that the 
 office of prompter (filled by Mrs. Tom) was to be no sinecure. 
 
 However, all went well when the thing was fairly 
 started. Barbara was very smart and self-possessed, causing 
 the bosoms of her observing family to palpitate with pride ; 
 her play with the baby's cap was thought to be exquisitely 
 humourous. Alexander, despite his self-depreciation, was a 
 capital actor, easy and natural, quite sure of himself, and 
 thus able to give confidence to the others ; while Thwaites, 
 in his flaxen curls and white muslin garibaldi, brought 
 down the house in continued thunders of applause. He 
 was the sensation of the evening, as all had anticipated, 
 including himself. The mere sight of him was enough to 
 make the audience shriek with laughter, but when he per- 
 formed his part with what Alexander considered an inartistic 
 exaggeration of its elements of buffoonery, the audience 
 rolled about in its chair and tears ran down its cheeks 
 for it was a simple country folk, that did not go to the 
 theatre very often. His preposterous femininity, his airs 
 and graces, and his falsetto voice, were irresistible. 
 
 The piece was short, so as not to unduly interfere with 
 the ball, and the curtain came down amid ringing cheers 
 for each and all of the performers. One by one they came 
 proudly forth to bow their complacent acknowledgments 
 and pick up the bouquets hurled at them ; then they scut- 
 tled through the bay window and away to their rooms to 
 attire themselves in their private clothes as quickly as pos- 
 sible. The audience rose and resolved itself into groups, 
 which successively flowed into the hall, there to partake of 
 gossip and light refreshments until the ball-room was 
 cleared for dancing. Katherine, with one eye on Mrs. 
 Heath and the other on Mrs. Brand, would have made a 
 dash for liberty at this juncture, but her hostess, whom she 
 had not yet spoken to, caught sight of her, and she was 
 
68 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 obliged to report herself to that lady. Neil stuck to her 
 side, and the opportunity passed ; no other presented itself 
 until the music began and Alexander came up with a 
 decided air of elation* to claim his dance. He was quite 
 radiant in his fresh toilet, with the ends of his moustaches 
 waxed to needle points ; and many fair ladies looked after 
 him, and asked each other in whispers, " Who is he?" When 
 they were told that he was an Australian they wouldn't 
 believe it. Mrs. Hammond smiled at him maternally, grat- 
 ified by his elegant appearance (he had the then new-fash- 
 ioned silk facing to his coat, and was perfectly appointed 
 in every way), but she reflected at the same time that his 
 first dance should have been bestowed by a daughter of the 
 house. Neil glowered at his approach and at the spectacle 
 of Katherine's face of welcome. 
 
 " Hold on, "he said, from the shelter of his mother's pres- 
 ence. " Let me secure something before you go. The next 
 waltz after this, Katherine?" 
 
 " The next quadrille, if you like," she answered. " I am 
 not going to waltz to-night." 
 , " But this is a waltz that you are giving to Alexander." 
 
 "Is it? Then I will ask Mr. Alexander if he'll let me 
 off, and take another instead. I'm out of practice," she 
 explained. " And, besides, I haven't the heart for round 
 dances just now." 
 
 These were good reasons, but Alexander surmised a bet- 
 ter one that she was determined not to dance round dances 
 with Neil. 
 
 "I think the other ladies have their partners," he said. 
 " Will you allow me to sit this waltz out with you?" 
 
 " With pleasure, "she answered, in a tone of sincerity that 
 no one could mistake. 
 
 Neil asked for her programme, to record her engage- 
 ment for the quadrille. " And I'll write myself down for 
 the next waltz too," he said, and he did so. " We can sit 
 that out together, as you and Alexander sit this. What's 
 sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, ain't it, mother?" 
 
 " You are two lazy boys," said Mrs. Hammond, smiling 
 vaguely. And she went off to her duties, shortly followed 
 by her son, who was booked to open the ball with the wife 
 of the county member. 
 
 When he was gone Katherine was so visibly relieved, and 
 then so inclined to look depressed, that her companion was 
 sorely tempted to speak of the annoyances that he knew 
 (and that she knew he knew) she suffered from, with a 
 vie\v to offering such protection as she would accept ; but, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 69 
 
 though an Australian, he had very good manners, and it 
 seemed to him too great a liberty to take on so short an 
 acquaintance. So they sat about, and talked of the Ander- 
 sons, and improved the occasion in the ordinary manner. 
 He grew more and more interesting. He seemed to have 
 the strongest friendship for her beloved half-sister, and to 
 be a second father to her nephews and nieces, all of whom, 
 though personally unknown, were as dear to her as nephews 
 and nieces usually are to young maiden aunts. 
 
 The time flew for both of them. The waltz seemed over 
 before it had well begun, and then Mr. Thwaites came for 
 his quadrille. This was performed perfunctorily on her 
 part, for all her gaiety had forsaken her, and she was lucky 
 in securing a tete-a-tete with Mr. Brand as soon as her task 
 was over. The vicar sheltered and entertained her during 
 the progress of a polka, in which all the young men took 
 part; lancers, with Jim for partner, followed, and the 
 dreaded second waltz came next. She had as stout a spirit 
 as ever dwelt in a woman's body, and there was no earthly 
 ground for imagining that Neil could molest her in any 
 way, under the circumstances, and yet she grew actually 
 pale as the time for that second waltz drew near. 
 
 " Oh, Jim, I wish I was at home," she sighed wistfully. 
 
 " Why, Katherine? You may depend he's all right 
 asleep and quiet. Do try to forget things for an hour or 
 two, if only to please him. He was so anxious for you to 
 enjoy yourself." 
 
 " You won't mind taking me back soon?" she persisted, as 
 if she had not heard him. 
 
 " Certainly not, if you really want to go but I do wish 
 you wouldn't. I'm engaged for this next dance, but after 
 that I'll tell them to see about the cart. It can wait till 
 you are ready." 
 
 The music began, and he left her to seek his partner. 
 She looked wildly round for a chaperon, but before she 
 could find one Neil had taken possession of her. 
 
 " Come along," he said; " let's get out of this, and find a 
 quiet place to talk in, Katherine." He towered over her as 
 he spoke, and she felt herself shrink before him. In her 
 childish days he had been a superstitious terror to her, a 
 sort of superhuman monster looming darkly over her little 
 world ; and now that she was grown up, and theoretically 
 his despotic mistress, she feared him as much as ever. 
 
 "I don't want to talk," she said, in a flat voice, "and I 
 prefer to stay here." 
 
 " What, to have them all falling over our feet as they go 
 
70 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 round? No, thank you. Besides, if they see me not dan- 
 cing and they can't very well help seeing me, I'm so 
 conspicuous, unfortunately they won't like it. I'm sup- 
 posed to be the dancing man of the family Lord knows 
 why." 
 
 " Of course you ought to dance it is expected of you in 
 your own house. Oh, why don't you?" 
 
 " Because I want to be with you. It's a good long time 
 since I had a chance, and I can't tell when I shall get 
 another." 
 
 A dogged look, half defiance, half resignation, settled 
 on her tired face, and it made him savage to see it. A 
 couple wheeling past knocked up against him as he stood in 
 their way, and he flung out an imprecation that she felt 
 was more for her than for them ; another couple followed 
 Thwaites and Miss West and drove at him purposely, 
 loudly protesting against so much matter in the wrong 
 place; and he sullenly subsided into the chair at Kath- 
 erine's side. Here he sat broodingly for some minutes, 
 with his elbow on his knee, stroking his moustache, while 
 she sat back in apparent ease, with her exasperating air of 
 ignoring his existence. It was a very public place, and 
 they were much observed, which made them both uncom- 
 fortable ; but she seemed resolved to stay there. 
 
 Presently he turned slowly round and looked at her. " I 
 don't want to force you to stay here with me if you'd rather 
 not," he said with a considerateness that surprised her and 
 disarmed her resentment for the moment. " If you would 
 prefer to sit with with Mrs. Heath, I will take you to her. 
 Shall I?" 
 
 " If you will," she answered, rising quickly, " I shall be 
 much obliged to you, Neil. I want to see Mrs. Heath 
 particularly." 
 
 " Come then," said he. And together they passed from 
 the ball-room to the hall, where several people were sit- 
 ting. Neil led the way across the hall to the library pas- 
 sage, which was dim and empty. 
 
 " Where is she?" asked Katherine, hanging back. 
 
 " In the little room at the end of the passage," said Neil. 
 " She and Mrs. Brand have gone there to have a gossip to 
 themselves." 
 
 Katherine went on unsuspectingly, and presently walked 
 into the little room, which was scarcely lighted by a small 
 paraffine lamp. It was the room in which Mrs. Hammond 
 interviewed the servants and made up her housekeeping 
 accounts. As the girl looked hurriedly round for Mrs. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 7 1 
 
 Heath and Mrs. Brand, Neil locked the door and put the 
 key in his pocket. 
 
 The sound struck her like a bullet in the heart. In one 
 moment she realised all that it meant, the outrageous 
 indignity that had been put upon her, incredible as it was. 
 She was a prisoner, at the mercy of this terrible giant, who 
 had deliberately forfeited his claim to be a man of honour. 
 Oh, if she had only consented to waltz with him ! It was 
 her insurmountable repugnance to being touched by so much 
 as his coat-sleeve, let alone being grasped round the waist 
 by his audacious arm, that had caused her to renounce 
 round dances for the evening ; and now how much worse a 
 thing had befallen her ! She essayed to utter the scream 
 for help tha-t was the first natural impulse of a woman in 
 such a situation, and Neil, without a moment's hesitation, 
 clapped his hand over her mouth. 
 
 " Don't call out don't make a row," he panted, in his 
 fierce, husky voice. " It's your fault you drove me to it. 
 It was my only chance of getting a word with you. Kath- 
 erine, will you be quiet and listen to me? I'm not going 
 to harm you I wouldn't hurt a hair of your head I only 
 want to talk to you for a minute and it's quiet here. No 
 one will ever find us. If they do, I'll explain I'll tell 
 them I made you come against your will but they'll all 
 know that, without being told you'll get no blame. Kath- 
 erine, if you go on like this" for she was desperately strug- 
 gling, in silence and with set teeth, and he holding her as 
 only he could hold, not tightly, but with a strength against 
 which hers was like water "if you don't be quiet and 
 listen to me, I I shall get dangerous." 
 
 It was no empty threat she heard that in the tone of his 
 voice, and felt it in the iron muscles that constrained her, 
 and saw it in the gleam of his bloodshot eyes. She ceased 
 to fight with him, and stood passive until he released her ; 
 then walked to the other side of the little room, and, turn- 
 ing, faced him, with her back to the wall. 
 
 If she had never been beautiful before, she was beautiful 
 then, with that tragic dignity. As Neil looked at her, see- 
 ing the still indomitable soul in her face, he admired her 
 more than he had ever done before, and felt a twinge of 
 remorse for the way he had treated her. 
 
 " Look here, Katherine, I really couldn't help it," he said, 
 almost pleading with her. " I know it's a shame, but in 
 love and war and it's because I love you. Look here, I'll 
 unlock the door." He unlocked it as he spoke, and placed 
 his back against it. " Say you forgive me." 
 
72 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 She did not speak, but only looked at him with ineffable 
 contempt. 
 
 "Very well don't say it. But you will when you're 
 cool again you'll forgive a bit of madness that was only 
 done for love of you." 
 
 "Never!" she burst out bitterly, with her fine head 
 uplifted. " Never, Neil Hammond, to the last day of my 
 life !" 
 
 " Bosh ! You only say that now because you're angry. 
 You've a right to be angry, of course, but you ought to take 
 into account the provocation you have given me. Why do 
 you treat me so, Katherine, when you know how I love 
 you?" Through his savage excitement she heard the ten- 
 der tremble in his voice, and shuddered. She divined his 
 impulse to approach her, and flung out her hands with a 
 magnificent gesture. 
 
 " I am obliged," she said, " to listen to what you choose to 
 
 say I have no option ; but if you dare to touch me again " 
 
 She stopped, and did not finish the sentence, for it was idle 
 to threaten him. " At any rate," she concluded, with a long 
 breath, " at any rate, I know you now, if I never did before 
 and I never did, quite. I thought all the Hammonds were 
 gentlemen were men even you though you were always 
 a bully to people weaker than yourself. I shall know what 
 to do in future how to guard myself against such another 
 treachery. I will never again trust myself to your care 
 nor believe your word; I will never again enter this house, 
 where everybody else has been so kind to me, while you 
 are within a hundred miles of it I will not go outside my 
 own door without a protector. I I will never speak to you 
 again of my own free will never, while I live !" 
 
 He strode toward her with a look on his dark-red face that 
 made her voice falter and her heart leap with dread. 
 
 " Then I'll take what I want while I can get it " 
 
 " NeilT she shrieked, in sheer physical terror, as she felt 
 herself crushed to his breast in those inexorable arms and 
 his wine-scented breath on her face. And then, in still 
 sharper agony, as his gross lips sought hers " Jim ! Jim !" 
 
 It was over in a moment. Jim was in the room, and Neil 
 leaning back against the wall, almost as shocked as his 
 brother. 
 
 " I didn't mean it I must have had too much champagne 
 and she does drive a fellow so mad that he doesn't know 
 what he's after. I beg your pardon, Katherine I do, 
 humbly." 
 
 But Katherine only cried to Jim to take her home. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 73 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 KATHERINE entered her father's room next morning with 
 her wonted serenity of face, and asked him, as a favour to 
 her, not to try to get up, as usual, but to rest in bed and let 
 her read to him. With the same assumption of cheerfulness 
 he said he thought he would; and she spent the early 
 hours of the day in devising new ways to make him com- 
 fortable. They were full of enthusiasm about the water- 
 bed, which was to render lying a luxury, instead of the 
 aching weariness that it had been ; Jim was to ride early to 
 the station to telegraph for it, and it might possibly be 
 down by the evening train. She talked to her father about 
 the Hammonds' party who was there, and how the play 
 went off but did not mention Neil. And she tried to put 
 him out of her thoughts as well as out of the conversation. 
 
 However, that relief was denied her, for Neil in person 
 presented himself at Weep Hall not long after breakfast. 
 She was in her father's room, and saw him from the win- 
 dow. The major saw him too, and looked inquiringly at 
 his daughter. 
 
 " What's he want here at this time of day?" he asked. 
 
 Katherine did not answer ; she was listening. In a mo- 
 ment she darted into the hall, and intercepted the young 
 housemaid on her way to the door. " That is Mr. Neil 
 Hammond," she said; " if he asks for me, say I cannot see 
 him. I am engaged." 
 
 The girl looked puzzled, and as if she did not like the 
 job; she shared the general sentiment of admiration for the 
 squire's splendid son. "Very well, miss," she said, and 
 passed on ; and her mistress drew back into the sitting-room 
 to hear the delivery of her message. 
 
 Neil's great voice rang sonorously through that echoing 
 space. 
 
 " Miss Knowles at home?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. But she's very busy in master's room just 
 now." 
 
 " Will you ask if I can speak to her here, at the door. 
 Tell her I won't detain her a moment." 
 
 Katherine squeezed her hands together and bit her lip as 
 she waited for the reply. 
 
 " I'm afraid you cannot see her, sir, just now. Master is 
 very bad this morning, and she's afraid to leave him." 
 
 The listener breathed again. 
 
74 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Then can I see Miss Freeman?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, sir, certainly. I will call her. Walk in." 
 
 Fortunately, the sitting-room had another door, commun- 
 icating by a short passage with the major's bedroom. 
 Through this Katherine flashed like a shot, and, reaching 
 safety, exclaimed, "Idiot!" in a tone that had all the force 
 of an imprecation. 
 
 The sick man understood the situation. " Come and sit 
 by me, Kathy," he said. " Come here, my girl. I can still 
 be some shelter to you." His fatherly solicitude was very 
 pathetic. 
 
 She sat down by his bed and took his bony hand in hers. 
 They said nothing more, but listened to the murmur of 
 voices in the next room. Presently Miss Freeman called 
 through the little passage, " Katherine, Katherine, love !" 
 
 " Go upstairs go anywhere you like," whispered the 
 major. " I'll settle Aunt Ellen." 
 
 And Katherine fled. By and by she was aware thai Neil 
 was gone, and returning to the ground floor, found Aunt 
 Ellen in a temper and her father exhausted to the verge of 
 a collapse. 
 
 " Why am I such a coward?" she cried bitterly, as she 
 gave him the restorative he needed, reproaching herself for 
 having exposed him to an agitation that he had not strength 
 to bear. 
 
 Her father looked at her wistfully. " If I could only see 
 you safe before I go !" he panted, between his weak coughs. 
 
 " My darling, I'm quite safe," she murmured. " I'm only 
 a coward that's all." But he knew very well that if she 
 was a coward she was not so for nothing. 
 
 Before the early dinner one of the Hammonds' grooms 
 appeared at Weep Hall and delivered a letter to Lydia. 
 It was, of course, from Neil ; Katherine recognised that at 
 once, though he had never written to her before. The man 
 said there was no answer, and left before it could be 
 returned to him, had the recipient thought of returning it. 
 That, however, was a sort of petty indignity that it did not 
 occur to her to put upon the writer through the medium of 
 a servant ; she received it with composure, took it to her 
 room, and read it. 
 
 It was a curious epistle. Neil, though he had been to the 
 venerable Norwich Grammar School, and later to Caius 
 College, was not remarkable for his literary acquirements. 
 He had honoured both school and university in his day, but 
 not from the point of view of the authorities who presided 
 over those seats of learning. The gloves, the bat, the oar, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 75 
 
 the gun and rod, were more in his line than the pen, which 
 he used chiefly in the compilation of his mercantile ac- 
 counts. Still, though this letter lacked the graces of gram- 
 mar and composition, it was terse and to the point, which 
 is the most essential condition of a good letter, and the one 
 we least often meet with. 
 
 11 Dear Katharine, If you wont see me you wont though I shall 
 not Give up and I wanted to show you I was sorry for forgetting my- 
 self on account of my Head not being quite so clear as it ought and I 
 was madened I confess as any man would be who loved you with all 
 his heart and soul and would give his Life for you and yet you treat 
 me like a dog but I will win you yet if I wait for years and anybody 
 that dares to step in I will kill him if I hang for it. Yours till 
 death *' NEIL HAMMOND." 
 
 It was really very impressive, in spite of the absence of 
 punctuation, but it did not impress Katherine. She read it 
 through with disdain and disgust, and then tore it into 
 quarters, and flung the pieces in the fire. 
 
 In the afternoon, while her father was dozing with a 
 little air of stupor and languor that made her anxious, she 
 heard another swing of the gate and masculine footsteps 
 on the paved path. 
 
 " What, again /" she exclaimed to herself, desperately. 
 " Shall I be obliged to tell the whole household how he per- 
 secutes me, in order to be protected from him? Must I 
 make a common scandal of it?" 
 
 But it was not Neil this time. She crept to the window 
 and peeped, and saw the graceful figure of Forbes Alex- 
 ander in his fur-collared coat. Aunt Ellen received the 
 visitor and talked to him for some minutes, and then tip- 
 toed to the sick chamber to exchange places with her niece. 
 
 The two young people met in the middle of the room 
 the pleasant fire-lighted old room, that, with its oak lining, 
 ebonised by the polish of centuries, and its splendid win- 
 dow, was so much finer than anybody imagined in those 
 pre-aesthetic days with a mutual sentiment of satis- 
 faction. 
 
 " How good of you to come," said Katherine, expressing 
 welcome in voice and face. " My father will be so glad to 
 see you if he feels able presently. Just now he is asleep, 
 and I don't like to disturb him." 
 
 "Pray don't," returned the young man. "I can wait 
 until he wakes. I trust he is not worse, I see he is absent 
 from his chair." 
 
 Katherine looked at the chair a great pillowed and pet- 
 ticoated piece of furniture, such as we used to see in dimity 
 
76 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 covers standing beside huge four-posted bedsteads in our 
 early days and its emptiness shocked her. She turned 
 away toward the window, which revealed the sad, grey sky 
 through a lacework of naked elm branches, dotted with 
 rooks' nests, and her companion saw her sweep her hand- 
 kerchief across her eyes. She was worn and tired from 
 excitement and anxiety, and her naturally tough nerves 
 were slack. When she turned again he was regarding her 
 with a most delicate and humble sympathy. 
 
 " It is useless to pretend I don't know it," she said, reso- 
 lutely repressing the tendency to sob. " He will never sit 
 in his chair again." 
 
 " Gh, don't think that don't be downhearted," he mur- 
 mured. It was the only thing to say, but his manner 
 expressed much more than his words. He had the tact to 
 gently change the conversation as soon as he could. 
 
 " I have come, I am sorry to say, to bid you good-by, 
 Miss Knowles. I am leaving the Hammonds to-morrow." 
 
 " What!" she cried, rousing herself. " Oh, I thought you 
 were going to stay for a week or two. The girls told 
 me so." 
 
 " I thought I was myself. But well, the fact is, I find I 
 am not a persona grata altogether that is, not with the 
 household as a whole. This is between ourselves, of course. 
 Neil Hammond, for some reason or another, doesn't like 
 me." 
 
 " You needn't mind that," she put in quickly. 
 
 " I wouldn't mind it if he didn't show it openly. But he 
 makes it so plain that I can't ignore it. As a guest in his 
 house " 
 
 " It isn't his house. Mr. Hammond and Tom are your 
 hosts, and they both like your being there, I know. Tom 
 is a little heavy, but he has the best heart in the world. 
 And Jim but you know what Jim is." 
 
 " Oh, Jim and I understand each other. And we shall 
 meet in London presently, when he goes back to his hos- 
 pital. I really don't find it any fun to stay on now, though 
 I am very sorry to go, for some things. One must draw 
 the line, you know." 
 
 " You mean he has been unbearable?" 
 
 " He is unbearable at this moment. So I have just sent 
 a telegram to a friend of mine to tell him to summon me 
 on important business at once. That's the easiest way out 
 of it. I shall get his message in time for to-morrow morn- 
 ing's train." 
 
 " Where is your friend?" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 77 
 
 " In London. But I shall go on to Scotland, where my 
 father's folks are making a fuss because I haven't been 
 near them/' 
 
 " It's a long way," said Katherine. And she added, 
 almost with a sigh, " I'm very sorry." 
 
 Alexander looked at her as she sat gazing into the fire. 
 She wore a dark woollen dress, with a linen collar, and her 
 brown hair shone ruddily in the blaze ; her figure, in the 
 forward-drooping attitude, with its lovely, flexible, gener- 
 ous curves, was the most perfect, he thought, that he had 
 ever seen. 
 
 " I hope you will let me feel that it is only a temporary 
 parting," he said, " that I may go on calling myself your 
 friend a friend who may venture to present himself again, 
 if he sees a chance " 
 
 " Oh, you know that," she broke in. " Belle's friends are 
 ours. Did you not tell me," looking up, " that your sta- 
 tion was close to theirs?" 
 
 " Quite close not five miles. At least, it is my father's 
 station. My brother and I only live there, but it is, of 
 course, to be our own some day. When I go back my 
 brother, I think, will marry and bring his wife home for a 
 trip. Then I shall be in charge, as he is now." 
 
 " Are you going soon?" 
 
 " I don't know it depends on circumstances." 
 
 " We shall meet in Australia next, perhaps," she said, 
 raising her sad eyes. " I can't hope to have my father 
 much longer, and when I am left alone I shall go at once to 
 my sister. He wishes it." 
 
 " Yes, I know he does. It will be the best thing the 
 very best thing. And anything I can do, Miss Knowles 
 
 " Thank you. Don't talk about it now. I can't bear 
 it." 
 
 " At least, remember I am at your service when when 
 you do have to think about it. You have only to ask Jim 
 Hammond where I am I will keep him informed of my 
 movements and at any hour, any moment, if you will only 
 look upon me as representing Anderson and your sister 
 it is what they would wish, I know, being such old friends 
 as escort, or or anything " 
 
 " Oh, yes don't say any more ! It hasn't come to that 
 yet." 
 
 " Of course not and won't for a long time, I trust. But 
 I only want you to say you will remember that there is 
 some one to whom you could do no greater favour than to 
 make use of him. Never mind if it is ten years hence." 
 
78 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Do you think you would remember me for ten years?" 
 she asked, smiling. 
 
 " I shall remember you for all the years that I live," he 
 rejoined, in a tone that made her colour suddenly. 
 
 " Perhaps my father is awake now," she said, breaking a 
 rather protracted pause, during which Mr. Alexander set- 
 tled in his own mind that he would " hang round " until 
 Major Knowles was dead, and then make his journey home 
 coincident with hers to her sister. " I know he would like 
 to see you. Talk to him about Belle and Joe he wants to 
 know what life out there is like but don't let him talk 
 himself." 
 
 The young man was taken to the sick-room, and there 
 entertained the invalid for half an hour. Then his con- 
 science as a gentleman reproached him on behalf of his 
 neglected hostesses, and he tore himself from the enchanted 
 house. Katherine went to the door with him, and allowed 
 him to hold her hand in an unusually emphatic clasp while 
 he said good-by. 
 
 " We shall meet again we shall meet again," he repeated, 
 with emotion. " You will remember what I said when the 
 time comes?" 
 
 "I will, "she said. And, with a swift and to her most 
 unexpected movement, he bent his handsome head to kiss 
 her hand, and then rushed away. 
 
 " What is it," he demanded of himself, as he ran along 
 the road, " that makes her so delightful? There is nothing 
 you can see to account for it but I never met a woman 
 like her." 
 
 He left the Hammonds' house next day, and was soon as 
 lost to them all even to Jim as if he had sunk to the bot- 
 tom of the sea. Whether his silence as to his movements 
 and affairs meant that he was preoccupied with another 
 young lady, nobody knew, but Jim thought it very prob- 
 able. 
 
 And no sooner had Alexander taken his departure than 
 Neil went too sailing back to Yarmouth over the reedy 
 rivers and salt marshes at a time when no pleasure craft 
 save his own was to be seen upon them, but only the 
 brown-sail trading wherries, and the drainage wind-mills 
 twirling madly in the air. 
 
 His going was a bitter grievance to his family, who had 
 counted on keeping him for the holidays, the remainder of 
 which would lose all charm without him. He pleaded busi- 
 ness, but they knew enough of his business to discredit that 
 excuse. There was no herring fishing in January, Since 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 79 
 
 they brought the last take home before Christmas his 
 smacks had been moored at Yarmouth wharf, and the 
 smacksmen enjoying their little festivities like himself ; and 
 now they were away again to trawl in -distant waters for 
 mackerel and cod, and would not be back until the end of 
 P^ebruary. He told them the fish came home, if the boats 
 did not, and that there was more to attend to than they 
 imagined ; and when they still urged that he had not given 
 them adequate reasons for his desertion, he lost his tem- 
 per, and requested them to be good enough to mind their 
 own affairs and allow him to manage his as he thought fit. 
 Then they guessed what was the matter, and were very 
 wroth with Katherine not with him, of course, though 
 Jim, who, like the great Washington, never told a lie, sol- 
 emnly averred that the blame was all on Neil's side and not 
 at all on hers. That, they agreed with each other, was 
 what Jim would say under any circumstances, because he 
 never could see a fault in Katherine. He looked at her 
 through tinted spectacles that he did not wear for other 
 people. 
 
 And so Neil went. And the next thing heard of him was 
 a deed of valour to make the hearts of his hardest judges 
 thrill. 
 
 There blew a gale from the east, and drove upon the 
 Norfolk coast those awful seas that summer visitors never 
 dream of iron-coloured waves that seemed miles long, and 
 breakers that came down like the Falls of Niagara, with a 
 boom as of cannons firing. Even within the Yarmouth 
 Roads those tremendous surges rolled, from the foam-line 
 on the horizon, where ships were parting their cables and 
 going to pieces like matchwood, to the foam-line on the 
 beach, spreading in white acres over the sand-dunes and 
 spouting like geysers from the coping of the wall. And, 
 as the howling night closed in, the bitter east- wind night 
 of mid- winter and the sea, which one must know to appre- 
 ciate, a vessel that had been riding in the roads for hours 
 dragged her anchors in the gale, lost them, and was driven 
 ashore, where the breakers battered her to death before 
 morning. 
 
 The lifeboat went out to the rescue of the drowning crew. 
 It was then so black over the sea that nothing was visible 
 but the white crests coming out of the void, and their stu- 
 pendous fall and the swirling of the surf upward, and its 
 crunching backward ebb; no sign of the wrecked ship 
 beyond its signals of distress. There was a little delay in 
 collecting the lifeboat men, and Neil took the place of one 
 
8o NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 of them, since time was so precious. He was an experi- 
 enced and accomplished waterman, with a matchless hand 
 for oar or tiller or straining sheet ; and he did not know 
 what fear was. 
 
 They got over the first line of breakers without capsizing, 
 and were seen end on to the next sea, every man holding 
 on to the thwarts as to an upright ladder ; and then they 
 were seen no more for many hours. The sharpest eyes 
 could not pierce that sleet-filled darkness into which they 
 had gone, with their lives in their hands, nor the keenest 
 ears detect a human cry in the thunder of that hurricane 
 and of those roaring waters. 
 
 But the lifeboat did its errand by a miracle, they said. 
 Twice it was rolled over and the men washed out in the 
 dangerous seas round the stranded vessel, and Neil did 
 deeds in the rescue but for which not all would have come 
 home again, nor the hands on the wreck been saved. 
 
 " And yet," said Carry Hammond to her family, " and yet 
 that minx doesn't think him good enough for her!" 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 JIM, who, unlike Neil and Alexander, had real and press- 
 ing business calling him away (he was working through his 
 medical course with the steady enthusiasm of an earnest 
 man, and grudged every day that was not advancing him) , 
 lingered on at home, in the expectation of an early sum- 
 mons to the death-bed of his friend. Since the end seemed 
 so near, he desired, if possible, to see the doomed man 
 " through it" which meant to see Katherine through it, 
 and do what he could to mitigate the agony she would 
 have to bear. 
 
 But the major lingered on, as he had got into the habit 
 of doing, adding week to week ; and Jim had to go. Janu- 
 ary crawled away, and February after it, and March after 
 that, and still the dying process continued a martyrdom 
 for the two brave souls who shared its exquisite anguish 
 together such as human creatures will not have to undergo, 
 let us hope, in the time to come, when things in general 
 have been thought out. Aunt Ellen, to the relief of all 
 parties, returned to the companion with whom she shared 
 the precarious fortunes of a ladies' school in Surrey, and 
 another aunt took her place Aunt Mary Ann, an active 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 81 
 
 and sensible old person, who, though very difficult to get 
 on with when all went well, was a tower of strength in the 
 time of trouble. Aunt Mary Ann had become Mrs. Linley 
 since the days when she had joint charge of the major and 
 his daughter in the childhood of the latter, and she left an 
 old husband in London to deplore her loss which he felt 
 acutely as soon as the sweet novelty of being able to do 
 as he liked wore off. She was a heaven-born cook and do- 
 mestic administrator, and an inflexible rough-and-ready 
 nurse of the old-fashioned pattern; the most dreadful 
 emergencies did not daunt her for a moment, nor find her 
 unprepared to meet them. Lydia hated her, but Katherine 
 was too broken-spirited to rebel, as at another time she 
 would have done, against such an arbitrary government; 
 moreover, she felt daily more and more the support of so 
 stout a heart and ready a hand, as her own fine powers of 
 nerve and endurance flagged under the long and cruel 
 strain. Aunt Mary Ann knew this, and was happy. It was 
 all the reward she cared for the proud consciousness of 
 being indispensable. Any one who gave her this feeling 
 was sure of receiving her best affections in return. 
 
 Aunt Mary Ann it was who saw the gallant sufferer 
 " through it" a merciful spell of insensibility at last, during 
 which he crossed the line without showing when he did it, 
 probably without knowing anything about it himself. She 
 tied up his jaws, and put the pennies on his eyes, and gave 
 the orders to the undertaker, and wrote the notice for the 
 newspapers ; while Katherine, worn out and stupefied, lay 
 half asleep upon her bed, incapable of further effort. 
 
 " You leave everything to me, my dear," said Aunt Mary 
 Ann, as she administered a dose of brandy and water, 
 almost by main force, to her niece, and then patted her 
 down upon the pillows. And the old lady went about the 
 business of the occasion with a silent alertness and atten- 
 tion to every detail that looked, Lydia said, as if it were 
 her trade to conduct funerals. 
 
 The Hammonds and other sympathising neighbours called 
 to inquire after Katherine, and to look at the dead man in 
 his coffin (a little ceremony conducted by Mrs. Linley in 
 each case), and to bring flowers to strew around him 
 white hyacinths and narcissus and lilies of the valley, the 
 choicest produce of their gardens, with precious sprays of 
 deutzia and blooms of white cyclamen from glass-housed 
 pots. Neil and Jim came home immediately on hearing 
 the news Neil the first. But the hero of the lifeboat, who 
 was supposed to fear nothing, had a nervous horror of death 
 6 
 
82 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 and of women's tears, and did not go to Weep Hall until 
 he went in black gloves and flowing hat-band, with his 
 father and brothers, similarly attired, to pay the last trib- 
 ute of respect, as it is called, to the poor clay that was once 
 so fine a man. He contented himself with working through 
 his mother, whom he desired to say whatever nice things 
 she could think of to Katherine, and represent them as his 
 sentiments. 
 
 " You know, don't you, mother, that I mean to marry 
 her?" he said ; and she replied that she had gathered some- 
 thing of the sort, though for her part she wished he would 
 look higher, and choose a girl who knew better how to 
 appreciate him. Nevertheless, if he had really set his 
 heart on it, she would, of course, do her mother's best to 
 help him. 
 
 " Well, just get her here as soon as you can after it's all 
 over," said Neil. " Do a lot for her, and make her grateful 
 get her to feel at home make the father attend to her busi- 
 ness for her and I'll keep away till she has picked up a bit 
 and got back her spirits. She'll feel awfully lonely when 
 she begins life again, and women always want somebody 
 to take care of 'em. She might go a long way," he added, 
 with pride, " before she found a man so capable of doing it 
 as I am." 
 
 " Indeed, I should think so !" asserted the mother warmly. 
 
 "We must take her quietly, though," he went on in a 
 reflective tone. " I have been too sudden with her ; and it 
 won't do I can see that. She's the very devil for temper 
 when she's roused though I like her for it, mind you. If 
 she were namby-pamby, like most girls, I shouldn't care a 
 straw about her. So you must make her understand that 
 I shall keep out of the way for the present d'ye see? 
 Otherwise she'd likely not come at all. She's as bad as a 
 wild duck to get at, confound her; but I'll bring her down 
 before I've done you see if I don't." 
 
 " Well, my dear, all I hope is that you'll find, when you've 
 done it, that you're repaid for your trouble," said Mrs. 
 Hammond, and thereupon set forth to condole with Kath- 
 erine. 
 
 " My darling," she said, with real tears in her usually 
 merry eyes, as she held the girl's hand, "don't think of 
 making any plans don't trouble about anything. Just let 
 Mr. Hammond take over all your business matters, and 
 come and rest with us. We were your parents' oldest 
 friends, my dear, and regard you as a daughter ; it is right 
 that you should make your home with us, at any rate for a 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 83 
 
 time. You shall be quite quiet, love ; all the boys will be 
 away. We hoped to have kept Neil for awhile, but he 
 says he must go on Thursday without fail, and that we 
 mustn't expect to see him again for months to come. You 
 will let me fetch you after the funeral, my child?" 
 
 " Thank you, dear Mrs. Hammond," replied Katherine, 
 gratefully. " You are very, very good. But I have ar- 
 ranged to go home with Aunt Mary Ann as soon as we 
 have given up the house." 
 
 " Oh, my dear, London will be so noisy for you, won't it? 
 And you know you never did find your aunts very compan- 
 ionable." 
 
 " Aunt Mary Ann and I are used to each other now," 
 rejoined Katherine, sadly. " And I have promised her it 
 is all arranged." 
 
 " I shall talk to your aunt," said Mrs. Hammond. But, 
 though she did so, she was unable to upset the previous 
 engagement. Mrs. Linley was as determined to take Kath- 
 erine away as Katherine was to go with her. 
 
 " At any rate, you will come to us next" urged Neil's 
 ambassadress, who did not believe in the present alliance 
 lasting after the circumstances that effected it had passed ; 
 and she pleaded with an earnestness that touched the heart 
 of the bereaved girl. But she answered that she could not 
 make plans beyond what were immediately necessary ; she 
 would " see " by and by, and let Mrs. Hammond know. 
 And this was all the satisfaction the latter lady could take 
 home to her impatient son who swore considerably when 
 he received it, but afterward shared his mother's opinion 
 that Katherine would soon find she had had enough of 
 Aunt Mary Ann. 
 
 All the gentlemen in the district followed the dead sol- 
 dier to his grave in the village churchyard, while Kath- 
 erine knelt in his deserted chamber, with the doors locked, 
 and the two aunts (Aunt Ellen having arrived over-night, 
 in widow's mourning, excepting the cap) talked together 
 in the sitting-room, where the baked meats and wine were 
 set out. Later, when the dreadful business was over, one 
 and another attempted the impossible task of " comforting" 
 the mourner. Aunt Ellen proffered her own particular 
 Bible, full of folded corners and slips of paper ; Mrs. Ham- 
 mond came down with " The Gates Ajar"; Mr. Brand with 
 his red-leaved " Priests' Prayer Book," out of which to 
 "read the service" (as if it were an incantation) exactly 
 appropriate to the then state of affairs ; and others, stuffed 
 full of texts and pious platitudes, did their little best in the 
 
84 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 way of what they conceived to be their duty at such a time. 
 But Katherine firmly, though gently, refused them all. The 
 only friend whom she would have admitted to her solitary 
 grief was Jim, and Jim had too much delicacy to intrude 
 upon her, as he had too much reverence for the mystery 
 involving them to handle it in the vulgar manner. He was 
 one of those comparatively rare at that time who do 
 their thinking for themselves in regard to these matters, 
 and his thinking, resulting in the inevitable recognition of 
 more things than are dreamt of in the philosophy of those 
 who don't think, had made him humble. He didn't know 
 what life and death and sorrow meant (like Aunt Ellen and 
 the rest) ; he only knew what they didn't mean. So he 
 held his tongue. 
 
 A day or two after the funeral, when the solicitous eyes 
 of the aunts had relaxed their watch upon her, Katherine 
 went out alone one evening to see her father's grave. As 
 she entered the churchyard, she saw that Jim had come 
 there on the same errand. They met with a silent hand- 
 clasp, walked along the quiet paths to the new mound 
 under the east window (flanking the slab that marked the 
 resting-place of Mrs. Knowles husband and wife lying 
 side by side once more), and there stood still and looked 
 down upon the blank, heaped earth with that dumb ache 
 and tension of the heart which those of us who know 
 it cannot express in words. Then Katherine, who had not 
 " broken down" particularly while in the company of the 
 aunts, put her hands to her face and sobbed with all the 
 passion that was in her. Jim knew what she had lost ; Jim 
 understood. She could let herself go, now that she was 
 alone with Jim. He seemed the one person left " belong- 
 ing" to her. 
 
 It was hard on Jim. He led her to an old table-tomb 
 close by, and restrained himself from putting his arms about 
 her with an effort that was almost superhuman. Perhaps, 
 if he had let himself go too, the whole course of this story 
 would have been altered, but he was a man of principle, 
 and not of impulse, and he was resolute not to yield to 
 what he believed to be wrong. At such a time as this, he 
 told himself, it would be taking an unfair advantage of her ; 
 and he had already worked it out in his punctilious soul 
 that a man should not ask a girl to marry him while he was 
 still some years from realising an income to support her 
 least of all, if she had any income of her own. 
 
 So he bore his fiery trial as best he could, sitting beside 
 her while she cried, without lifting a finger. When she 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 85 
 
 began to compose herself, he said, in his ordinary quiet 
 way, " Come and have a little walk by the water-side, Kath- 
 erine." 
 
 She rose at once, and they passed together out of the 
 churchyard and out of the village, rambling away into the 
 solitudes as they used to do when they were children. It 
 was better than going back to the miserable house. 
 
 They came to the shores of the Broad, on which they had 
 had so many memorable days, fishing and bird-nesting and 
 bulrush gathering, boys and girls together, and sat down 
 under a black catkined alder clump on two bunches of 
 grass, indifferent as to how they laid up rheumatism and 
 lumbago for their old age. It was the middle of April, and 
 by that time the lonely marsh country had grown beauti- 
 ful in its own way. The reed-fringed lagoons were so 
 many polished looking-glasses for the blue and white sky, 
 and the brown and white sails, and the green and flowery 
 banks and knolls that relieved the Dutch-like levels in this 
 neighbourhood. The desert blossoming was paralleled by 
 the necromantic change that passed over the winter-bound 
 landscape when the breath of spring called forth its latent 
 life when mead and mere were crossed with the coloured 
 shadows of silver-bright clouds, and the wind, blowing 
 over thick beds of new reeds and grasses, made them dim- 
 ple and shimmer like waves of a summer sea. Nowadays 
 most people know how rich that apparently desolate coun- 
 try is, and how lovely at almost all times even when the 
 marshes are " laid," and the dead reed-wildernesses brittle 
 in a black frost though they didn't know it then. But 
 even then Katherine knew it, and so did Jim that it was 
 so for them, if for nobody else. 
 
 And this had been one of the most exquisite of those mid- 
 April days. It was drawing to a close now, and growing 
 cold after the sun-setting, but an orange glow still lingered 
 in the western sky and over the water, which was so shin- 
 ingly still that every object on it was duplicated in a shadow 
 seemingly as solid as the substance. A boat moored to the 
 opposite bank, and drifted out to the end of its tether, 
 looked, with its reversed image, to be suspended in golden 
 air. But a delicate mist was beginning to creep up, and a 
 suggestion of moonlight with it. 
 
86 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 " WHEN the lilies come out again," said Katherine, " I 
 shall be gone." 
 
 In the labyrinth of little bays and water-lanes amongst 
 the reeds, haunts of all kinds of nesting wild fowl, the 
 water lilies bloomed in summer-time with a splendour and 
 profusion that made them a feature of the scene, and many 
 hundreds of the cream-white globes had Jim gathered for 
 her from year to year. 
 
 " So soon!" he ejaculated. 
 
 " Yes as soon as I can get away. When the furniture is 
 sold and the house given up, what is there to wait for? I 
 am afraid to wait even so long as that." 
 
 " What are you afraid of?" 
 
 " Of Neil." 
 
 " I don't think you need be, Katherine. He would not 
 tease you now." 
 
 " I feel sure that if he knew I was going to my sister he 
 would stop me." 
 
 " How could he stop you?" 
 
 She answered with a dreary little laugh. 
 
 " No other man could do it, of course. But Neil Neil is 
 quite capable of carrying me off the ship by main force, if 
 necessary. Or, if he didn't do that, he'd do what would be 
 infinitely worse go with me." She shuddered visibly at 
 the bare thought. 
 
 "Well, "said Jim, "he knows nothing about it. I have 
 not breathed a word." 
 
 " Do you think Mr. Alexander ever spoke of it? He's the 
 only person who knows, except Aunt Mary Ann." 
 
 " No ; I am sure he never mentioned the subject I should 
 hear of it if he had. And he's out of the way now gone 
 back to Australia himself, most likely." 
 
 " Aunt Mary Ann is safe. I was obliged to tell her every- 
 thing. Aunt Ellen, of course, would be a sieve and she'd 
 take Neil's part against me, too. But Aunt Mary Ann is 
 a sterling creature, with all her faults." 
 
 Jim sighed, and kept silence for a while. He had a slen- 
 der, rather undersized frame, and a thin, sandy-haired, 
 ordinary face, but it was impossible not to see in his whole 
 aspect and bearing that he was a gentleman. As he sat 
 and stared at the fading lights on the sea-like expanse of 
 landscape before him (the young reeds had not grown to 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 87 
 
 the height of the old ones that the reed-cutters had removed 
 during the winter, and the long miles of marsh and meadow 
 stretched in unbroken levels to the horizon), his grave, intent 
 eyes and his expression generally betokened a man who had 
 a sincere and earnest spirit in addition to gentle blood. 
 Katherine, as she sat on her rushy tussock beside him in her 
 black frock, with her tired face, clasping her knees with 
 her large, strong hands, had as little conventional beauty 
 as he, but the same air of good breeding and essential trust- 
 worthiness. In the course of nature they should have 
 paired that spring, like the wild birds of the marsh, and 
 spent the rest of their lives together and how near they 
 were to doing it ! Yet this would have been an inglorious 
 end compared with the one they subsequently reached. 
 
 "Well," said Jim at last, "it's a cruel thing to think of 
 your being driven off in this way by one of us." 
 
 "I should have gone in any case," said Katherine. 
 " Father wished it. And my sister is all the belongings I 
 have now she and Joe and the children. The children 
 will give me something to do which is what I want more 
 than anything. I shall teach them." 
 
 "I believe it's a fine country," remarked Jim, after an- 
 other pause. 
 
 " I believe it is," she assented, without enthusiasm. 
 
 "I've sometimes thought," he continued, with affected 
 carelessness, " that it wouldn't be a bad thing to try my 
 fortune over there when I've got my degree. I've heard 
 pur fellows talk about it as a good field for doctors. Here 
 it's so crowded that we can't all get a living, no matter 
 how we try." 
 
 " Oh, Jim, how I wish you would !" 
 
 " Do you really? Well, you might look round when you 
 get there, and tell me how the land lies." 
 
 " I will indeed I will ! How nice it would be to have 
 you near! For I don't mean to come home again, Jim 
 at any rate, not until I hear that Neil is married." 
 
 "I wish to Heaven he would marry!" ejaculated Jim,, 
 from the bottom of his soul. 
 
 " Perhaps he will when I am out of the way. Jim, dear, 
 will you take care of father's grave for me?" 
 
 " You needn't ask that, Katherine." 
 
 " And write to me sometimes?" 
 
 " Every month regularly, if I may." 
 
 " Do, if it won't bother you. I don't know anybody else 
 whom I can depend on to let me know when things 
 happen." 
 
88 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " You can depend on me," said Jim. 
 
 They talked on until the gathering mist began to feel 
 damp on their hands and faces, and it struck them suddenly 
 that it was much later than they had supposed ; then Jim 
 returned with Katherine to the gate of Weep Hall. The 
 beautiful old place (which, however, let for forty pounds a 
 year) looked more beautiful than ever, with the moon shin- 
 ing on its massive chimney-stacks and its steep roofs of 
 fluted tiles. They looked up at it together, feeling much 
 as they had done when looking at the major's grave. Their 
 hearts swelled with a pain that could find no relief in words. 
 
 The old aunts heard the click of the gate, and opened the 
 casement of the window to call out simultaneously, " Is 
 that you, child?" in wildly anxious tones. They had sent 
 Lydia and Sally (clinging together and shaking in every 
 limb) to the churchyard, and had themselves searched under 
 every bed and in every cupboard (except King Charles's, 
 which was only accessible by a ladder) for traces of their 
 lost niece ; and had worked themselves up or, rather, Aunt 
 Ellen had to the point of believing that she had commit- 
 ted suicide while of unsound mind, and would never be 
 heard of more. So Jim, having explained that it was his 
 fault, bade her a hurried good-night, and left her to the 
 scolding and coddling prepared for her. 
 
 "If it had been anybody but James," Aunt Ellen sug- 
 gested, when, ten minutes later, Katherine had taken ref- 
 uge in her bed, and the old ladies were regaling themselves 
 with a tray-supper of cold pie and bread and cheese (which 
 seemed to suit old ladies' digestions in those days) before 
 retiring to their own. 
 
 " But we all know James," said Aunt Mary Ann, de- 
 cisively. 
 
 "I hope she won't take to this sort of thing," continued 
 Aunt Ellen, who was so impressed by the circumstance of 
 a young man and a girl being out alone after dark that she 
 didn't get over it for days. " You remember the trouble 
 we had with Belle, sister?" 
 
 She would have liked to discuss this delicious anxiety till 
 midnight, but Aunt Mary Ann refused to see any signifi- 
 cance in what had taken place. She knew that Katherine, 
 Jim, and herself had a tremendous secret between them, 
 not by any means to be divulged to Aunt Ellen at present. 
 This secret, to Mrs. Linley's mind, satisfactorily explained 
 the imprudence for she was free to confess, she said, that 
 it was an imprudence which poor Katherine had fallen 
 into. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 89 
 
 " Luckily," they both agreed, as they went round with a 
 candle to try the doors and windows, and to peep into the 
 safe to see that Lydia hadn't done anything wrong with the 
 cold meat and the dripping, " luckily, James Hammond is 
 a very steady young man." 
 
 Next day Aunt Ellen went back to her school, and Jim 
 went back to his work in London. A week later Weep Hall 
 was dismantled, and the keys given up to his lordship's 
 agent ; Lydia had gone to her married daughter, Sally had 
 got a new place, good-byes had been said not too impres- 
 sively, lest suspicions should be aroused and communi- 
 cated to Neil at Yarmouth ; and Aunt Mary Ann, with the 
 orphan in charge, returned to her old man, who, together 
 with his establishment, was by this time in a parlous state. 
 
 While she busied herself in what she called " rightsiding" 
 things within her own domain, Jim and Katherine, neces- 
 sarily unchaperoned, since the fear of Neil forbade the 
 admission of another person to the secret, went to look at 
 ships. 
 
 Jim's preliminary inquiries resulted in the selection of 
 two sailing ships, of course, for in those days Orient liners 
 were not, and the P. and O. ran its shabbiest boat but once 
 a month, which was as often as England and Australia 
 had news of each other. The Huntingdonshire, a fine new 
 clipper of the Money Wigram line, was the vessel finally 
 decided on, for the reason that it was to sail first, and also 
 because it was captained by a brother-in-law of one of Jim's 
 medical student chums. When he and Katherine paid their 
 second visit to it (to take measurements for cabin furniture, 
 which the passengers of that time had to provide for them- 
 selves), the girl was consciously elated by its spacious and 
 majestic air, and the prospect before her to which its com- 
 fortable appointments gave shape for they were comfort- 
 able then, though we should turn up our noses at them now. 
 She had young blood in her veins, and she had thirsted to 
 live largely and to see the world, though she had never 
 murmured against the circumstances that had restricted 
 her, or felt herself deprived in any way. The sea, that she 
 had had the smell of all her life, was a passion with her, 
 and the true spirit of the sea-voyager was hers, dauntless, 
 adventurous, unfettered, braced by a perfectly sound phy- 
 sical constitution, toughened in its turn by habits of almost 
 austere simplicity. And, amongst all her trials of courage, 
 one of the severest was spared her. No one was left to 
 her now to part from, of near and dear save Jim. 
 
 But she was surprised to find how much she disliked to 
 
90 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 part from Jim, the brother-like companion, to whose unfail- 
 ing support in her griefs and cares she had grown so thor- 
 oughly accustomed. He and Aunt Mary Ann went to the 
 docks to see her off her hurry to hide from the possibly 
 prowling Neil was such that she refused to embark at 
 Gravesend or Plymouth, thereby to postpone the painful 
 moment until it was necessary to meet it ; and the experi- 
 ence of that bright May morning made a change in the 
 relationship between the two young people, though not 
 the change it ought to have done. 
 
 They were very subdued amidst the excitement around 
 them, and made the most commonplace remarks to each 
 other, chiefly in the way of criticism upon the appearance 
 of various members of the crowd that pressed upon them. 
 Jim introduced the captain as soon as that gentleman came 
 on board; it was the first chance that had offered of 
 making him and Katherine acquainted. The captain had 
 already been told about her, and that she was to be put 
 under his charge; and, naturally, was not predisposed to 
 enthusiasm respecting her or the arrangement. Many 
 ladies were put under his charge, and a great nuisance to 
 him they were, as a rule, until happily got rid of; he 
 always sighed and uttered a bad word when he heard of 
 another coming. However, when he saw Katherine and 
 he looked at her with a keenly critical eye he was reas- 
 sured, though he did not take her on trust, by any means, 
 and found her negatively rather than positively pleasing. 
 He glanced at the smooth, bright hair, under a plain straw 
 hat, at the useful scant skirt and short double-breasted 
 jacket, all sensible and ship-shape, and noted her quiet air 
 of reserve and self-possession amid the hysterical bustle 
 going on around her; and he said to himself that she didn't 
 look as if she'd be a bother on deck and keep him from 
 eating his dinner peaceably. 
 
 " Glad to see you, Miss Knowles. Glad to do anything I 
 can for you," he said abruptly, in a rich sea-voice that was 
 evidently not used to soft phrases ; and he gave her a quick, 
 strong, perfunctory hand-shake. " You'll excuse me just 
 now, Mr. Hammond. We shall be off in half an hour, and 
 there are several things I must attend to." 
 
 " He seems a bit rough," said Jim. " But Barry says that's 
 only on the outside; there's a good heart at the bottom." 
 
 " I like him," Katherine answered, with decision. " He 
 looks like a man who attends to his proper business, and 
 while he's doing that he'll be paying me all the attention 
 I shall ask of him." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 91 
 
 Silence fell on the parting friends, and a something that 
 was like embarrassment, only, instead of being outside, it 
 went all through them, a growing strain upon their powers 
 of endurance that neither was anxious to prolong. They 
 began to feel that, since the wrench had to come, it was 
 better to get it over. Aunt Mary Ann was of the same way 
 of thinking. She was much attached to her niece, but not 
 to the extent of feeling a need to contribute to the deluge 
 of tears around her, or to harrow herself with a long-drawn 
 leave-taking; moreover, her old man at home was an 
 invalid to-day, and would be wanting the beef tea which 
 only she could make as it should be made. Consequently, 
 when Katherine, with a stiff white face, proposed that 
 they should say good-bye now instead of in the bustle of 
 the last moment, there was no protest offered. 
 
 " Just as well," said Aunt Mary Ann, " and get yourself 
 comfortable before the ship starts. We can't do anything 
 more for you, and it's no kindness to be hanging round 
 with long faces and making you miserable." 
 
 And Mrs. Linley proceeded to hug and kiss and God bless 
 her niece with a motherly fervour that for a moment qual- 
 ified her to share in the tragedy of imminent bereavement 
 that was being acted on all sides ; and Katherine responded 
 with more than equal warmth. 
 
 Jim came next, and she and Jim held each other's hands 
 for one unspeakable half-minute. Then, with a mutual 
 impulse, they kissed each other. Neither knew which had 
 been the first to do it, and Jim didn't dare to interpret the 
 action as an invitation to speak what his heart was full of. 
 Even in that exquisite, suffering moment, he was able to 
 preserve himself and her from a false step. 
 
 " Remember," he said hurriedly, in a choked voice, 
 
 " remember you have always me such as I am " He 
 
 could say no more. 
 
 " Yes, dear, yes," she whispered back. " Oh, Jim, do 
 come to Australia as soon as you have got your diploma." 
 
 " I will, "he said, not choking now, but uttering the words 
 steadily and solemnly as if it were his marriage service. 
 " If I live if you don't come back I will." 
 
 Five minutes later Jim, urged by Katherine not to linger 
 about where she could see him, was on his way back to his 
 hospital, with a sick-looking face and a heart like lead 
 Aunt Mary Ann bustling home to her old man in another 
 direction ; and Katherine, having threaded her way through 
 the crowd on deck to the after end of the yet empty cuddy, 
 was sitting in her cabin, with her elbows on her knees and 
 
92 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 her face in her hands, going through the last violent pa- 
 roxysm of tears that she permitted herself to indulge in 
 over the pains and trials of this period of her life. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE cabins lined the saloon on either side, each pair 
 being divided by a little passage, masked with a red cur- 
 tain ; and there were two large ones astern, one used by the 
 captain, and the other engaged for a gentleman who had 
 not yet joined. Katherine's was next the captain's, and 
 contained two berths, not one above the other, but side by 
 side, with a slip of space between just wide enough to turn 
 round in and a fixed washstand opposite the door. The 
 bunk next the Venetians covered a pair of corded wooden 
 boxes, and was filled with unopened parcels addressed to a 
 Mrs. Bellamy, who, to the relief of her fellow-lodger, was 
 evidently not intending to embark this morning ; and the 
 girl cheerfully took possession of the other, which was 
 built to the ship's side, and hoped the sea that was so near 
 would not drip in upon her unawares at night through the 
 scuttle overhead. Jim had driven her hooks and nails, hung 
 up her looking-glass, her book-case, her swing-tray, her 
 brown-holland pockets, all her neat contrivances for econo- 
 mising the small space at her disposal ; she had not much 
 to do except to get out soap and towels, spread some spare 
 clothes upon the boards at the bottom of her bunk, and 
 arrange her bed above them a feather bed (originally 
 gleaned from the poultry yard at Weep Hall) which Aunt 
 Mary Ann had pressed upon her niece as a parting present 
 and a safeguard for stormy nights, together with a patch- 
 work quilt of her own manufacture. There were battens 
 on the floor, provided by the thoughtful Jim, and Aunt 
 Mary Ann's turkey twill valance nailed along the bottom 
 of the bunk. In a short time all was stowed and tidy as 
 far as that side of the room was concerned by the time 
 the shadow of the wharf wall was removed from the open 
 window, and the blue May morning came shining in. 
 
 When the sun began to throw reflections of quivering 
 ripples upon the ceiling, Katherine put on her hat to go 
 upstairs. The cuddy was still empty, for only a few cabin 
 passengers had embarked as yet, and those few were leaning 
 over the poop-rail, waving farewell hands and handker- 
 chiefs to the friends who had been seeing them off . It was 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 93 
 
 the cuddy of those days not the saloon of these dining, 
 drawing and music rooms in one (the deck was the only 
 smoking-room), with a long table down the middle, flanked 
 with fixed benches having hinged backs, like those in Amer- 
 ican railway carriages, and no other furniture to speak of ; 
 but it was in its time a model of marine elegance and 
 comfort, and would not be despised by a good many of us 
 now. Panelled in shining mahogany throughout, with 
 flutings and florid carvings here and there (the latter mak- 
 ing a gorgeous capital for the podgy column between 
 table and ceiling that pretended not to be the mizzen-mast) ; 
 carpeted, curtained, table-clothed, and cushioned in a shade 
 of crimson that warmed the eye like a Christmas fire ; lamps 
 and swing-trays glittering like burnished gold; glasses 
 twinkling in their racks ; flowers blooming in hanging pots 
 and baskets, and the spring sunshine pouring through the 
 skylights overhead it looked so bright and splendid at this 
 best of moments, before the ocean brine had stained it, that 
 it was no wonder Katherine lingered to look around admir- 
 ingly. Such luxury of sea-voyaging was rather wonderful 
 to one who had never lived in any luxury on dry land. 
 
 The noises on deck drew her up the companion-stairs, 
 and when she emerged upon the poop she found the ship 
 was already in the river, and the voyage begun. The tug 
 was bustling along bravely, like an ant with a helpless 
 dragon-fly, making its industrious way through a crowd of 
 coming and going vessels of every size and shape, and a 
 scene generally that was too picturesque and curious to 
 leave our young lady any interest to spare for her fellow- 
 passengers at present, or even for lunch, which was shortly 
 on the table, and to which she was accustomed to bring the 
 wholesome appetite of youth and health. There was a fresh 
 wind that made her double-breasted jacket a comfort to 
 her, and with it a brilliant sun in which skylights and scut- 
 tles flashed like jewels and brass-work twinkled like flames 
 of fire, while still a tender haze of smoke gave a dreamy 
 vagueness to the distances of silvery sky and water and the 
 delicate outlines of far-off ships and shores. Standing qui- 
 etly apart, she gazed at the moving panorama with thought- 
 ful but quite dry eyes, while the other passengers chattered 
 in groups and mingled their tears together. The pilot was 
 bawling at the top of his voice against the wind, and a mate 
 repeating his orders to the tug, which made a great com- 
 motion of foam and smoke, meeting a constantly freshening 
 breeze and a dancing ripple that gave a good idea of what 
 the Channel swell would be presently. And no one seemed 
 
94 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 to notice the solitary figure until, at the end of some hours, 
 the captain sauntered up to speak to her. 
 
 " A fine day to start with, Miss Knowles." 
 
 " Beautiful," she answered, in a steady, cheerful voice 
 that he liked to hear. " I am enjoying it greatly." 
 
 " That's right. I hope you'll feel the same to-morrow 
 at this time. What sort of sailor are you?" 
 
 " I don't know I have only done 'longshore boating, and 
 very little of that. But I think I am sure to be a good one." 
 
 " That will go a long way to make you so." He looked 
 round consideringly. " Know any of these people?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Would you like me to introduce anybody ?" 
 
 "No, thank you." 
 
 " You'd rather select for yourself at leisure? Quite right. 
 Well, we shall pick up some more at Gravesend and Ply- 
 mouth." 
 
 And then he felt he had done his duty by his brother-in- 
 law and Mr. James Hammond, and went below. 
 
 Luncheon on board the Huntingdonshire was a " snack," 
 and not a meal ; bread and ship biscuit, butter and cheese, 
 cake and marmalade, were the modest materials that com- 
 posed it ; but as dinner was served at the very early (or 
 very late) hour of four in the afternoon, a substantial 
 repast between it and the solid breakfast at half-past eight 
 would have been an outrage upon the liveliest appetite. 
 And the function of the day was appropriately elaborate 
 and various, and satisfying to all but a few miserable creat- 
 ures who were never satisfied with anything. The ship 
 forward was stuffed with sheep and pigs and the coops aft 
 with poultry ; the advertised cow was genuine, the cook a 
 person of ability and resource, and the commissary depart- 
 ment generally administered in a handsome spirit espe- 
 cially when it is considered that a passenger's board, lodg- 
 ing, and travelling expenses amounted to something less 
 than ten shillings a day. 
 
 When the firs^t dinner-bell rang at half-past three, Kath- 
 erine, feeling distinctly hungry by this time, went below 
 to hang up her hat and jacket, to do her hair, which the 
 wind had disarranged, and to slip a fresh linen collar into 
 the neck of her black gown. At four she came out looking 
 strikingly fresh and neat, and the captain at the same 
 moment emerged from the adjoining cabin, where he had 
 washed his hands and driven a vigorous hair-brush through 
 his thick brown locks. They approached the table to- 
 gether, and, when she hesitated to choose her seat, he led 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 95 
 
 her to the forward end and pointed to that on his left hand. 
 She looked so thoroughly nice, with her wholesome, sensi- 
 ble face and satin-smooth head (smooth heads were the fash- 
 ion then, and her hair was beautiful), that he felt he might 
 be combining pleasure to himself with duty to Mr. Ham- 
 mond in according her that honourable place. 
 
 " You had better sit by me, Miss Knowles," he said to 
 her ; and to the head steward, who stood by : " Let this be 
 Miss Knowles' seat. If any married lady on this side 
 thinks she ought to have it, tell her Miss Knowles is tra- 
 velling under my charge." 
 
 His quick eyes, that were thought to be hard and cold, 
 gave her a friendly look as he sat down, and she returned 
 it with frank pleasure. Though she did not mean him to 
 feel her a charge, she was gratified by this public statement 
 of her position as such. She took her seat beside him, and 
 kept it for the remainder of the voyage. 
 
 The lady on his other hand was a buxom widow named 
 Brodie, with high-coloured complexion and suspiciously 
 golden hair; and he groaned within himself when she 
 advanced, rustling and smiling, the whole length of the 
 table towards him, though he rose politely to receive her. 
 She was a few minutes late for dinner, but she was early 
 on board, on purpose that she might catch the worm so 
 much desired by lady passengers a seat by the captain. 
 Indeed, she confessed to this stratagem at once. " I always 
 have sat by the captain, and I always will" she declared, 
 in a high tone and with the air of a coquettish girl (she was 
 well past forty, and of remarkable stoutness). " I was par- 
 ticularly determined to sit by you, Captain Kennedy, for I 
 have heard so much of you." But she had not heard 
 whether he was married or single, which was the matter of 
 first importance. " And that was the sole and only reason 
 why I embarked at these nasty docks, instead of joining the 
 ship at Plymouth that no horrid woman might get before 
 me." She bestowed on him the languishing ogle that 
 betokened the hardened man-hunter, and then stared at 
 Katherine as if to ask by what right she had taken the lead 
 of the ladies on the starboard side. 
 
 Captain Kennedy intimated that he felt highly honoured. 
 He hoped Mrs. Brodie would not feel the long walk from 
 her cabin astern too much for her. Sometimes ladies 
 those who suffered from the motion of the ship were glad 
 to have a seat handy that they could get to, and particu- 
 larly get from, quickly. 
 
 "And I am a shocking sailor," laughed Mrs. Brodie. 
 
96 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " However, I hear you have a very nice doctor, Which is 
 he?" She looked round at the little company assembled, 
 and the captain pointed out a handsome youth with a fair 
 moustache, sitting at the other end of the table. It was evi- 
 dent from the widow's face that she was charmed with his 
 appearance. Some ladies might have objected that he was 
 too young, but she saw no fault of that kind. It almost 
 seemed as if sea-sickness (being yet in the future) lost its 
 terrors when she looked at that sweet young doctor. 
 
 "Besides," she said, "I am not quite astern, as you call 
 it. There are two cabins beyond mine. Who have taken 
 the end one, captain? It is locked." 
 
 " A gentleman who has it to himself," said Captain Ken- 
 nedy, wiping a drop of soup from his curly beard and look- 
 ing impatient for the next course. 
 
 " That's no answer now. What sort of gentleman? Old 
 or young? Married or single?" 
 
 " Young and single, I believe. And, I have also heard, 
 handsome." 
 
 Mrs. Brodie's bold black eyes, which did not seem to " go" 
 with her butter-coloured hair, shone with satisfaction. 
 "Then I shall insist on having him sit by me," she said, 
 with that coquettish wilfulness which she believed irresist- 
 ible in a pretty woman. " Promise me you will keep him a 
 place at this end, captain?" 
 
 " Oh, we don't keep places. First come first served. And 
 one place is as good as another." 
 
 " /don't think so," she rejoined with a meaning smile. 
 
 The person who sat by her just now was a solemn, pale 
 little girl of about seven, whose extreme unlikeness to her 
 mother suggested that she must be the image of the other 
 parent. Being the only child in the first class, and having 
 no nurse, she was introduced to the cuddy table by Mrs. 
 Brodie, who only told the truth when she said that Elvira 
 would be no annoyance to grown-up people. The grave 
 little creature, being popped down upon her seat, scarcely 
 moved or spoke until she left it, and ate her dinner with 
 the utmost propriety. She wore a short white frock, in 
 which she looked very cold, and her hair stood away from 
 her narrow face in a prodigious mass of fuzz that answered 
 its end by fascinating every eye that saw it (it collapsed by 
 degrees, as the ship proceeded, until it hung quite straight, 
 and Katherine braided it into a pig-tail ; then Elvira looked 
 much better). 
 
 Between the child and her next neighbour on the port side 
 there was a large gap at present; then came two rather 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 97 
 
 taw-looking young men, named Hallett and Enright. They 
 were travelling with a Mr. Terry, who was not yet on board 
 young hobbledehoys whom he had undertaken to " shape." 
 Mr. Terry had begun life in Australia with no capital, except 
 his own excellent brains, and had made a good thing of it, 
 destined to develop into better and best in due course of 
 time. He had passed through the stages of free selector 
 and " boss cocky" to that of a farmer and grazier in a sub- 
 stantial way, and was about to take rank with the great 
 squatters, whose title was already given to him (because 
 he looked so exactly like one). And he was bringing out 
 the two youths, sons of old friends at home, to learn colo- 
 nial experience on his " station," which was mainly worked 
 by emigrants of their class. They paid him ^300 a year 
 each, and saved him the expense of hired labour, and when 
 they got sick of ploughing and fencing and milking the 
 cows, he sent to England for some more. On this occasion 
 he had taken a well-earned holiday himself, to see his fam- 
 ily and stir up the spirit of enterprise amongst the young 
 men of his acquaintance, leaving the control of his affairs 
 in Victoria to Mrs. Terry, who was as good a man of busi- 
 ness as he was. Hallett was a sharp-faced, skinny fellow, 
 with an air of intelligence and activity; Enright, a big, 
 amiable-looking boy, with a receding chin. They occupied 
 a compartment adjoining Mrs. Brodie's, but with a bulk- 
 head and not a passage between them, and they would have 
 been objects of interest to that lady had they not been 
 overshadowed by the superior qualifications of the doctor 
 and the unknown gentleman who had taken the stern cabin. 
 Still lower down sat the doctor himself ; he and the chief 
 mate had the two foremost cabins, whence they could look 
 out upon the main deck from windows at the foot of 
 their beds, but as the fore end of the table was made the 
 head by the captain's choice of it, the chief mate filled the 
 chair at the other when he came to meals, and his medical 
 colleague supported him ; and the latter completed the list 
 of port-side persons present. On Katherine's left hand sat 
 a Mr. Barrett, a jolly old fellow with a bottle nose and an 
 enormous waistcoat, who had amassed much wealth as a 
 store-keeper on the gold fields, and had been home to dis- 
 play and enjoy it amongst the wonder-stricken bumpkins 
 of his native village. Mrs. Brodie marvelled at his 
 assurance in taking so high a place, when (as a steward 
 had informed her) there was a major coming, as well as a 
 wealthy squatter whose wife and daughter were attended 
 by a maid ; and she stared at the plebeian person in a cold 
 
 7 
 
98 NOT ALL' IN VAIN. 
 
 and haughty manner and tried to make fun of his appear- 
 ance with the captain, who resolutely refused to see it. 
 Katherine, however, preferred Mr. Barrett as a neighbour to 
 the gentleman who shared his cabin and sat next to him 
 a rather loud and self-assertive clergyman named Parker, 
 who was understood to be a personage in the colonial 
 church, and evidently desired to maintain that position in 
 all societies. He also had a large waistcoat and an air of 
 living comfortably, but there was no genial flavour about 
 him, as about the old store-keeper, who misplaced his h's 
 and put his knife into his mouth. 
 
 Near the clergyman sat an old lady in spectacles, whose 
 scant grey hair was gathered into a knot the size of a wal- 
 nut at the back of her capless head. She was a Miss Blake, 
 going out to succour the young family of a newly-widowed 
 nephew, and looked the gentlest and sweetest of old maids. 
 Beyond her a dark-eyed young Dutch gentleman named Van 
 der Veen (he belonged to the other side, and subsequently 
 crossed over) sat by himself, looking rather lonely, for he 
 was not yet expert in the English language and was travel- 
 ling without any companion he also on the way to learn 
 colonial experience, with letters of introduction in his 
 writing-case and a perfect magazine of fire-arms (presum- 
 ably for the destruction of wild beasts) in the hold. And 
 these, with the second officer, a tiny man with an enormous 
 yellow beard (the first officer had a hairless face, and was 
 about the size of Bill Thwaites), comprised all the company 
 that assembled at dinner on the first day. 
 
 It was the season of roast beef, and the captain stayed to 
 eat a slice ; then he went on deck. By the time dessert was 
 over the Huntingdonshire had brought up at Gravesend, 
 and the passengers followed him upstairs to see what was 
 to be seen. Katherine planted her deck chair a parting 
 present from Jim in the most sheltered corner she could 
 find, and, with a warm shawl round her shoulders and a 
 woollen hood enveloping her head, sat down to watch the 
 old passengers go ashore and the new ones come on board. 
 As the ship was to lie off Gravesend till next morning they 
 dribbled to and fro till dark. 
 
 The captain was one of the first to go, and as his gig 
 swept from the gangway Mrs. Brodie looked after it with 
 yearning eyes. " Oh, how I should love to go ashore how 
 I should love to go, if only I had some one to take me !" she 
 cried, in a voice audible to all the gentlemen standing 
 round her. 
 
 There was a little silence and a stealthy dispersal of the 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 99 
 
 group, but one man did not move, and he said, with some 
 shyness and much difficulty, " I vill take you wif 
 pleasure." 
 
 " Oh, thank you ! How kind !" She looked beyond the 
 Dutch gentleman to the handsome doctor and the burly 
 first mate, and to Messrs. Hallett and Enright, who, though 
 young, were men who could talk to her ; but Van der Veen 
 was her only squire, and he was signalling to a waterman 
 with great vigour. Turning to Elvira, who stood shivering 
 behind her in a fantastic little cloak that left her long, 
 thin legs exposed to the keen wind, she said hastily : 
 " You stay here till I come back. And if you get sleepy, 
 go to bed. You can put yourself to bed, can't you?" 
 
 " I don't know where my night-gown is," said Elvira. 
 
 " Well, never mind I sha'n't be late. Just sit here and 
 wait for me." 
 
 Katherine leaned forward and took the poor child's hand. 
 " I will take care of her till you return," she said. " Come, 
 dear, and sit with me under my warm shawl." 
 
 Oh, thank you," cried Mrs. Brodie, scarcely turning to 
 see who had spoken. And, having previously dressed her- 
 self in readiness for possibilities, she skipped down the poop 
 ladder and over the gangway with an agility quite wonder- 
 ful for a woman of her size. 
 
 At first Elvira was not responsive. She did not seem to 
 undertsood having arms put round her, as if she were a 
 baby, and she showed a desire to sit friendlessly upon the 
 windy skylight, which Katherine indulged for a minute or 
 two until she could bear the sight of the child's evident 
 discomfort no longer ; then she snatched her up suddenly, 
 took off the finely-feathered hat and laid the little head, 
 bedded in its fuzz of hair, on her breast, drawing her shawl 
 quite over it ; turned up the skirt of her own warm gown, 
 and tucked it round the dangling legs, and finally gathered 
 the whole frail body closely into her strong, supporting 
 arms. Elvira, finding her irresistible, yielded decorously, 
 but she did not say a word, and her protectress made no 
 attempt at conversation. For a few minutes the solemn 
 eyes peered wistfully upwards from behind a fold of shawl, 
 and then they drooped and closed ; in the motherly warmth 
 and shelter the poor child found the rest and comfort she 
 was in need of, and fell into a sleep that in its depth and 
 stillness showed the extent of the weariness she had not 
 permitted herself to complain of. 
 
 " The dear little creature !" said old Miss Blake, timidly 
 venturing near to exchange a word with the pleasant-faced 
 
ioo NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 girl. "Just the age of my poor nephew John's eldest. 
 But don't you think she ought to be in bed?" 
 
 " Certainly she ought," replied Katherine sternly. " But 
 her mother has left her, and I don't like to go into Mrs. 
 Brodie's cabin and meddle with her things. Till she comes 
 back I will nurse the poor child here. She is quite warm 
 and comfortable." 
 
 And she nursed Elvira till her arms were numb, and her 
 feet, protruding from a short quilted petticoat, as cold as 
 stones ; till the fresh May night grew wild and dark, and 
 all the Gravesend passengers had come on board ; till the 
 cuddy had had its tea, its rubber of whist, its tinkle on the 
 piano, its final grog and biscuit ; till the first officer, peer- 
 ing along the poop, like a policeman on the hunt for sus- 
 picious characters at night, politely advised her to " move 
 on" otherwise to go to bed before the lights had to be put 
 out. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE chief mate, whose name was Morley, and who, 
 unlike his grim commander, was what is called a ladies' 
 man so much so, indeed, that Captain Kennedy found it 
 expedient to keep a casual eye upon him, lest he should 
 fail in that discretion which is the better part of so many 
 things besides valour remained to chat with Katherine for 
 a few minutes, when she had explained her situation to 
 him. He was surprised to learn that Mrs. Brodie and the 
 Dutchman were still absent, and gave it as his opinion that 
 they intended to stay with their friends till morning. " In 
 which 'case they will be left behind," he said. " The cap- 
 tain is going to sleep on board, so as to get off at daybreak. 
 You had better go to bed, Miss Knowles, and take the child 
 with you. You will have her on your hands till we get to 
 Plymouth see if you won't." 
 
 It looked like it. Ten o'clock at night and no moon, with 
 a wind that made the rigging hum and the flag at the mast- 
 head rattle like a continuous cracking of stockwhips ; with 
 that hush of night on river and town, where the lights 
 twinkled remotely like a band of jewels; with that 
 heave in the flowing tide and that scatter of cold spray, to 
 make the dark passage between ship and shore uncomfort- 
 able. Katherine stiffly rose from her chair to carry the 
 child below, indignant with the neglectful mother, but not 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 101 
 
 wholly displeased with the prospect of further exercise for 
 her own maternal instincts, which were exceptionally 
 strong. 
 
 But at that moment they heard the dip of oars, and a 
 moment later a little scream, followed by a gay laugh. 
 " There they are," said the chief mate, and he went down 
 the poop ladder to receive the wanderers. 
 
 " You are a nice young man, "was his greeting to Van der 
 Veen, as that gentleman came up over the side, after pay- 
 ing the waterman a privilege that Mrs. Brodie did not 
 attempt to dispute or share. And the Dutchman answered, 
 in tones of earnest sincerity, " It vos not me." 
 
 Mrs. Brodie rushed into the cuddy from the main deck, 
 and met Katherine Knowles at the foot of the companion- 
 stairs. " What !" she cried, as she saw Elvira's hat and 
 feathers dangling from the bundle in the girl's arms, " is 
 that child not gone to bed yet?" 
 
 " She fell asleep upstairs, and I would not disturb her," 
 said Katherine. " May I carry her into your cabin and lay 
 her down?" 
 
 " Oh, thank you, thank you," the tender mother rejoined; 
 " that is not necessary she can walk quite well. Come, 
 Elvira, wake up !" and she set the child, limp and dazed, 
 upon her feet, and shook her. " Come, we must make 
 haste or we shall be left in the dark. I have not done my 
 unpacking yet," she added, looking at Katherine with a 
 laugh. 
 
 " That is a pity," said the girl, " for we are likely to be in 
 rough water before you are up, and then you may find it 
 difficult." 
 
 " Oh, I shall do what I want to do to-night. I don't care 
 for their regulations *they won't scold me. I can always 
 make them let me do what I like." , 
 
 With that Mrs. Brodie retired to her cabin, which was 
 close by, driving her staggering child before her ; and Kath- 
 erine hastened to hers, that was nearly opposite. 
 
 She expected to find it dark and silent, orderly as she had 
 left it, but, instead, it was lighted by her own bracket 
 lamp, and crowded to an extent that seemed to preclude 
 the possibility of getting into it. Bundles and boxes and 
 unsavoury, smart clothes overflowed both bunks as well as 
 the floor, and an enormous woman, compared with whom 
 Mrs. Brodie was quite sylph-like, stood in the midst of 
 them, loosening the laces of her vast and greasy stays. 
 Katherine started back, under the momentary impression 
 that she had opened the wrong door ; then she realised the 
 
102 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 fact that this was her co-tenant of the cabin, Mrs. Bellamy. 
 With the child in her arms, and afraid to move lest she 
 should be disturbed, the girl had not seen the new arrivals 
 closely. She had watched each boat put off from the 
 pier while the daylight lasted, and marked the sex and 
 number of its occupants as it danced over the little waves 
 that ran so merrily with the wind ; but as each had come 
 alongside it had been hidden from her, and the people, step- 
 ping over the gangway, had only shown their bobbing heads 
 for a minute before disappearing into the cuddy beneath 
 her through its front doors. And the passengers' friends 
 had lingered for the most part, not putting off for shore 
 till all was vague in the mists of night, and it was impossi- 
 ble to discover which was which. Thus she had not re- 
 garded the arrival of her cabin companion, whose presence 
 was as unwelcome as it was unexpected. 
 
 For it was evident at the first glance that Mrs. Bellamy 
 was not only a coarse, dishevelled woman, but a slightly 
 tipsy one as well, and the appearance of her little eyes, her 
 baggy cheeks, her loose mouth, and the shapeless mass of 
 pulp that she called her figure, seemed to indicate that 
 such a condition was not unusual. She had put off a once 
 handsome silk dress, and a pair of diamond-studded ear- 
 pendants still flanked her triple chin, but a bath did not 
 seem to be numbered amongst her toilet luxuries, and her 
 frowsy black hair was a terror to think of. Altogether, she 
 was about the last person that a girl of refinement would 
 choose to go to bed with. 
 
 " Corne in, my dear, come in," she called out hospitably. 
 " You've paid your money as well as me, and you've just 
 as much right to it. Fair play's a jewel, I say that's the 
 sort I am. You'll find me staunch to the last no one 
 ever knew Martha Bellamy to fail a friend. Come in 
 you needn't mind me; I'm old enough to be your mother." 
 She reeled over Katherine's bed to gather up such of her 
 bejongings as littered and defiled it, and then plunged into 
 the heap upon her own for a hidden brandy bottle and a 
 glass that had evidently been used many times since it was 
 washed last. " Here," she said thickly, " have a little drop 
 to warm you before you go to bed. I never take it myself, 
 except I'm ill, but it's very good to keep the cold out. Do 
 now I've got plenty more." 
 
 Katherine thanked her and said she never touched spirits 
 and didn't like them. 
 
 "No more do I," said Mrs. Bellamy; "but I've such a 
 weak stomach, and the sea do upset me so -" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 103 
 
 She poured a good dose into the dirty tumbler and tossed 
 it off. 
 
 Poor Katherine stood in the doorway, aghast at the pros- 
 pect before her. For a moment she did not know what to 
 do, as it was obviously impossible to undress side by side 
 with this huge and disgusting person, unless she could 
 kneel in her bunk to do it. 
 
 "I think," she said hesitatingly, "I will wait until you 
 are into bed it will give you more room if you will kindly 
 be as quick as you can, because it is past the time for put- 
 ting the lamps out." 
 
 Mrs. Bellamy again begged that no form and ceremony 
 might be observed with her, who was old enough to be 
 Katherine 's mother, and had never been known to fail a 
 friend ; but Katherine persisted in leaving her to the pri- 
 vacy she would have given so much to secure for herself, 
 and retreated to the saloon, which was now empty, and 
 lighted very dimly by a single turned-down lamp. Here 
 she took a seat at the end of the table nearest to her door, 
 and waited until she considered Mrs. Bellamy had had time 
 to put herself to bed. 
 
 While she waited Captain Kennedy returned from the 
 shore, and entering the cuddy from the main deck, and pro- 
 ceeding to his cabin at the other end for the precious night 
 " in" that might be his last for some time, he passed Kath- 
 erine as she sat, and asked her, rather peremptorily, what 
 she was doing. 
 
 She explained briefly, but her explanation would not have 
 satisfied him had he not heard something of Mrs. Bellamy 
 from the officer on deck. " What, is that woman with you?" 
 he exclaimed, and his blunt speech took a sympathetic 
 tone. " They tell me she is a little festive a valedictory 
 supper, I suppose. She'll soon get over that. No liquors 
 allowed in the cabins, you know, and I can give the steward 
 a hint if we find it necessary." He held out his great, 
 strong brown hand. " Get to bed, Miss Knowles, get to bed ; 
 I don't like the rules to be broken, and one has to put up 
 with little discomforts on board ship, you know." 
 
 She rose at once and said good-night, and he passed on 
 to his cabin. At the door, however, he paused, and, turn- 
 ing, said to her : " If you should have any real annoyance, of 
 course you must let me know. Tap on the partition I 
 shall hear you." 
 
 When he was gone she left the cuddy, but lingered awhile 
 in the passage between her cabin and that of Miss Blake- 
 wishing it had' been her luck to be paired with that gentle 
 
104 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 maiden lady ; then she tapped at her own door, and entered 
 softly. Mrs. Bellamy was in bed, and already dropping 
 into a heavy sleep. The fumes of spirits and of frowsy 
 clothing filled the tiny chamber, that had been so airy and 
 fresh till now ; the neck of the brandy bottle peeped out of 
 the bed-clothes within a few inches of its owner's open 
 mouth. By the time the girl was ready for such rest as 
 might be procurable under the circumstances, that mouth 
 and the nose above it were emitting snores that were like 
 the blasts of a rusty trumpet, interspersed with choking 
 gurgles as of a person being drowned or strangled. 
 
 "She will keep him awake," thought Katherine, looking 
 anxiously at the bulkhead behind which the skipper had 
 already abandoned himself to repose. She little knew 
 what a sailor could sleep through, when he had leave to 
 sleep. Till he roused up at the summons of the pilot he 
 was entirely oblivious of Mrs. Bellamy's snores, and all sub- 
 lunary matters. So, for some hours, was Katherine her- 
 self. Having gently transferred the brandy bottle to the 
 foot of her companion's bed, and taken a wistful look at 
 the starry river through the little round window, which she 
 longed to open, but dared not, lest it should be against the 
 rules, she said to herself that it would be impossible to sleep, 
 and straightway slept like a day-old baby. 
 
 Very early in the morning after the rainy dawn had 
 broken, but hours before breakfast-time she woke from 
 this welcome insensibility to feel the ship moving through 
 the choppy water, and to hear Mrs. Bellamy groaning in 
 the most dreadful manner. 
 
 " Oh, I am so bad I am so bad ! Oh, dear, oh, dear ! 
 Oh, do give me a drop o' brandy, there's a good soul ! I 
 can't stand this heavy sea, with my weak stomach!" 
 
 " We are not near the sea yet," said Katherine soothingly, 
 " and the ship is quite steady. If you don't think about it, 
 you won't feel ill. Try to sleep while you can before it 
 gets really rough." 
 
 " I can't sleep ! Give me some brandy !" wailed Mrs. Bel- 
 lamy. " Do, my blessed creature, get the bottle quick 
 you see I can't lift a hand to help myself. What have you 
 done with my brandy?" 
 
 Katherine still remonstrated, recommending courage and 
 repose as more efficacious than brandy; upon which the 
 wretched woman tumbled desperately out of bed in search 
 of the latter remedy. Being on her feet, and more sensible 
 of the floating motion than when on her back, her indispo- 
 sition rapidly increased, and she abandoned all attempt at 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 105 
 
 self-control and decency. Her companion, shuddering 
 with disgust, had to go to her assistance as she rolled and 
 groaned upon the floor; the brandy was spilt upon silk 
 dress and carpet, the 
 
 But we won't go into particulars. Suffice it to say that 
 it was a bad case of sea-sickness, and that Katherine, with 
 all her practical experience of the unpleasant duties of a 
 nurse, had a worse time of it in that capacity than she had 
 ever known. As the hours wore on, and the swell of the 
 open Channel, brought up strongly by yesterday's wind, 
 became more and more evidently near, Mrs. Bellamy's suf- 
 ferings and lamentations, and the general offensiveness of 
 the situation, grew almost insupportable to the poor girl, 
 who, few and modest as were her needs, had always reck- 
 oned the most delicate cleanliness of person and surround- 
 ings as the chief of them. 
 
 " If I had taken a steerage passage I could not be worse 
 off," she sighed to herself, with her face against the ship's 
 side, to which she almost clung in her impulse to get as far 
 from Mrs. Bellamy as possible. She had done what she 
 could for that unfortunate woman, and, having opened the 
 scuttle for fresh air, lay in her own bunk, longing for a 
 steward to bring her flat-bottomed can of morning water, 
 that she might wash her face and hands and get away from 
 this chamber of horrors. Bath-rooms were not ; the gentle- 
 men were hosed on deck at an early hour, and the ladies did 
 as they could with their own little tubs and basins, so that 
 no escape in that direction was possible ; and the tin bath 
 under the bed, that had come on board as a box of clothes, 
 was useless for the present. 
 
 " Oh, do fetch the doctor !" groaned Mrs. Bellamy, between 
 her noisier paroxysms. " Oh, do give me a drop of brandy ! 
 Oh, if I ever live to get back to Australia you won't catch 
 me going to sea again ! O o oh !" And she burst into a 
 wild roar that might have been heard at the other end of 
 the ship. 
 
 At the earliest possible moment Katherine scrambled 
 into her clothes and went in search of the doctor. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SOME young under-stewards were preparing the cuddy 
 table for breakfast under the supervision of their chief, and 
 Katherine was about to inquire of one of them the doctor's 
 whereabouts, when the captain came down the companion 
 hatch and intercepted her. She was annoyed to find herself 
 
io6 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 always getting in his way, and drew back without looking 
 at him to let him pass ; but when his quick eye fell upon 
 her quiet, unsmiling face a restful contrast to Mrs. Bro- 
 die's he bade her a pleasant good-morning and asked her 
 how she did. And when she replied, " Quite well, thank 
 you," he congratulated her on the circumstance, which he 
 said was rather surprising, considering the provocation to 
 be otherwise which she must have had. " That woman" 
 indicating Mrs. Bellamy with a thumb over his shoulder 
 " is enough to make a whole ship's company sea-sick. Can't 
 you persuade her to make a little less row about it?" 
 
 " She is very ill," said Katherine. " I am looking for the 
 doctor to see if he can do anything for her." 
 
 " Oh, the doctor's no use; besides, he's better employed. 
 A case of consumption hemorrhage." As he spoke, Mrs. 
 Bellamy's distracting moans and cries culminated in another 
 paroxysm, and a pitiful cry for " M'dear," to which he replied 
 by summoning a brawny stewardess, and ordering Kath- 
 erine to go up on deck and get an appetite for breakfast 
 which she proceeded to do with great alacrity, and without 
 risking recapture at the hands of her tormentor by fetching 
 hat or shawl. 
 
 But as she laid her hand on the companion-rail she was 
 arrested by the solemn face of Elvira Brodie, peering from 
 behind the red curtain that masked her passage. " Oh, good- 
 morning, dear," the girl called brightly, stretching her 
 right hand towards the child. " Are you dressed already? 
 Then come up on deck with me, and we'll have a little walk 
 together." 
 
 Elvira stole out cautiously, looking with fearful eyes after 
 the captain as he disappeared towards his cabin under the 
 stairs. She was now dressed in pink merino, which was 
 warm and comfortable, but her frock was not hooked, nor 
 her petticoats fastened under it. 
 
 " Please, Miss Knowles, I want the doctor," she said, as 
 Katherine turned her round to repair the deficiencies. 
 
 " What, the doctor again ! Is your mother ill, too?" 
 
 Elvira paused for a moment, and then said gravely, " She's 
 not my mother." 
 
 " Not your mother?" echoed Katherine. " Well, now, 
 that's just exactly what I thought. I felt all along that she 
 couldn't be your real mother." 
 
 " She's my mar-r," said Elvira. Disregarding the laugh 
 with which this statement was received, she continued 
 reprovingly " It's only vulgar children that say 'mother,' 
 I'm a young lady." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 107 
 
 " Oh, you poor, pathetic little soul !" cried Katherine, 
 kissing her. " Well, then, go and tell your mamma that 
 the doctor is with a sick gentleman, and ask her if I can do 
 anything for her." 
 
 Elvira went, and, returning, invited her friend to Mrs. 
 Brodie's cabin a most ornamental apartment, befrilled 
 and beribboned in the gayest manner, and to an extent 
 that considerably interfered with the passage of such fresh 
 air as might happen to come that way. Its occupant lay 
 in her bunk, wearing a gorgeous night-gown, her hands 
 covered with rings, and her hair dressed (and evidently 
 freshly dressed) in braided coronet and padded chignon, as 
 it had appeared yesterday. She said she was not actually 
 sick yet, but felt it coming on badly, and she believed the 
 doctor could give her something to check it. It was his 
 business as a ship's doctor and a gentleman and she was 
 sure by the look of him that he was a gentleman to attend 
 to ladies first. " Would you, my dear Miss Knowles, be so 
 very kind as to find him and ask him from me with my 
 compliments as a special favour to come and see me for 
 just one minute," she pleaded plaintively, in her high- 
 pitched voice. 
 
 Katherine said she would do her best to find him, and 
 asked for Elvira's hat, that she might afterwards take the 
 child on deck with her. But Mrs. Brodie sharply insisted 
 on keeping her daughter below, that she might have some- 
 body to wait upon her. She did not want her in the cabin, 
 but ordered her to sit in the cuddy near by, in readiness to 
 be called when needed. Elvira said, " Yes, mar," and, tak- 
 ing a seat at the half -furnished breakfast-table, sat there 
 with solemn patience, like a small automaton. Katherine 
 chanced to meet the doctor in the saloon, and delivered Mrs. 
 Brodie's message to that good-looking and apparently zeal- 
 ous youth. 
 
 " Certainly with pleasure in one moment," he replied. 
 " The captain has asked me to look at another case first a 
 rather bad one that the stewardess has reported." 
 
 " Oh, Mrs. Bellamy," said Katherine. And with a sense 
 of relief at being rid of all further responsibility, she went 
 upstairs. 
 
 It was a morning of mornings, and its sudden, airy beauty 
 was doubly exhilarating after the wretched imprison- 
 ment of the night. The rain had cleared off, and the 
 sun was shining, and a wild wind was sweeping wave 
 and cloud before it, and the horizon was tilting in several 
 directions. Such a sense of rushing life and exulting free- 
 
io8 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 dom came to her as she paced the buoyant deck and looked 
 round upon sky and sea for it was sea now, to all intents 
 and purposes, though the tug was still floundering ahead and 
 the pilot watching from the poop forward that she could 
 not but rejoice in her human existence, all its sorrows not- 
 withstanding. Sea-sick ! She had never felt less conscious 
 of her body than now, as she bathed in the infinite and 
 exquisite salt air. 
 
 In a little while the captain emerged from the companion 
 hatch, and his observant eyes, lighting upon her sharply- 
 outlined figure, had a sudden perception of its uncommon 
 strength and shapeliness. It was a pleasure, he said to 
 himself, to see a woman with such a back, and such a car- 
 riage, and such a splendid look of health ; and he regarded 
 her with distinct satisfaction for fully half a minute. Then 
 he walked towards her, and said abruptly : " Miss Knowles, 
 I find that person in your cabin is not merely sea-sick ; she's 
 drunk. She's been drinking from a private bottle." 
 
 " She has," said Katherine. " But I couldn't help it." 
 
 " We'll help it in future I'll see to that. But I'd no idea 
 she was such a pig of a creature. You must have had a 
 horrible night of it." 
 
 " It was not pleasant. But I suppose these things must 
 happen on board ship one must take one's luck. I am 
 better able to bear it than a delicate woman." 
 
 " I am not going to allow you to bear it any longer," said 
 he, and he looked at her consideringly as he turned the 
 matter over in his mind. " We have one cabin disengaged, 
 and if we get more passengers than we expect at Plymouth 
 which is not likely we can send the chief mate or the 
 doctor, or both of them, below. And the doctor shall tell 
 her that she can't stand the motion aft, and we'll move her 
 out after breakfast." 
 
 " Had I not better move?" 
 
 " No. I prefer to keep you as a neighbour. Besides, 
 she'll be better off in the other place, as well as we; she 
 really won't feel the motion half as much, and she can wal- 
 low there to her heart's content without annoying decent 
 people except the doctor, and he don't matter. Her door 
 will open into the same passage as his, so he can keep an 
 eye on her." 
 
 " Poor doctor !" 
 
 The captain shrugged his shoulders slightly ; he did not 
 condescend to consider the convenience of that charming 
 youth. 
 
 The steward's great bell summoned the cabin company 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 109 
 
 to breakfast, and, when all had assembled, Katherine found 
 herself the only lady at table, with the exception of Elvira, 
 whom she invited to sit beside her. The rest were sea-sick 
 in their cabins, and several of the gentlemen were in a sim- 
 ilar case. Mr. Barrett was still able to enjoy beefsteak and 
 fried sausages, and his cabin mate, the pompous clergyman, 
 forgot to feel unwell in the pleasurable excitement of mak- 
 ing the acquaintance of another clergyman, a Mr. Goodfel- 
 low, who had come on board overnight, and was bound for 
 Australia as a missionary to a heathen land. He was a 
 pale and spare young man, in a collar that fastened at the 
 back of his neck and a waistcoat that buttoned under his 
 arm articles that in those days were the badge of an 
 extreme sacerdotalism, especially when a little gold cross 
 on a plain guard dangled on the surface of the latter, as 
 in the present case. A High Churchman, Mr. Goodfellow 
 stood confessed, whereas Mr. Parker's vest buttons and 
 necktie proclaimed him evangelical; but this difference 
 was ignored at present, and they fraternised across the 
 table on the common ground of their profession with an 
 edifying cordiality. Then there was a devoted husband 
 supposed to be a bridegroom who spent all his breakfast 
 time in rushing to and from his invisible wife, carrying 
 portions of every dish on the table in turn, and bringing 
 them back untasted. Most of these persons looked at Kath- 
 erine in a way that, she said, made her ashamed of feeling 
 so well and hungry. 
 
 " Why is it, Elvira, that you and I are not invalids too?" 
 she said, as she gave the child a second helping of fried fish. 
 
 Elvira looked up, and answered gravely, " Ma said I 
 wasn't to be ill." 
 
 The captain sputtered, and ejaculated : " What an exem- 
 plary daughter ! And that's why you're well and hearty, 
 eh? What do you suppose ma would have done to you if 
 you had disobeyed her?" 
 
 " Slapped me," said Elvira. 
 
 " I do believe she would," he returned, with a roar of 
 laughter. 
 
 " Hush sh," breathed Katherine, looking down. 
 
 He took this remonstrance in good part, though he was 
 the ship's commander and monarch of all he surveyed. " I 
 should like," he returned in an undertone, "to put her 
 through a little catechism. She's naturally a candid child, 
 and the result would be most interesting." 
 
 Shortly after this he went on deck, for it was time to part 
 with the^tug, and spread all the white wings that were 
 
no NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 now folded to the splendid Channel breeze. And before 
 the ship began to tumble and reel tinder the pressure of sail 
 more uncomfortably than she did already, the doctor pro- 
 posed to move Mrs. Bellamy up to the deck, if she would 
 go, and, if not, to her new cabin. He asked Katherine to 
 help him. " She calls for you," he said, " and the stewardess 
 cannot manage her at all." 
 
 When they entered the cabin together, Mrs. Bellamy was 
 discovered in tears, alternately bewailing her miserable 
 condition and vehemently abusing the stewardess, who 
 stood, with arms akimbo, looking calmly down upon her. 
 The stewardess, it appeared, had confiscated the medical 
 comforts and inflexibly refused to restore them. Appeals 
 to her feelings as a woman and a mother, and bribes of 
 various kinds, had been tried in vain, and she was now 
 violently threatened with the loss of her situation and char- 
 acter and other pains and penalties. 
 
 " How dare you insult a lady who has paid for her passage 
 and is well enough off to buy up the whole lot of you?" poor 
 Mrs. Bellamy demanded in gasps, between her paroxysms 
 of helpless suffering. " Am I to die in the night, when my 
 faints come on? But I know what you women are you 
 only want to drink it yourself. And I was going to give 
 you a five-pound note if you had treated me properly. Oh, 
 dear! Oh, dear! And there you stand, and don't care if 
 I'm torn to pieces. I'll tell the captain what sort of stew- 
 ardess he's got to wait on first-class ladies, and if he doesn't 
 pack you off I'll complain to the owners, and they'll make 
 him. They know they won't get the trade if their passen- 
 gers are treated this way ugh ah! Where's that dear 
 young lady gone to? She won't stand by and see a fellow- 
 creature die before her eyes, and not lift a hand to help her." 
 
 Despite her repugnance, Katherine hastened forward to 
 hold the poor creature's head and otherwise soothe her per- 
 turbation. " You will soon be better," said the girl encour- 
 agingly ; " the doctor and the captain think it is the motion 
 at this end of the ship that makes you so ill, and they are 
 going to give you another cabin in the middle a nicer one, 
 all to yourself two whole berths for the price of one 
 
 " I won't go into another cabin I won't go away from 
 you," Mrs. Bellamy burst out, attempting an embrace. 
 " You're my only friend, and I'll never leave you." 
 
 "I will come and see you," said Katherine, "and you 
 won't be ill when you are nearer the middle of the ship. 
 You will be able to walk about and enjoy yourself like 
 other people." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. in 
 
 " But if I'm bad in the night, what then? I sha'n't have 
 my little drop by me it's only medicine, but she won't let 
 me have it and how am I to get at the steward in the mid- 
 dle of the night? I might die, with nobody to help me. 
 That's what they want," concluded the victim, with a burst 
 of tears. 
 
 " Oh, no ; it's only that they must keep to the regulations, 
 you know. It would never do for us all to have our stores 
 in our own cabins, and they can't make distinctions between 
 us. And if you should really be ill -in the night, why, the 
 doctor will be close beside you he will give you what you 
 want." She looked at the doctor as she spoke, and the 
 handsome youth returned her glance reproachfully. 
 
 Then he retired for a few minutes, while the two nurses 
 hauled Mrs. Bellamy from her bed, and provisionally clothed 
 her a task only to be accomplished by an extreme exercise 
 of strength and hard-hearted resolution ; and, surgeon and 
 steward coming to their aid when all was ready, the huge 
 woman, helpless and groaning, was conveyed through the 
 cuddy to her new abode. There the stewardess, who could 
 not afford to throw away five-pound notes, made her peace 
 with the invalid, and took command of the situation gen- 
 erally ; she had the effects of her charge transferred, and 
 bestowed conveniently around her ; and relenting, by offi- 
 cial permission administered a little dose of brandy, with 
 which the doctor had mixed some soothing drug. Once 
 more Katherine felt herself free, and hastened to her cabin 
 for her jacket and hat. And once more Elvira intercepted 
 her. 
 
 " Ma wants the doctor," said the solemn child. 
 
 " But she has had the doctor once," Katherine answered 
 impatiently. 
 
 " She wants him again," Elvira insisted. 
 
 " Oh, well, just you go and tell her to get some clothes 
 on and come up on deck," said Katherine, hard-heartedly. 
 " That will do her more good than the doctor." 
 
 She ran upstairs without waiting for a reply. And Elvira 
 continued to stand like a sentinel at the foot of the steps, 
 and to announce to all and sundry that ma wanted the 
 doctor, unheeded. 
 
 Such a sea morning it was ! No such mornings ever break 
 on land. The pure blue sky, with windy, white clouds 
 streaming over it like celestial fleets in full sail the lumi- 
 nous sheen of transparent water, swelling and swirling and 
 breaking into foam and spray as the ship stooped and rose 
 to the Channel surges like an old-fashioned lady curtseying 
 
ii2 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 in a minuet the gallant breeze, that seemed to sweep the 
 world, the very breath of life and liberty and joy were 
 indeed medicines that no doctor's potion could rival, both 
 for body and soul. The tug had just cast off, and was 
 tossing astern, like a child's toy, in the short but heavy 
 seas ; and all hands were making sail, to the wild music of 
 their own hoarse but mellow throats. The shouts of the 
 mates, the chantings of the men, the whip-like rattle of 
 the unfolding canvas, the grinding of ropes through the 
 blocks, and the slapping of the loose ends and of the sail- 
 ors' bare feet upon the decks, mixed with the rushing sound 
 of wind and wave, were an ecstasy to listen to, so full of 
 the spirit of the ocean morning, so eloquent of the fresh 
 and free and buoyant ocean life, were they. 
 
 For once Katherine felt happy without knowing it, 
 without intending it even though her father, whom she 
 had loved better than her life, was dead, and she was a 
 stranger amongst strangers, alone in the world. Her feet 
 hardly seemed to touch the floating floor as she marched 
 up and down ; her young blood danced in her veins. She 
 had stood not long ago on the sandhills of her own Norfolk 
 coast, between Horsey Mere and the sea, and tried to ima- 
 gine what it would feel like to be winging over that grey 
 plain like this ; but the reality was better than the anticipa- 
 tion which does not often happen in this world. 
 
 By and by the Huntingdonshire dropped anchor in Ply- 
 mouth Sound, and, as a fair wind blew still, Captain Ken- 
 nedy only waited until the whole of his little company was 
 on board to set off again, in tow of another tug, on his long 
 flight across the world. Katherine had a letter from Jim, 
 which incidentally informed her that Neil was busy with his 
 herring fishing at Yarmouth, as usual ; and, with this letter 
 in her pocket, she sat peacefully on deck to watch the 
 shore and the boats of the embarking passengers. First 
 came a family party that squatter family (Spooner by 
 name) to whose arrival Mrs. Brodie had been anxiously 
 looking forward, anticipating congenial society in people 
 who travelled with a maid a fat, farmer-looking father, 
 a fat mother, like a nice old cook, and a bouncing, red- 
 haired, apple-cheeked schoolgirl daughter; people who 
 smiled up at the row of faces along the poop railing and the 
 main-deck bulwark as at so many old friends. The maid 
 was there too a little darke-yed person, smart and active, 
 who was destined to work more havoc with her charms than 
 all the first-class ladies put together. With this party also 
 came Mr. Terry, a neat, grey-haired man, with a watchful 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 113 
 
 eye and a serious demeanour, looking the character he bore, 
 of one who knew his way about the world, and exactly 
 the direction of his own interests. 
 
 Then arrived Mrs. Brodie's major Major Todd another 
 stout passenger, with a big red nos and a ragged black 
 moustache, and an air not quite so smart and trim as a mil- 
 itary man's should be. 
 
 And, after him, there remained but one to complete the 
 list the gentleman who had taken the stern cabin, with its 
 two big windows and its three-berth space, the only pas- 
 senger possessed of a private apartment, except Katherine 
 and Mrs. Bellamy; and he was so late that the captain 
 threatened to sail without him. Being a more experienced 
 traveller than the rest, he had confidently reckoned that 
 the ship would not start at its appointed hour, forgetting 
 to take account of the wind; and thus he came near to 
 being left behind in which case, again, the course of this 
 story would have been altogether different. 
 
 But he came at last, his boatman bustling through the 
 water in response to urgent signals from the ship ; and as 
 he drew near the gangway and looked up at the faces on 
 the poop, Katherine looked down on his and recognised it, 
 with surprise and joy, as that of her long-lost friend of 
 Christmas-time Mr. Forbes Alexander. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IF Forbes Alexander had been forgetting Katherine 
 Knowles and he subsequently declared that he had not 
 done so for a moment all her charm for him returned at 
 once, the instant he caught sight of her. And if the reader 
 has borne in mind the constitution of the Huntingdonshire's 
 passenger list for the saloon, he will be the less surprised to 
 learn that her charm had never been so potent as it became 
 from this moment. 
 
 She stood by the brass rail of the poop, at the top of the 
 starboard ladder, and overlooking the gangway which, 
 having been threateningly closed, was unshipped to receive 
 him; and he hardly waited to see his luggage bundled 
 over the side before he ran up to speak to her. She put 
 her hand in his, and he kept it fast until they both forgot 
 that he was holding it, and, out of the significant sober- 
 ness of their young faces, they looked at each other with 
 eyes that shone with joyful welcome. 
 8 
 
H4 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "What!" cried the young man, as by tacit consent they 
 turned their backs upon curious spectators, " you don't 
 mean to say ? And I never heard a word about it !" 
 
 "It was in the papers," murmured Katherine, looking 
 down. 
 
 " I didn't see it. The fact is, I don't read the English 
 papers much. Jim should have written to me. I told him 
 to be sure to let me know." 
 
 " He says you didn't give him your address." 
 
 " Oh, I did I am sure I did ! At any rate, there were my 
 London agents they always knew. What must you have 
 thought of me, never writing, and taking no notice?" 
 
 " I was sure you didn't know. We concluded you had 
 gone back long ago." 
 
 " I should never have dreamt of going back without see- 
 ing you all again I was just going to hunt up old Jim. I 
 meant to have gone down to Norfolk to see how the Broads 
 looked in summer, but I was suddenly summoned home, 
 and had no more time for anything. I got news that my 
 father was dangerously ill, and I had all I could do to catch 
 this ship." 
 
 " Your father? Oh!" 
 
 " Yes. But he is rather like the boy and the wolf, you 
 know often fancies he is going to die when he has really 
 got nothing to speak of the matter with him. So I am not 
 desperately anxious. I feel sure I shall find him perfectly 
 well when I arrive, and that I have sacrificed half my holi- 
 day for nothing. Still, as he sent for me, of course I had 
 to go." 
 
 " Of course. And I trust you won't be disappointed in 
 your expectations." 
 
 " I sha'n't be disappointed," he exclaimed exultingly. 
 " Little did I imagine I was going to find you aboard the 
 Huntingdonshire when I was scrambling for a berth in 
 her." 
 
 " Did you scramble so very much?" she inquired with a 
 smile. " Your cabin is the best in the ship." 
 
 " It appears to be the best, but it is the worst for bad sail- 
 ors; that's why it's left empty to the last. I assure you it 
 was the only one to be had. Happily, I am seasoned, and 
 can stand the see-saw. They let me have it cheap. It will 
 be awfully nice when we get to the tropics you'll be glad 
 to come there to get cool." 
 
 "I don't, somehow, see myself going there," said Kath- 
 erine. 
 
 " Oh, yes, All the ladies do it. With the door and win- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 115 
 
 dows and the cuddy doors open, and the air blowing right 
 through to the main deck, it's the only place where there's 
 any comfort you'll see. I've brought some extra lounging 
 chairs on purpose for lady visitors." 
 
 Katherine laughed. . " It's very evident you don't be- 
 lieve your father is in any danger," she said. 
 
 " I don't. I was inclined to wish him however, I can't 
 be too thankful to the dear old boy, as it turns out. Who 
 are you travelling with?" 
 
 " Nobody. The captain is supposed to take care of me." 
 
 " How perfectly delightful ! Let me remind you of an 
 old promise, Miss Knowles that under these circumstances, 
 the exact circumstances that have come about, / was to be 
 allowed to take care of you." 
 
 " I don't want care now. The time when I thought I did 
 need a little is over," she answered; " and then Jim did all 
 that was necessary." 
 
 " Happy Jim!" he ejaculated jealously, and feeling him- 
 self reproached, though she had not thought of reproaching 
 him. 
 
 " Now I only require a chaperon, and for that purpose 
 the captain is rather better than you." 
 
 " I suppose so," he laughed, and fell silent for a moment, 
 gazing unseeingly at Mount Edgecombe and the Hoe. 
 " However, when we get into warm latitudes, I will give 
 some tea-parties in my cabin, and you can bring your cha- 
 peron with you and sit there to get cool that will be 
 something." 
 
 " How you do harp on that idea of getting cool, with the 
 wind blowing through one !" With a shiver she turned her 
 back upon the lovely shores that were fast drawing away 
 from them ; she laughed as she pulled her jacket over her 
 chest, but her eyes were moist and her voice unsteady. 
 " And don't you think you had better go to your cabin now, 
 and settle up? I must finish a letter for the pilot's bag." 
 
 They walked aft together, and he stood at the companion- 
 door to let her pass downstairs. " Are you writing to Jim?" 
 he inquired anxiously. 
 
 " No," she replied. " To Mrs. Hammond." 
 
 " Oh !" in a tone of relief. " I only asked because I 
 thought, if you were, you would be kind enough to give a 
 message for me." 
 
 " Do you wish to send Mrs. Hammond a message?" 
 
 " My kindest regards if it won't trouble you. I am very 
 fond of Mrs. Hammond. Tell her I have been summoned 
 home in a hurry ; then she will forgive me for not writing. 
 
n6 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 I always meant to write I promised her I would and some- 
 how never found the time." 
 
 He hurried to his cabin, and proceeded to reduce chaos 
 to comparative order by tossing all his things pell-mell into 
 an empty bunk ; and she went to hers, now clean and sweet 
 and as tidy as possible, and took out the letter that she had 
 not dared to post till the very last moment her excuse to 
 Mrs. Hammond for not accepting that lady's pressing invi- 
 tation, given at the time of the funeral at Weep Hall. It 
 was a lame excuse, or series of excuses, that Mrs. Ham- 
 mond would not be deceived by for a moment, but, such as 
 it was, it had to be sent, and, of course, ought to have been 
 sent long ago. Katherine ventured to send it now, being 
 finally away to sea and out of reach of pursuit. 
 
 She did not want to add the postscript suggested by- 
 Alexander, nor to. say anything about him, lest the suspi- 
 cion of an assignation between them should present itself 
 to the Hammonds, who were not all so delicate-minded as 
 Jim ; but she felt bound to transmit the message that had 
 been entrusted to her. So she wrote hurriedly " Mr. 
 Alexander has just come on board. His father is very ill, 
 and has sent for him. He meant to have stayed in Eng- 
 land some months longer, and to have seen you again, he 
 says. He desires me to give his kindest remembrances to 
 you all. It was a great surprise to us to meet each other." 
 Then she closed her letter, and ran up on deck to give it to 
 the pilot, who was about to cast off. " I am safe now," she 
 said to herself, as she dropped it into the bag. " It doesn't 
 matter what he knows, or what I do I am out of his reach 
 at last !" 
 
 This was just one of those vain boasts that Fate never 
 allows us to make with impunity. 
 
 Dinner was over, and the breezy evening drawing on a 
 long and lovely evening in the dawn of June. Most of the 
 passengers, old and new, had come up to enjoy it, and to 
 see the last of land, the invalids having taken advantage of 
 the ship being stationary to make the otherwise impossible 
 effort. Mrs. Bellamy, aided by a well-fee 'd steward and 
 the stewardess, had been hoisted aloft, and into her deck 
 chair, and now sat there forlornly, a huddled mass of pur- 
 ple satin and Paisley shawl, her momentary exhilaration 
 dying away as the motion increased, and her complexion 
 taking the colour of tallow under the fixed mottlings of the 
 outer skin. Mrs. Brodie lay on the slope of the open sky- 
 light in a furred cloak, thrown open to display a laced and 
 ribboned dressing-gown, with frilled pillows under her 
 

 NOT ALL M VAIN. it? 
 
 head, looking very interesting, the faithful Elvira, with 
 fan and smelling-bottle, standing like a sentinel at her side. 
 Mrs. Orme, the bride, a sentimental little person, who 
 kissed her husband in public, was being tenderly trotted 
 up and down the deck for the good of her health by that 
 most devoted bridegroom. 
 
 Katherine passed them all, and went right aft behind the 
 wheel, and there stood and leaned upon the rail alone, to 
 say farewell to England, and Jim, and her father's grave, 
 and her sad but far from uninteresting girl life ; the last 
 blue streak that meant all this was fading into mist and 
 blankness, and it wrung her heart to see it go even though 
 Neil went with it. Once more her eyes, that so seldom 
 wept, were blinded with quiet tears, and she took out her 
 handkerchief stealthily, hoping no one would see her 
 use it. 
 
 Nevertheless, when Alexander came softly to her side, 
 she did not feel intruded upon ; already she had the sense 
 of not minding him. She even turned her wet eyes to him 
 with an apologetic smile. 
 
 " After this," he said gently, " you mustn't look back any 
 more you must look forward." And he began to talk to 
 her about Belle and Joe and the children, and so distracted 
 her attention from the blue line on the horizon that, at the 
 last, she hardly noticed its disappearance. 
 
 They were disturbed by Elvira, with a message from ma. 
 
 " Please, Miss Knowles, ma says will you kindly come 
 and speak to her for a moment." 
 
 " Certainly, Elvira," said Katherine, turning cheerfully. 
 " Mr. Alexander, let me introduce you to the youngest lady 
 of our company and a great friend of mine Miss Elvira 
 Brodie." 
 
 The child bowed with the utmost gravity and dignity, 
 and the young man shook hands with her and said he hoped 
 she would be a friend of his too, as he and Miss Knowles 
 had been friends for a long while ; to which Elvira shyly 
 murmured" Yes," with a wonderful softening of her solemn 
 and anxious face. It was part of his pleasant manners and 
 instinctive tact and good-heartedness to take children seri- 
 ously, with the same regard for their little feelings as for 
 those of grown-up people, particularly in the case of incipi- 
 ent women of her type ; and poor Elvira was so accustomed 
 to be regarded as a joke, sent into the world for the enter- 
 tainment of ribald adults, mostly of his sex, and suffered 
 so keenly (unknown to them) in consequence, that the 
 effect of this novel treatment was to win her heart at once. 
 
n8 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 She loved Mr. Alexander on the spot, and for ever after- 
 wards. 
 
 They all walked towards Mrs. Brodie's skylight, whereon 
 she lay, and watched them with a seraphic smile. 
 
 " Dear Miss Knowles, might I ask you to be so very kind 
 as to give me an arm downstairs?" she begged. " I'm afraid 
 I don't feel quite strong enough to walk alone." 
 
 Of course Alexander said, " Allow me, "and, having been 
 introduced by Katherine, hastened to assist the invalid 
 which was exactly what she wanted. In the tenderest man- 
 ner he wrapped her shawl about her, and steadied her tot- 
 tering footsteps along the sloping deck, and all but carried 
 her down the companion-stairs ; so that by the time they 
 reached her cabin door, and it was the doctor's part to 
 attend upon her, she felt that the stern-cabin passenger was 
 virtually her own. 
 
 Katherine was following with the frilled pillows, but was 
 arrested by a piteous call from Mrs. Bellamy, who also 
 wanted to be assisted downstairs. Had Alexander been at 
 liberty, he would as readily have given his arm to her as to 
 Mrs. Brodie; but he was gone, and nobody remained on 
 deck who cared to put himself out for the objectionable 
 person at whom the first-class turned up an almost unani- 
 mous nose. The sight of her, deserted and helpless, 
 touched the girl's heart, and, flinging down the pillows, 
 she went to the rescue at once. 
 
 Groaning and swaying from side to side, so as to make it 
 difficult for Katherine to keep her feet, Mrs. Bellamy was 
 conveyed downstairs and into her new cabin, where the first 
 thing she did was to clasp her young friend in a maudlin 
 and slobbering embrace. 
 
 " Oh, you dear creature, what should I do without you? 
 But /'// see that you're no loser by it trust Martha Bel- 
 lamy! Where's that box gone?" fumbling with tremu- 
 lous haste amongst her mass of miscellaneous property. 
 " Here, unlock it for me, there's a good girl I want to get 
 something." 
 
 Katherine unlocked a small, stout box, and Mrs. Bellamy 
 plunged in her hand and drew from its lowest depths a 
 massive gold bracelet set with carbuncles. " There" said 
 she, in a wavering tone of triumph, " you just take that" 
 and immediately sought the hand-basin with a heart-rend- 
 ing groan. 
 
 Katherine, having seen her would-be benefactress through 
 the immediate paroxysm and laid upon her bed, returned 
 the bracelet, as a matter of course, assuring the donor as 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 119 
 
 delicately as she could that her services were given gratis 
 and could not possibly be paid for in any such way; 
 which refusal to be substantially benefited was as bewilder- 
 ing to Mrs. Bellamy as her misplaced generosity had been 
 to Katherine. The good woman took it for a becoming 
 bashfulness, and strove to set the girl at her ease. 
 
 " Don't you think for a moment that you 're robbing me 
 / don't want it. I've got plenty more, and, if not, I can 
 buy 'em whenever I want to." There was an interval of 
 gasps and sighs, during which she perceived that her words 
 made no impression, and she struggled on to fuller expla- 
 nations. " I'm well off, my dear, though I've known the 
 day when I couldn't see where my next meal was to come 
 from. We done well on the diggings we kept a general 
 store there, and a bar most respectable it was, for I never 
 would have anything else and better than the best claim 
 for getting profits regular ; and when he died he left me 
 well, I won't say what he left me; it's better not to let them 
 things get about, when you're a lone woman without chick 
 or child, and a lot of fortune-hunting chaps ready to pounce 
 down on you. But I've got what'll buy up all the people 
 on this ship, unless it's Mr. Spooner, who's a solid man, as 
 everybody knows. So don't you make a fuss about a trump- 
 ery bracelet, but just take and wear it, like a good girl, to 
 please me." 
 
 Still Katherine would have none of it. And when Mrs. 
 Bellamy at last discovered this, she wept. 
 
 "I believe it's just because I'm a common woman, and 
 you won't be beholden to me." This was her last and most 
 potent argument, to which Katherine was for a moment 
 tempted to succumb. 
 
 " Dear Mrs. Bellamy, you know it isn't that ! But I don't 
 care for jewellery, and you see I am in mourning and 
 couldn't wear it if I had it. Besides, I want you to feel 
 that I like to do what I can for you, because because we 
 are friends," Katherine recklessly concluded, in the kind- 
 ness of her heart, and her desire that Mrs. Bellamy should 
 not suppose herself regarded as a common woman. 
 \ The response to this speech was another tearful embrace. 
 
 " And a friend you'll find me that you shall and I'll find 
 ways of showing it, in spite of you you'll see ! From the 
 minute I set eyes on you I loved you. You are the only 
 soul on this here ship that's had what I call a fellow-feel- 
 ing, and I sha'n't forget it. Martha Bellamy isn't the sort 
 to forget them that treats her well. Give me a kiss, darlin', 
 and and the basin quick !" 
 
120 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Katherine withheld the kiss, but otherwise comforted and 
 composed the invalid put her to bed and tucked her up, got 
 the stewardess to set the cabin in order, and the doctor to 
 administer a soothing dose; and then, with a good con- 
 science, ran up on deck to find a little amusement for her- 
 self in the pleasant company of Forbes Alexander. 
 
 He was impatiently waiting and looking for her, and 
 nearly everybody else had retired, sea-sick, from the scene. 
 It wanted a couple of hours to bed-time still, and the even- 
 ing, though cold, was glorious. The ship was well on her 
 way through the long Atlantic surges, a terror to the timid 
 passengers below as she lay over to the wind, the lee rail 
 of the main-deck bulwarks almost flush with the racing 
 foam, but a joy to young eyes looking up at her glimmer- 
 ing canvas from the deck, marking her strong, bird-like 
 passage through the infinite mystery of the lovely and 
 lonely night. 
 
 "Was there ever," said Katherine, unoriginally, as she 
 sank into her chair, securely propped against the mast, 
 " was there ever such a wonderful example of what man's 
 intelligence can do?" 
 
 " Never," said Forbes Alexander, as he wrapped her round 
 in his opossum rug, which he had brought upstairs for the 
 purpose. 
 
 And then they settled themselves for a comfortable gos- 
 sip about all that had happened to them respectively since 
 the parting at Weep Hall. 
 
 Katherine was not a great talker, and had soon told her 
 tale all of it that she could tell ; Forbes, as a pleasant and 
 popular young man of the world, was both fluent and well- 
 informed, and liked to hear his own voice and sentiments 
 probably because he found people as a rule liked to listen 
 to them; so he prattled freely of himself, and how he spent 
 the time during which it had mistakenly appeared that he 
 had forgotten her. It was a history of sport for the most 
 part, the diversions of a young man of means and leisure, 
 holiday-making at the country houses of well-to-do gentle- 
 folk, the interesting experiences that his father's message 
 had cut short for they had evidently been very interest- 
 ing. He confessed to having enjoyed himself extremely 
 since leaving the Hammonds' house, and smiled to himself 
 now and then in a way that made Katherine jealous of the 
 people who had entertained him. 
 
 " It's a pity," she said, " that your poor father should have 
 had so little regard for your convenience." 
 
 Upon which he again assured her that his father had 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 121 
 
 acted the part of the angel unawares, and that nothing had 
 happened to himself that could be compared with the pres- 
 ent moment. It was the spring, he exclaimed, the English 
 spring, that had made all his enjoyment since he had been 
 deprived of her companionship; nothing else had been 
 needed to detain and absorb him. He had not found any 
 great charm in trolling for " jack" with the Hammond boys 
 on a grey day in mid-winter, up and down those misty 
 Norfolk streams; nor in stalking the miscellaneous wild 
 fowl that made their abode there at that season ; nor even 
 in hunting with the hounds across country, born rider 
 though he was. Well used to roughing it in the Australian 
 fashion, he had not taken kindly to the cold and gloom 
 of English Christmas weather Australians never did. It 
 was only charming as a background for fire-light and holly 
 berries, and things of that sort. His idyllic English 
 Christmas was all indoors. 
 
 But the English spring it happened in this favoured year 
 to sustain its romantic reputation had it not been (he put 
 it to her) too beautiful for words? She, already looking 
 back on her native land with the eyes of an exile, assented 
 with enthusiasm, seeing the little perfumed fields that he 
 described as carpeted with cowslips and cuckoo flowers, and 
 smelling the ripe hay that never got its scent dried out of 
 it, and hearing the scraping of the whetstone on the scythe 
 a discord once, but music now in her memory of it ; and 
 she believed his statement that these charms alone had 
 bound him. When he talked of larch plantations in their 
 young leaves, and of finding real " English" primroses 
 growing in their beds of matted moss and crinkled leaves 
 in the damp recesses of green lanes and woods, and real 
 " English" May rioting at its sweet will in overrunning 
 hedge-rows, she saw that he was a lover of nature after 
 her own heart ; and she told him how the forget-me-nots 
 grew like weeds around her Norfolk Broads, and of the rare 
 and curious birds that swarmed in the rushy wildernesses 
 during the breeding season. Then he talked of Scotland 
 rapturously; Scotland was the birthplace of his family. 
 Had she any idea of what Scotland, mountain Scotland, 
 was in a fine April? And the fascination of trout-fishing 
 with flies he had never understood it when Jim used 
 to rave, but he did now; and he described his delicious 
 experiences as a new-chum fisherman in picturesque detail. 
 Katherine had never been in Scotland, but when it came 
 to fishing she could talk as well as he. Many a day had 
 she paddled about with Jim and his sisters, when they were 
 
122 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 children together, catching roach and rudd, and perch and 
 tench, with their little rods and worms and pellets of paste ; 
 and many an artful fly had her capable fingers manufactured 
 for the more scientific sport of their later years. In the 
 matter of angling lore she could give him "points," and 
 did seeing her beautiful lilied meres in her mind's eye, 
 smelling the meadow-sweet that grew under the reed-walls 
 whose coping of grass-feathers and brown bulrushes tow- 
 ered above even her tall head. She could have talked on 
 this theme all night. 
 
 But her chaperon, who had kept an eye upon her, came 
 up presently to say that it was approaching ten o'clock in 
 the manner of a schoolmaster ordering a laggard pupil off 
 to bed. Captain Kennedy did not for a moment believe 
 that Miss Knowles and the stern-cabin passenger had met 
 "promiscuous" on board the Huntingdonshire that day, 
 though they had both assured him that it was so. He said 
 to himself, with a sensation of disgust, that, after all, that 
 girl, who looked so different, was just the same as all the 
 rest of them. 
 
 So she was, no doubt a woman compounded of the nor- 
 mal materials and fully developed and complete subject 
 therefore to the needs and passions, the common experi- 
 ences of her kind. Taking which and other circumstances 
 into consideration, it was not so very surprising that things 
 should fall out as they were doing. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 IT was the first Sunday at sea Whitsunday and the 
 sweetest blue June weather, with a breeze that gave nearly 
 three hundred knots to the gallant, full-sailed ship. Like 
 magic the sick passengers revived, when they saw and 
 smelt the morning that it was, and thought about their 
 appearance once more, and the Sunday proprieties, and 
 the general concerns of life. Mr. Forbes Alexander, shin- 
 ing like the sun with health and handsomeness, skipped 
 upstairs after breakfast to look for Katherine, and found 
 himself in tow of the Spooner family, who greeted him as 
 a fellow-countryman and brother, and asked him if it wasn't 
 delightful to be getting home to a decent climate again. 
 He said it was indeed delightful, and never mentioned the 
 beauties of the English spring and of the highlands of Scot- 
 land in April. As soon as he could extricate himself, Miss 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 123 
 
 Knowles being still invisible, he slipped down to his cabin, 
 lit his pipe, and subsided upon the well-padded sofa that 
 curved under his stern windows, through which the sweet 
 air blew his tobacco smoke not quite in the right direction. 
 
 He had his roomy apartment to himself, and he made it 
 extremely comfortable largely with a view to tea-parties, 
 doubtless. He had stacked his extra bunk with the unor- 
 namental necessaries, and covered it with a handsome rug. 
 He had spread his divan with Tasmanian opossum skins 
 and a pile of soft and gorgeous pillows which the bulkhead 
 casing the steering-gear kept in place; he had lined his 
 walls with pictures, carved shelves and lockers, and a lav- 
 ish variety of useful and artistic articles. At first he had 
 had put the ladies* chairs, and the portable table, but they 
 had immediately set about breaking each other's legs and 
 his, so that they had to be lashed up and stowed away again 
 till wanted. And it was a pity that a sea came in through 
 the port-hole, which he had not properly fastened, just as 
 his work was finished, and ruined his smart carpet and 
 satin bedquilt for ever. Nevertheless, the stern cabin 
 was, and remained, the prettiest cabin on the ship ; he used 
 (when not smoking there) to leave the door open so that 
 the ladies could see how pretty it was, peeping over the 
 hand-rail as they went up the companion-stairs ; and it was 
 no time before they possessed themselves of the history of 
 all his treasures knew the names of his books, the sub- 
 jects of his photographs, the texture of his stuffs, as well 
 as if they were their own. Only one thing eluded their 
 devouring curiosity even Mrs. Brodie never discovered it 
 a handsomely-framed photograph of a handsome dark- 
 eyed girl in a Scotch cap and plaid, with a fishing-rod in 
 her hand. This work of art had been destined for the place 
 of honour amongst the ornaments of his sea-parlour, and 
 well merited such distinction, but did not get it. When 
 arranging his pictures he gazed at the pretty face with 
 wistful indecision for a long time, and then laid it down- 
 wards at the bottom of his biggest trunk. There it re- 
 mained, and long before the voyage was over he had for- 
 gotten that he had it. 
 
 He was enjoying his pipe, and the amusement of listen- 
 ing to a very audible flirtation between a steward and the 
 Spooners' maid, who had been breakfasting in the saloon 
 after the passengers had left it, when his ear caught the 
 sound of a creeping step outside his door. 
 
 " Come in, little woman," he shouted. But Elvira did 
 not dare to come in. He had to get up from his pillows to 
 
124 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 admit her. There she stood, in her absurd short flounces 
 and beribboned, sleeveless arms, solemn as ever, but with 
 a certain brightness of eye that was noticeable only when 
 she looked at him. He drew her in and planted her on the 
 sofa, where she sat bolt upright, shy but satisfied. Evi- 
 dently it was not her first clandestine visit. 
 
 " They're going to have church," she remarked, sedately. 
 
 "What? Where? Oh, you've come to fetch me, have 
 you? Where's Miss Knowles?" 
 
 " She's been helping Mrs. Bellamy to get dressed." 
 
 " Again? Dear, dear, when is Mrs. Bellamy going to do 
 for herself, I wonder? I wish she was further, don't you? 
 She's always taking Miss Knowles away from us." 
 
 "Ma says I am not to dislike Mrs. Bellamy now," said 
 Elvira, gravely. 
 
 " Of course not. It's very wrong to dislike people. All 
 the copy-books say so." 
 
 " She has given ma a beautiful bracelet with red stones 
 in it." 
 
 " Really? Now what made her do that, I wonder?" 
 
 " Major Todd wants to teach her to play cards." 
 
 " Eh? Oh, I see. Well, Elvira, I hope we are not going 
 to be asked not to dislike Major Todd, for we really can't 
 do it, you know." 
 
 " I wish he was dead," said Elvira, with the utmost calm- 
 ness. 
 
 Alexander jumped. " Oh, no, no !" he protested. " We 
 don't go so far as that. That would be wicked, you know." 
 
 " I do," she persisted. " I hate him. He says his second 
 cousin is an earl." 
 
 " Well, there's no particular harm in that that I can see." 
 
 " I think he wants to marry my ma." 
 
 "Nonsense, nonsense; don't you get any such ideas into 
 your little head. Your mamma knows better than to be 
 taken in by a where have I put my prayer-book to, I won- 
 der? I'm almost afraid I haven't brought one, Elvira. 
 What's to be done? I shall have to ask Miss Knowles to 
 let me look over hers." He was rummaging his drawers for 
 what he knew was not in them, in order that she might not 
 see him laugh. 
 
 " You shall look with me," she said, getting off the sofa. 
 " I think it is time to put my hat on. Mr. Goodfellow is 
 getting ready. He's got a red band round his neck and 
 hanging down in front." 
 
 "Good gracious! You don't say so. What will Mr. 
 Parker say to that?" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 125 
 
 " Mr. Parker has got a black surplice on with big sleeves. 
 It makes him look very fat, especially when the wind blows 
 through him." 
 
 " I should think so." 
 
 " And two little white neckties under his chin. And the 
 sailors have put some flags over that thing on the deck, 
 to have church with. And there's a harmonium. Miss 
 Spooner is going to play it." 
 
 " Then it's high time for us to be going, Elvira. If we're 
 late we sha'n't get a nice seat." 
 
 " Yes, we shall. She told me she'd keep it for us." 
 
 So they went upstairs, where the congregation, drawn 
 from 'tween deck and steerage as well as fo'castle and 
 saloon, were already gathered around the " thing," at which 
 stood the two clergymen, eying each other's sacerdotal 
 vestments with mutual dismay ; and while " church" was 
 being celebrated the three friends remained together at the 
 aftermost end of the hen-coops, Forbes and Katherine shar- 
 ing the same book, and Elvira between them (her mother 
 lay on the skylight, with one devout eye on her prayer-book 
 and the other on Major Todd) ; and never had there been, 
 they thought, a Sunday morning like this one. 
 
 After this they walked up and down, saturating them- 
 selves with the peace and brightness of the fair sky and the 
 shining sea. Then came dinner, and one friend had to 
 separate himself from the other two by almost the length 
 of the well-filled table Alexander having his seat near his 
 own berth aft. But in the middle of dinner a steward 
 with a bottle came to Katherine 's elbow, and asked in a 
 low voice if Mr. Alexander might have the pleasure of tak- 
 ing wine with her a little custom that prevailed in those 
 old times ; and when she leaned forward to look down the 
 table the young man was leaning forward too, with his 
 filled glass in his hand, and their eyes met smiling a con- 
 tented consciousness of their mutual intimacy in this mis- 
 cellaneous crowd of strangers. Eyes can say as much in 
 one moment as tongues in an hour, and there are times 
 when faces (and theirs, that were now the handsomest to 
 be seen, had charms undiscerned in more brilliant com- 
 pany) become suddenly transfigured, nobody can tell how. 
 
 Mrs. Bellamy had come to table for the first time, and 
 was supporting her precarious position thereat with cham- 
 pagne of the best quality, of which anybody could partake 
 by merely addressing a civil word to her. Not a few were 
 paying her attentions that seemed to turn her head a little. 
 
 " Glad to see you recovered, my dear madam, "said Major 
 
126 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Todd, at whom Katharine sternly glowered. " You look as 
 blooming as a rose, upon my honour." And he almost 
 winked at Mrs. Brodie, who giggled behind her handker- 
 chief and looked at the captain that gentleman resolutely 
 looking at his plate. 
 
 " And the same to you, and much obliged, sir," the grati- 
 fied Mrs. Bellamy replied (her late tallow-candle cheeks 
 were an apoplectic purple). "And I'll be proud if you'll 
 take a glass o' wine with me, sir. It's the best that money 
 can buy on this ship, and so if it isn't good that ain't my 
 fault." 
 
 " With all the pleasure in life, my dear madam," declared 
 the major loudly, sweeping his eye round the table to call 
 the attention of the company to his condescension. And, 
 having tossed down a seething glassful, he affably remarked 
 that it was so good he wouldn't mind having another; upon 
 which Mrs. Bellamy delightedly shouted, " Steward, a fresh 
 bottle !" and Captain Kennedy and Katherine exchanged a 
 brief glance. 
 
 F.or an hour or two after dinner the passengers lounged 
 about in groups in the regular Sunday fashion, and Mrs. 
 Bellamy made a dreadful exhibition of herself at the insti- 
 gation of the major and two of the young men (Van der 
 Veen held aloof). Katherine could do nothing to protect 
 or rescue her until, artificial exhilaration wearing off, nau- 
 sea returned and drove her to her berth and the usual con- 
 vulsions. The girl sat as far as she could from the group 
 and talked to Miss Spooner and Miss Blake, who were her 
 pleasant next-door neighbours, . while comfortable Mrs. 
 Spooner submitted to be harangued by Mr. Parker, and Mr. 
 Spooner smoked a peaceful pipe with Mr. Terry on one of 
 the poop ladders. Mr. and Mrs. Orme, still passionately in 
 love, arm round waist and head on shoulder* sat on the 
 other ladder, half-way down ; and Alexander was held in 
 silken fetters by Mrs. Brodie, while Elvira sat by to gaze 
 at him with rapt and solemn eyes. Poor old Barrett, with 
 no congenial spirit to consort with, snoozed in his chair, 
 with his hands clasped over his portly stomach ; and Mr. 
 Goodfellow roamed the quarters of the other classes on 
 professional business, to which he was wholly devoted. 
 And the beautiful ship winged her way steadily all the 
 time, leaning gently to the breeze, until the sinking sun 
 kindled all the western sky into flame, and day and wind 
 died down together. 
 
 Then church again on the main deck this time with a 
 lantern hung up to the roof of long-boat and spars, making 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 127 
 
 darkness weirdly visible, while the delicate afterglow 
 bathed the figures sitting around under the bulwarks out- 
 side that central gloom. For the last time Mr. Parker and 
 Mr. Goodf ellow celebrated service together ; after this each 
 took his own separately, and the other washed his hands of 
 all complicity therein. The congregation, still one body 
 and not two, as it subsequently became, assembled in force, 
 with its idle hangers-on and those who prowled about for- 
 ward in search of novelty and adventure, and no one was 
 left on the poop but the man at the wheel and the officer 
 of the watch, and Katherine and Alexander sitting on a fur 
 rug with their backs to the after skylight. 
 
 They did not talk now when they found themselves alone 
 together. They were beyond that stage. They looked 
 at the sea and the stars in silence, with quick-beating 
 hearts. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE Huntingdonshire passed the Bay of Biscay next day, 
 with a freshening breeze, and it was in the night following 
 that that sea which spoiled his carpet and bedclothes came 
 into Mr. Alexander's cabin. Three days later Madeira was 
 sighted a blue cloud on the horizon ; and the ocean was 
 like a wrinkled sapphire while the sun was up, and violet 
 as an amethyst when it went down ; and the awning was 
 stretched over the poop, and the moonlight nights drew in 
 at half-past seven, and the softest of summer breezes sent 
 the ship skimming along on an even keel, so that passengers 
 could eat and sleep and play at their ease, without fear of 
 untoward accidents. 
 
 Mr. Alexander gave kettle-drums in his cabin, and they 
 were voted to be the most delightful entertainments, though 
 not sufficiently select to satisfy the anticipations of the host. 
 When the first of them was mooted, Mrs. Brodie graciously 
 said she would make tea for him, and not only installed 
 herself as the permanent lady of the house on such occa- 
 sions, but begged invitations for Major Todd and whoever 
 else she fancied. So that the little parties, which were 
 designed to foment a tender intimacy with Katherine, came 
 to include as many as the cabin would hold, which was all 
 the saloon company except the old fellows who did not care 
 for such things. Even Mrs. Bellamy was present some- 
 times invited with the idea of pleasing Katherine and 
 
128 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 always insisted on contributing the richest cakes she could 
 bribe cook and steward to produce. And glees were sung, 
 and recitations given, photographs brought out, and a per- 
 forming dog belonging to the Dutchman, who was now and 
 then induced to add the attraction of a solo on the flute 
 an instrument he had learned to play whilst " sitting on 
 Leiden, "he told them. Few indeed were the opportunities 
 for a word with Katherine, and then only in the hearing of 
 other ears besides hers. That, however, was not the cruel 
 deprivation that it seemed ; for it is a much more exquisite 
 thing to long for what you want than to get it only they 
 did not know that yet. And the love-making that precedes 
 confession has a flavour that evaporates afterwards, like 
 other delicate perfumes exposed to the air. It was deli- 
 cious to them to sit in opposite corners of the stern cabin, 
 with a crowd between them, mutually conscious of their 
 spiritual aloofness from it, and aware of each other's every 
 movement and inflection of voice though all the time they 
 imagined themselves to be only tantalised and deprived. 
 In this, as in other matters of life, it is so much better, as 
 Stephenson says, to travel hopefully than to arrive. 
 
 So the warm days passed, and the radiant nights, which 
 were so clear and pure that the passengers could see to 
 play chess and bezique on deck almost as well as in the 
 lamplight of the saloon; and presently the tropic calms 
 befell, when the wings that had borne them so far and fast 
 drooped all at once, and the sky, like blazing brass by day, 
 was filled with flying meteors at night, and the oily welter 
 of waveless sea with a lurid shimmer of phosphorus like 
 green sheet-lightning. Then the stern cabin was thrown 
 open to the suffering, like a public hospital, and Mrs. Bro- 
 die took possession of the sofa under the windows, as if it 
 were her own. The discomfited host would carry cushions 
 and cups of tea to Katherine in such shadowy corners as 
 they could find outside, and they would roast together, 
 with one fan between them, and talk of the Broads and 
 marshes as they had seen them in winter, to cool them- 
 selves. 
 
 " Do you remember the little plovers that ran about in 
 the ooze, picking up the bits of shell-fish? When you could 
 not see them for the fog, you could hear them wailing oh, 
 how I wish I could hear them now !" 
 
 " You will hear some more when you get to Australia. 
 We've got no end of them." 
 
 " And the whistling swans coming over in the dark of the 
 night how strange it is to think of birds always migrating 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 129 
 
 in the night, and in the teeth of storms if possible. I 
 know an old lighthouse-keeper who could tell you all about 
 that." 
 
 " As for swans wait till you get up the Murray. You'll 
 see them in thousands and the native companions ; they 
 fly in great wedges, with their necks stretched out, making 
 the queerest noise up in the sky." 
 
 " So do the whistling swans." 
 
 Such was their conversation. And still, owing to circum- 
 stances over which they had no control (the devoted Elvira 
 was the circumstance in this instance) , they " got no f or- 
 arder;" and still they fancied that precious time was being 
 wasted, while spending what were perhaps the sweetest 
 hours of their lives. 
 
 The welcome wind came along in the night, as light as 
 thistledown, breathing softly, as if afraid of waking people ; 
 and the clank of the tiller chains, that he had anathema- 
 tised so often, made music in the ears of Alexander, listen- 
 ing for the change feeling himself rocked gently in his 
 bunk like a cradled baby. By morning the wake was foam- 
 ing under his windows, and it was weather for dancing, 
 and singing songs, and getting up tea-parties again. The 
 sailors buried the dead horse, and celebrated the crossing of 
 the line a week later. The Australian passengers gazed 
 nightly at their Southern Cross as at the first glimpse of 
 home. The rock of Trinidad the only land that the ship 
 came near was the sensation of the day, on which some 
 Americans in the second-class got drunk and disorderly in 
 honour of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 And then it grew cold and stormy, and the Huntingdon- 
 shire took to rolling in the dull green seas until her hen- 
 coops dipped under. The ladies fell sick again, and got 
 bruised from being tossed out of bed in the wild nights 
 nights made hideous with niose of clanking door-hooks, 
 and swing-trays hitting against the ceiling, and the cold 
 gurgle of water on the floor. And with these atmospher- 
 ical reverses came all sorts of social ill-humours that were 
 in keeping with them. The young men bickered over their 
 cards, and as to which shot best at the poor muttonbirds 
 and albatrosses ; the old men were grumpy and found fault 
 with their food. Miss Spooner was spooned by Mr. Morley, 
 the chief officer, who likewise dallied with the pretty maid 
 the enchantress of the ship, whose kingdom extended 
 from cuddy to fo 'castle; and the latter fell into dire dis- 
 grace with her two mistresses, while the amorous mate had 
 to submit to the indignity of being publicly rated by Mr, 
 
i$o NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Spooner and officially admonished by his austere com- 
 mander. 
 
 And a worse scandal resulted from the indiscretions of 
 Mrs. Brodie. When there was nothing better to do than 
 to be interestingly sick and have the doctor, she adopted 
 that method of keeping herself under notice ; and when the 
 good-natured and open-handed Mrs. Bellamy heard that the 
 doctor had prescribed champagne, she sent frequent bottles 
 of the best to Mrs. Brodie 's cabin. Mrs. Brodie drank it 
 with relish, and became sentimental laid her head on the 
 doctor's shoulder and told him she didn't know what she 
 should have done without him. The doctor, being a young 
 man, with a tender heart and a limited experience, was so 
 foolish as to put his arm round Mrs. Brodie 's waist and say 
 that he was very glad if he had been any comfort to her ; 
 with the natural consequence that, when she got better, she 
 complained to Major Todd that she had been insulted. 
 Whereupon the major, who was himself subject to occasional 
 reprimands for taking more br an dy-and- water than he could 
 politely carry, challenged to mortal combat the young man 
 convicted of abusing his professional prerogatives ; and a 
 terrible commotion ensued. It served the company for 
 entertainment during a week of bad weather, which other- 
 wise must have quenched out of them all interest in life ; 
 and when it subsided the doctor was found to be more 
 frightened than hurt, while Major Todd and Mrs. Brodie 
 presented all the appearance of an engaged couple: 
 
 (N. B. It was reported that Major Todd had previously 
 offered his hand and heart to Mrs. Bellamy, and been 
 refused. The lady confirmed the report, but the gentle- 
 man strenuously denied it ; and it was generally discredited 
 on the ground that no man could want to marry such a dis- 
 gusting creature, money or no money.) 
 
 And the bride and bridegroom quarrelled alas ! even the 
 bride and bridegroom ; and matrimonial quarrels cannot be 
 conducted on board ship with the reserve that decorum 
 requires, especially in a cabin the latticed front of which is 
 not more than five feet from the cuddy table. Sitting at 
 meals, or at whist in the evening, passengers would hear 
 what was never intended for their ears, and be shocked or 
 amused as the case might be; and at night Mrs. Brodie, 
 with her ear to her own Venetians, would listen for words 
 and phrases that she might repeat next day, and regret that 
 she didn't sleep on the other side with the passage doors 
 to spy through. On the other side, Hallett and Enright 
 tears and tragic attitudes, and heard sobs and up- 
 
NOT ALL IN i/AIN. 131 
 
 braidings that afforded them food for conversation when 
 they were alone together ; but the boys were men enough to 
 keep what they knew to themselves, or only to speak of it 
 to other men. 
 
 And the two parsons, having argued their little questions 
 of doctrine as only theological experts can, with daily 
 increasing acrimony, to the delight of the profane lay pas- 
 sengers, amongst whom each strove to enlist his disciples 
 and partisans, were " my reverend colleague" and " my 
 brother in Christ" no longer, but adversaries confessed 
 and implacable worse, far worse, than the bride and bride- 
 groom, because they had no intervals of reconciliation. 
 Fairly amiable men by nature, a pernicious art of words 
 divided them a barricade of paper, symbolised in the 
 sheets of the Record and the Church Times, old copies of 
 which they held before their faces as shields against Popish 
 and Genevan heresies respectively. Though they " spoke," 
 and addressed each other with conventional civility, they 
 were more bitterly antagonistic than the common brawlers 
 who had to be kept in order by the captain. 
 
 But, by contrast with these human failures, how brightly 
 the more kindly natures shone ! 
 
 The dear old maid, with her spectacles and her little knob 
 of hair and her mingled dignity and humbleness, how cheer- 
 fully she bore herself all through that trying time ; content 
 to be set aside and forogtten when she was not wanted, and 
 ready to. do anything for anybody when the happy chance 
 was given her ; meeting the gales and the high seas with a 
 shrinking eye, but a heart stoutly supported by her faith in 
 the divine protection. Mrs. Bellamy herself, when not sea- 
 sick or intoxicated, set an example at times to those who 
 scorned her. While they thought only of themselves and 
 their discomforts, she thought of the sick women and little 
 children battened down below, and sent wine and cakes to 
 comfort them. The doctor had only to mention a " case" 
 to be immediately besought to name something that would 
 do the patient good, and if that something was procurable 
 on board it was supplied forthwith. 
 
 Van der Veen was held of little account amongst the pas- 
 sengers (Mrs. Bellamy invariably called him the " poor 
 feller," and in a benevolent mood once patted him on the 
 head, whilst addressing him as she would John Chinaman 
 at her Australian kitchen-door), but he was the gentleman 
 of them all; and Katherine recognised his quality. He 
 used to draw to her side when he thought he was not intrud- 
 ing, and talk to her in his labourious English, which, ren- 
 
13* NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 dering the Dutch idioms as literally as possible, was cruelly 
 derided by the general public ; and Katherine, out of the 
 kindness of her heart, instituted daily readings, systematic 
 studies of the language under her direction, in the course 
 of which he improved rapidly, and learned a great deal 
 more than she had intended to teach him. This latter fact, 
 however, he dissembled with great delicacy for a long time, 
 insomuch that the young lady was in the habit of shelter- 
 ing herself in conversation with him from the more pro- 
 nounced attentions of the other men, who were bound to 
 expend their natural emotions upon her in the absence of 
 other attractive objects. 
 
 She was always a charming figure, in her fresh neatness 
 and undisturbed health, her courage and her tranquillity ; 
 and she never quarrelled with anybody nor mixed in the 
 disturbances that went on around her. And Forbes Alex- 
 ander (because he had a constant interest and happiness in 
 her society) also showed to the best advantage against the 
 dull background. Bad weather did not come amiss to him, 
 under the circumstances in which he found himself. It 
 was the bad weather which gave him the opportunity that 
 had been denied him while it was fair. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE weather being already bad, there came a burst of 
 wind to make it worse one day in the latter half of July, 
 as the dusk was falling. Katherine was the only passen- 
 ger on deck at the moment the chief charm of being there 
 holding tight to the weather-rail, whilst her heart rose to 
 the rising clamour of swelling, sea and wind, and of the 
 crew taking in sail with all haste to the roar of the stern 
 captain's orders. She liked this sort of thing, and, being 
 buttoned into a good waterproof, with a scarf tied tightly 
 over her head, lingered as long as she could keep her feet, 
 to see what would happen. 
 
 What happened literally took her aback, as it did the 
 ship, only the ship knew what it had to expect, and made 
 such preparation as time permitted, and she did not 
 though afterwards she remembered having heard a shout 
 that sounded like her name. From the quarter where the 
 dusk was thickest, with just enough light under it to show 
 the terrible swell on the horizon, the wind leaped out and 
 swept down upon the Huntingdonshire like a charge of 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 133 
 
 cavalry ; it squealed and thundered as it came along, and 
 its exact path and progress were as distinct on the flat- 
 tened surges as if beaten out by wild horses' hoofs. All 
 standing, as the sailors say, Katherine calmly watched and 
 waited its approach, until, about three seconds before it 
 struck the ship, it suddenly occurred to her that a big 
 squall was coming, and that it behoved her to hurry under 
 shelter before it reached her. So she let go of the rail and 
 made a dash for the companion doorway, which was quite 
 near. But she was a second too late ; just as she was about 
 to seize the bar that flanked it, from which she could have 
 edged her way in, the wind smote the ship and heeled her 
 right over, and the girl was shot down the inclined deck as 
 from the top of a wall to the bottom. 
 
 Meanwhile Alexander, who knew her ways, and that 
 heavy weather was coming, anxiously hunted for her 
 downstairs. 
 
 There all was cold and comfortless, with dead-lights up 
 and dampness everywhere; many of the passengers had 
 gone to bed merely to keep themselves warm and shut out 
 the dreary scene. So many seas had burst into the cuddy 
 from the main deck, the doors having been made to open 
 inwards, that the floor, now permanently carpetless, was 
 continuously awash and gurgling ; the ladies had to sit at 
 meals with their petticoats pinned up and their feet propped 
 upon a bar, while hams and legs of mutton jumped into 
 their laps and glasses of wine emptied themselves outside 
 their throats instead of in, and several of the drowned cab- 
 ins on the port side had been deserted. Hallett, Enright, 
 and Mr. Orme now slept below, often battened down, with 
 the poor prisoners of the second class. The stern cabin 
 had been given up to Mrs. Brodie and Mrs. Orme, whose 
 wardrobes had been disastrously ruined by sea water, and 
 these ladies were bosom friends at present, with many con- 
 fidences between them. Alexander took Mrs. Brodie 's 
 cabin, and Elvira camped with Katherine. Mrs. Bellamy, 
 being so near the main deck, was wetter than any of them, 
 but she did not move. As she said, it didn't matter if her 
 things were spoiled she had plenty of money to buy more ; 
 and stewards and stewardesses were very devoted in 
 bailing her out and keeping her as comfortable as possible. 
 
 In this weather the ladies seldom made a drawing-room 
 of the saloon until the lamps were lighted, and at all hours 
 of the day they were prone to seek their own and their 
 friends' cabins, where they were comparatively warm and 
 snug. At the hour when the squall came none were visible 
 
134 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 when Alexander came out of his own berth to hunt for 
 Katherine; and he went tapping from door to door to 
 inquire for her, on the pretence of having a book that she 
 had asked him to lend her. 
 
 It was Elvira who told him where she was. He found the 
 child sitting in shawls on Mrs. Bellamy's bunk, reading 
 " Dombey and Son" aloud in measured tones by the light 
 of the swinging bracket candle. Mrs. Bellamy lay in the 
 same bunk, listening with evident avidity, and shedding 
 copious tears over little Paul. 
 
 " Oh, come in come in," she cried, as the young man 
 appeared at the door, where he was no stranger. " This 
 dear child's a-reading to me to pass the time. Ain't it 
 lovely?" She wiped her eyes with an apology for being an 
 old fool, but said she never could stand hearing about chil- 
 dren being put upon, lovely though it might be. " What 
 are the waves saying, indeed?" she went on, as the noise of 
 the wind and the wild water that was so close to her filled 
 the pause in Elvira's reading. "Do hark at 'em! Pray 
 God they don't say as we're all going to the bottom! Oh, 
 once I set foot on dry land again " 
 
 "Where's Miss Knowles?" Alexander broke in. " I was 
 told I should find her here." 
 
 " She has been here," said Elvira, looking at him with 
 yearning eyes. " She read to us a long while, and then she 
 said she must go up and get a breath of air before tea." 
 
 He threw a smile to the solemn, wistful face, and dashed 
 out of the passage headlong, leaving Mrs. Bellamy to crack 
 a joke with her young companion which made the latter 
 thrill with awe and joy. 
 
 " He thinks I haven't got two eyes," was what Mrs. Bel- 
 lamy remarked, winking with one of them; and when 
 Elvira inquired why he should think a thing that was so 
 palpably absurd, the good woman pursed her mouth and 
 shook her head, and said : " Never you mind, my dear. 
 You'll know some of these days, when you see that dear 
 young creature with a wedding ring on her finger which 
 there's no man living as is worthy to put it there without 
 it's him, that has a kind word for everybody." 
 
 Unaware of this flattering testimony to his good nature, 
 Alexander rushed through the saloon and up the compan- 
 ion-stairs, hearing the dull shriek of the approaching gale ; 
 and just as he reached the doorway, against which the 
 shock of the wind striking the ship pinned him with a blow 
 that shook the breath from his body, he saw Katherine fly 
 past him, feet foremost, towards that part of the lee rail, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 135 
 
 aft of the hen-coops, which presented but two iron bars, 
 wide apart, to break her fall those bars, at the moment of 
 her needing them, being laid flat upon the boiling sea. 
 
 She saw him, and cried " Forbes '."the name by which 
 she was accustomed to think of him, but which she had 
 not addressed him by before ; and he shrieked " Katherine !" 
 in the same moment of agony. Nothing could save her, he 
 thought she thought so too; the infinite gulfs yawned 
 right under her, and once overboard in the gale there 
 would be no chance of recovery. There was not time to 
 draw breath before she felt herself slide, like a fallen skater 
 on ice, off the edge of the deck, and felt the cold, strong, 
 wrenching rush of the water over her. At that instant life 
 and death were balanced by a hair, and anyone with 
 nerves less steady and muscles less strong must have given 
 way to the terrific impetus so suddenly threatening destruc- 
 tion, and surrendered life in a gasp of wild astonishment. 
 But Katherine mostly had her wits about her, and as she 
 shot under the rail she clutched at it and held on to it with 
 the tenacity of a vice, and let the sea nearly wrench her 
 arms from their sockets without letting go. The ship hung 
 on her beam ends, shivering, while the fierce momentary 
 struggle lasted, and, righting suddenly, lifted Katherine 
 out of the water and held her dangling by the hands to the 
 under-rail; and then Alexander flung himself upon that 
 rail, and, kneeling, seized her round the waist and dragged 
 her inboard, with an effort that astonished the sailors run- 
 ning to their assistance, and would have astonished himself 
 at any other time, seeing that he was no athlete, and that 
 Miss Knowles was an unusually substantial woman. 
 
 The next minute they were together and alone within the 
 shelter of the companion-door, just escaping the rain, 
 which followed the wind like a driving wall. It plumped 
 down as if each drop were a lump of road metal, and it was 
 impossible in the noise it made to hear each other speak. 
 However, they didn't want to speak immediately in fact, 
 they couldn't. The emotion engendered by their experi- 
 ence just past was not of the sort that could express itself 
 in words. Nature took her own way, which was a better 
 way than that, and the verbal " declaration," which under 
 less transcendent circumstances might have been called 
 for, was never made nor missed. They were lifted above 
 all such trifling matters. 
 
 When the breathless silence was broken by a whisper, it 
 came from Katherine. "You saved me," she said, pas- 
 sionately. 
 
136 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "No, my darling," Alexander replied, pressing her head 
 back upon his shoulder, " you saved yourself. How did 
 you do it with those poor, woman's hands? Oh, Kath- 
 erine, I thought you were gone !" 
 
 He was one of the tenderest-hearted of men, and he could 
 not command his voice ; it shook with inward tears. 
 
 " I was nearly gone I could not have held a moment 
 with my arms wrenched back like that. How did you come 
 to be there at just that instant yvu T* 
 
 " It was fate," he murmured, lifting her chin and kissing 
 her closed eyes. " We were not meant to be parted, Kath- 
 erine." 
 
 " No," she breathed in a long, ecstatic sigh. 
 
 " And you must never expose yourself in this way again 
 never go on deck in bad weather unless I am with you. 
 Mind that, Katherine from this moment." 
 
 " I won't," she whispered meekly. 
 
 " And now come down and get your wet things off, and 
 I'll go and find some wine or something to warm you I 
 can feel you shaking all over." 
 
 " Not from cold," said Katherine, trying to laugh. 
 
 "Darling! But you are not frightened of me, are you? 
 You called me ' Forbes, ' Katherine you have known it a 
 long time, haven't you? I have been just pining for a 
 chance I never thought of getting it like this. What a 
 horrible moment, when I saw you going right down to the 
 bottom, as I thought! But don't let us think of it you'll 
 never run such a risk again you won't do anything with- 
 out me, will you? We'll let them know we are engaged, 
 so that they'll leave us free I shall tell the captain straight 
 away. Once I was afraid of Jim, Katherine old Jim; I 
 know he thought no end of you, and lately I've fancied that 
 young Van der Veen " 
 
 " Oh, no, no !" 
 
 " No, of course not. I might as well have been afraid of 
 that brute Neil." 
 
 She shuddered at the name. "Don't talk of Neil," she 
 exclaimed. " Don't let us ever speak of that dreadful man. 
 Thank God we have done with him ! I shall be safe for 
 ever now." 
 
 : >Forbes squared his shoulders, and lifted his head, while 
 he patted her with a paternal gesture. " Neither Neil nor 
 any other man shall meddle with you, if I know it, "he said. 
 Then he bent and kissed her again, revelling in the luxury 
 of satisfying a want that, from long frustration, had grown 
 to require such a great deal of satisfying ; and she would 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 137 
 
 not have hurried him over it had not certain sounds in the 
 saloon below alarmed her. People were coming out of 
 their cabins to inquire of each other what was the matter, 
 and whether the ship was really going to founder and carry 
 them all to the bottom. They pounced upon Alexander for 
 information on this vital point, and exclaimed at sight of 
 Katherine's dripping figure as the lovers descended the 
 stairs. 
 
 " Shipped a little sea," said the young man hurriedly, 
 bustling his companion through the group, " and Miss 
 Knowles is wet. No, there's no danger. Let her get along 
 to her cabin and change her clothes. A sudden squall it 
 will blow itself out directly. Don't be alarmed." 
 
 He got Katherine into her passage, and summoned her 
 neighbour, Miss Blake, to whom, in his overflowing state 
 of mind, he confessed what had happened that Katherine 
 had nearly been drowned, and that she was now engaged 
 to him Katherine looking at him with a flushed face and 
 a nervous smile. 
 
 " What a hurry you are in to tell people," she said. 
 
 " Oh, but you don't mind me" pleaded Miss Blake, em- 
 bracing her. " Dear child, I have had my own experiences 
 I have known what it is to love and be loved and I quite 
 understand; indeed, I have long foreseen it. And may 
 God bless you both, my dears" in a quavering voice 
 " and bring us out of these present dangers to see the happy 
 day ! Ah, Mr. Alexander, we talk of marrying and giv- 
 ing in marriage, when perhaps this very night our souls 
 will be required of us !" 
 
 " I don't think so, dear Miss Blake," said Alexander 
 gently. " It is very uncomfortable, but I don't think it is 
 dangerous. As long as there's plenty of sea room and 
 we've got that we're not going to sink in such a ship as 
 this." 
 
 "God grant it!" she ejaculated, as she swayed, gasping, 
 to another downward roll ; adding reverently, " if it be His 
 will." 
 
 Old maids were as much women to him as young ones, 
 and he laid his hand on her bony shoulder with an affec- 
 tionate gesture that warmed her through. " Don't you get 
 nervous," he said encouragingly. " There is really no 
 cause for it. This is only what all ships are used to, and 
 make nothing of." 
 
 It was not quite what all ships were used to, however. 
 For days the barometer ranged from 28-36 to 2870, and the 
 course of the Huntingdonshire on the chart presented a 
 
138 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Vandyke pattern in deep points, very curious to look at, one 
 point piercing as far south as 47 degrees and springing back 
 to 40. She had to run before the wind under close-reefed 
 topsails, and she had to lie hove-to under bare poles ; her 
 wheel was disabled, along with the two men lashed to it, 
 by a poop sea, and her cuddy windows were smashed, and 
 her boats and rails stove in ; and she had to ride billows 
 running literally mountains high, any one of which could 
 have swallowed her whole as easily as a mastiff swallows 
 a buzz-fly. It was a fine experience, nevertheless, espe- 
 cially when it was over. Even now, after twenty years, 
 Katherine's heart beats at the memory of it. There are 
 few chances nowadays for such a splendid taste of life. 
 
 Leaving her and Miss Blake together, Alexander went 
 in search of the head steward, with whom he compounded 
 a hot drink of subtle and pungent perfume, which he pre- 
 sently conveyed in a deep jug to Katherine's cabin without 
 mishap. In anticipation of this visit, she had torn off her 
 wet clothes and got herself into dry ones almost as quickly 
 as a stage Faust changes himself from an old man to a 
 young one ; so that when her lover tapped he was invited 
 to enter, and he and the two ladies remained together un- 
 til Mrs. Bellamy and Elvira sought them out and the 
 steward's bell summoned them to their tea-supper at 
 seven. 
 
 Miss Blake was regaled with hot punch, as well as Kath- 
 erine, and it and the young man's encouragements raised 
 the dear old lady's spirits, and induced her to disregard the 
 perils of the deep for the moment. She was delighted with 
 her maternal rdle, and running over with sympathy for the 
 lovers, whose case, as she assured them again and again, 
 was so fully and exactly known to her. She would have 
 liked to keep the engagement a delicious secret between 
 themselves, to contrive clandestine meetings in her cabin 
 when Miss Spooner was not at home (that young lady being 
 much under her mother's wing in these days), to be guar- 
 dian angel and tender counsellor and confidante in the 
 thousand delightful little embarrassments that would arise 
 from the curiosity of the vulgar and the necessity for cir- 
 cumventing it ; but Alexander would not hear of secrecy. 
 
 " Don't let us be like Mrs. Brodie, with everybody prying 
 and whispering," said he. "Let's make a clean breast of 
 it, Katherine, and then we can do what we like. I want 
 people to know I've got you. I want Van der Veen to 
 know and all of them." 
 
 Katherine said she wished his family could know first, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 139 
 
 He vehemently pooh-poohed the idea of such nonsense, 
 and got Miss Blake to support him in his contention that 
 two true hearts made one were not to be subjected to the 
 caprice of fathers and mothers, or of any principalities and 
 powers of this world. Family policy had forbidden Miss 
 Blake to marry the man of her choice when she was a pretty 
 girl of one-and-twenty, and behold the consequences ! 
 
 " For I was considered pretty," said she, with a touching 
 simper, " little as you would think it, dears, to look at me 
 now." 
 
 " I am sure you were," said Forbes, " and let me tell you, 
 Miss Blake, that you haven't lost all your beauty, as you 
 seem to suppose." 
 
 This was his way the way that made him so lovable. If 
 he didn't quite mean as much as he implied, he wished he 
 could mean it, and she knew he was not laughing at her. A 
 genuine blush of pleasure dawned in her withered cheek 
 the very same young-hearted blush that she had sported at 
 one-and-twenty. 
 
 " And now all I have all I can do is to send presents to 
 his children on their birthdays," she said, wiping a tear 
 from behind her spectacles. 
 
 Katherine went over to her, where she see-sawed in the 
 berth that had once been Mrs. Bellamy's, and kissed her. 
 " You poor, poor thing!" she murmured pitifully. 
 
 " And his wife finds fault with him ; she talks against him 
 to other people to the common acquaintances she goes to 
 call upon," whimpered Miss Blake. " And now I am going 
 to Australia, ' and shall never see him again till we meet 
 in heaven. Oh, my dears, don't let them try to part you 
 be warned by me !" 
 
 " No one shall part us," said Alexander, drawing Kath- 
 erine, who was trying to stand alone, into a close embrace. 
 " No one will want to. My family will be as proud as I am. 
 They have only to look at her to love her." 
 
 At this point Elvira and Mrs. Bellamy appeared, assist- 
 ing each other along. The door was not quite fastened, 
 and a lurch of the ship drove Mrs. Bellamy through it rather 
 suddenly. Before she could recover herself, she butted 
 into the arms of the lovers while they were still entwined 
 together. 
 
 " Bless us, what a night !" she exclaimed. Then she noted 
 their attitude, and burst into an exultant laugh. " Aha ! 
 This is what you wanted Katherine for, is it?" She winked 
 at Miss Blake, who sternly disregarded her. " And all this 
 lime you have been trying to keep poor old Martha in the 
 
140 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 dark, though you knew she'd be as pleased as Punch to 
 know it !" 
 
 " We haven't," said F'orbes, taking Elvira's hand, which 
 the child kissed furtively. " It only happened a few min- 
 utes ago." 
 
 Then Mrs. Bellamy wanted to kiss them both, and was 
 altogether too effusive. " And you shall have such a wed- 
 ding present as nobody else '11 give you," she declared pre- 
 sently. " And you'll let me come and see you now and then 
 when you're married and settled? An old woman like me 
 can give many a hint to a young wife that's got no mother, 
 and proud I'll be to come to you night or day, darlin', no 
 matter where I am if it's hundreds of miles off." She was 
 evidently going on to make benevolent proposals regarding 
 the young family expected to ensue, so Alexander bolted, 
 mumbling that he wanted to see the captain, who was 
 Katherine's guardian pro tern. 
 
 In the cuddy he came across Van der Veen, who looked 
 at him searchingly with his grave black eyes. 
 
 " Yes," said the gay young lover, " you may congratulate 
 me if you like." 
 
 " Is that so?" returned the Dutchman, slowly. 
 
 " It is so." 
 
 Van der Veen put out his broad hand without moving a 
 muscle of his face a colourless, stolid face, full of strength 
 and goodness. 
 
 " You are happy?" was all he said. 
 
 "I am," said Alexander. 
 
 He went lightly on his way and the Dutchman retired to 
 his own cabin, where he found Mr. Goodfellow on his knees 
 audibly repeating the prayer for storms at sea : " Look 
 down, we beseech Thee, and hear us, calling out of the 
 depth of misery, and out of the jaws of this death, which 
 is ready now to swallow us up." Van der Veen hesitated 
 for a moment, and then went in gently and knelt down 
 beside him. 
 
 A little later the captain appeared in his dripping oil- 
 skins, with the look of rough weather in his brown face, his 
 hair and beard combed by the wind, his keen eyes shining 
 resolutely. He was plunging into his cabin when Alex- 
 ander intercepted him, and briefly notified him of the state 
 of affairs. 
 
 " I thought," said the young man, with his graceful, self- 
 possessed air, " that you should be the first to know it that 
 it was best to announce it openly at once, for many 
 reasons," 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 141 
 
 Captain Kennedy was not in his most approachable mood, 
 being worried by the weather, and chilled and tired from 
 exposure and want of sleep, and the news he heard was 
 like another blast of cold adversity, though he could not 
 have explained why. It annoyed him excessively. He 
 washed his hands of Katherine then and there. 
 
 "I am not Miss Knowles's keeper," he said, and in the 
 same breath shouted to his servant to get him something to 
 eat, for he had had no dinner. " It is no business of mine." 
 
 By tea-time all the company was aware of the engage- 
 ment, and the cuddy rang with congratulations. " None 
 of your slip-slop," said Mrs. Bellamy, " on an occasion like 
 this. A dozen of champagne, steward ! And let everybody 
 drink the healths of the bride and bridegroom that is to be, 
 and long life and happiness to 'em, bless their precious 
 hearts !" 
 
 It was difficult to do, but it was done. And the hostess 
 was conveyed to bed by the stewardess in a state of bliss 
 that not even the weather could impair. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE betrothal of Alexander and Katherine was a wel- 
 come break in the monotony of the voyage at its most irk- 
 some stage, and subsequently the movements of the young 
 couple were watched and commented on with a vigilant 
 interest such as is seldom or never accorded to engaged 
 people on shore. But there presently transpired a circum- 
 stance that put them and their love affairs entirely in the 
 shade. It was during a little spell of fair weather, between 
 the great gales of late July and the wintry batterings that 
 befell in early August, when the ship was off Cape Leeu- 
 win a time when poor passengers could sleep without sud- 
 denly finding themselves standing on their heads or tossed 
 over their bunk-boards on to a wet floor when one man 
 was equal to the management of the wheel, without being 
 lashed to it, and dead-lights were down, and tarpaulins 
 were up, and it was possible to set a glass of wine else- 
 where than on a swing-tray without upsetting it. 
 
 The event was one that rarely happens at sea, where 
 funerals are common and baptisms cannot be unknown a 
 marriage between two of the saloon passengers. The bride 
 was Mrs. Brodie and the bridegroom was Major Todd. In 
 three weeks more they could have gone to church in Mel- 
 
142 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 bourne, and been united comfortably and regularly in the 
 usual way; b-it these ardent lovers found it impossible to 
 wait so long, and, as the captain ruled that it was legally 
 permissible to do so, married on board, to the delight of 
 the whole community, which had not expected such an 
 entertainment. 
 
 Great was the curiosity, and dark and terrible the surmis- 
 ings, as to the cause of so unusual a proceeding, but the 
 sagacious Mr. Terry divined it, as events proved. " He 
 thinks she's a great swell, with a lot of money, and she 
 thinks he's the same, whereas they are a couple of adven- 
 turers, each on the look-out for somebody to live on. And 
 they're afraid to wait till they get to land lest the truth 
 should be discovered, and they should lose their respective 
 prizes." Thus spoke the keen-nosed squatter, who scented 
 money (or the absence of money) as unerringly as a hound 
 scents blood. 
 
 It was on Monday the first of August that the wedding 
 took place, the previous Sunday having been spent in pro- 
 posing it to the authorities and discussing the programme ; 
 and Monday was one of the conspicuously fair days in a 
 long stretch of foul weather the last fine day of the voy- 
 age, in fact. The sky was blue, and the sun shone, and the 
 fresh wind was moderate, and the decks were steady ; for 
 which reasons it was decided to perform the ceremony on 
 the poop, where all might see it. Once the affair was in 
 hand no consideration was given to the personal repute of 
 the bride and bridegroom; as a ship's wedding it was 
 determined to make it a success and a general festival, and 
 nothing was spared that might promote that end. Bunting 
 was displayed in a manner to puzzle any vessel sighting the 
 Huntingdonshire from a distance, had there been such, and 
 the crew were as smart as whitest drill could make them. 
 Some second-class people, in their best clothes, were invited 
 to take seats on the hen-coops, and the rest of the forward 
 passengers gathered on the main deck in a state of breath- 
 less expectancy. The cook made a wedding-cake, and other 
 unwonted dainties, and Mrs. Bellamy's order for champagne 
 exhausted the stock on board. The stewards darted about 
 in a joyous flutter, and said to the Spooners' maid, who flut- 
 tered amongst them, that they wished it was themselves 
 that were going to be spliced, provided it were to her a 
 sentiment echoed by the Jacks of the fo 'castle, and also by 
 the boldest of the brass-buttoned 'prentices, who somehow 
 saw more of the pretty servant than of her social betters. 
 Even Alexander, meeting Katherine as he was racing 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 143 
 
 upstairs with two of his fine sofa pillows for the bride and 
 bridegroom to kneel upon, expressed a fervent envy of 
 Major Todd. 
 
 " Why shouldn't we do the same?" he asked her, between 
 joke and earnest. " Think how jolly it would be to land 
 as man and wife I able to take care of you in the strange 
 place." 
 
 " I should like to see myself doing anything so prepos- 
 terous," she replied, with a calm smile. 
 
 Her interest in the affair was concentrated upon Elvira, 
 who was broken-hearted. The undemonstrative child wept 
 continually, though she had been several times slapped for 
 doing so, and Katherine used to take her into her narrow 
 bunk at night to comfort her, hearing her sadly sniffing in 
 the dark. On the wedding morning she was ill with grief, 
 and her woe-begone little red-eyed face, looking out of a 
 thicket of newly-frizzed hair, atop of a ballet-skirted white 
 frock, was a most pathetic object. It had snowed only two 
 days before, and she shook in her thin costume, which her 
 mother had chosen as the proper thing for the occasion. 
 
 " Look at her," said Katherine to her lover, when he came 
 down to fetch them after placing the pillows. " Is she fit 
 for it? I have a great mind to make her go straight to 
 bed." 
 
 " I mustn't," said the child, with chattering teeth. " Ma 
 said I was to stand behind and hold her glove while he put 
 the ring on." 
 
 " I can tell her you are not well enough, dear, which is 
 only the strict truth." 
 
 " I must, I must," insisted Elvira, in a voice of despair. 
 
 A fur rug that Alexander had given to Katherine to keep 
 her warm in the stormy weather lay near, and he caught 
 this up and wrapped Elvira in it, crushing her fragile finery. 
 " If she must go up I shall carry her in this and keep her in 
 it," he said, lifting the bundle into his arms. " Never mind, 
 Elvira. Lots of little girls have to have new fathers. It's 
 a thing that happens every day." 
 
 " But not fathers like htm" she wailed. " Oh, if it was 
 only you f* 
 
 " Yes, it is a pity, isn't it? But you see I wanted to marry 
 Katherine." 
 
 " I mean you and Katherine. If only they would let me 
 live with you and Katherine ! Do you think they would, 
 if you asked them?" 
 
 " I'm afraid not. But you shall come and stay with us for 
 long, long visits sha'n't she, Katherine?" 
 
144 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "You shall, my darling, you shall," the girl answered 
 tenderly. 
 
 And so they comforted her. And, because her dignity 
 would not permit her to be carried like a baby, they swathed 
 her in such woollen wraps as she could walk with, and 
 Forbes, with the fur rug on his arm to keep the wind from 
 her legs on deck, led her thither, holding one cold little 
 hand while Katherine held the other. 
 
 Meanwhile the bride was being dressed in the stern cabin 
 by the three other matrons, who were as full of sympa- 
 thetic excitement as so many bridesmaids in their teens. 
 Mrs. Bellamy, too gorgeous for words, had presented Mrs. 
 Brodie with a diamond brooch, in addition to taking upon 
 herself all the expenses of the wedding fete, and therefore 
 was permitted to " spread" herself as her good heart and 
 bad manners prompted. She took advantage of the tolera- 
 tion her generosity secured her, and pervaded the whole 
 place. Mrs. Spooner was there in opposition to her hus- 
 band's wishes, but could not keep away from the bride any 
 more than she could have kept away from a mother about 
 to launch a new life upon this mortal scene, knowing the 
 interesting person to be within her reach ; it mattered not 
 who the individual was in either case her sex and situa- 
 tion were sufficient to recommend her to the sympathies of 
 this kindly soul. The two fat old women purred over the 
 fat bride, who was not a great deal younger than them- 
 selves, and plied her with matronly advice and smelling- 
 bottles as if she were a girl about to enter upon the great 
 experience for the first time ; and greatly did Mrs. Brodie 
 enjoy this treatment. She sat upon the sofa in a sky-blue 
 satin gown, and dabbed her eyes with a lace handkerchief, 
 and held her hand to her fluttering heart, and begged them 
 not to let Augustus come in until she felt sufficiently com- 
 posed to meet him. Augustus was Major Todd, who, forti- 
 fied by several nips of brandy-and-water, was swaggering 
 about the cuddy in his own gaudy style not a style that 
 the officers of his reputed regiment would have been fami- 
 liar with. 
 
 Young Mrs. Orme was her particular friend and con- 
 fidante ; every few minutes they embraced each other. 
 
 "Yes, darling, "Mrs. Orme would murmur soothingly, "/ 
 know how you feel oh, don't I know it well ! But do try 
 to keep up it will soon be over." 
 
 "It's nothing when you're used to it," Mrs. Bellamy 
 would hilariously interpose. " The more the merrier, 
 say I." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 145 
 
 Mrs. Orme insisted on putting her own bridal veil over 
 Mrs. Brodie's butter-yellow head. " Let it be a good omen," 
 she said, when she had lovingly adjusted it. " May you 
 be as happy as we have been ! I can wish you nothing bet- 
 ter than that." 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Orme were at the moment reconciled, and 
 going about with their arms round each other's necks again 
 or nearly so. 
 
 Presently the procession passed down the cuddy and up 
 the companion-stairs Mrs. Brodie on the arm of the cap- 
 tain, who had been badgered into the uncongenial duty of 
 giving her away, and Mrs. Orme, appropriately attired, fol- 
 lowing with Van der Veen, whose good-nature had also 
 sacrificed him. As they emerged through the door on deck, 
 the wind lifted the bridal veil and carried it away like a 
 whiff of smoke ; and in all her naked sham of dyes and cos- 
 metics Mrs. Brodie stood in the sunshine side by side with 
 her rheumy-eyed, bottle-nosed, imitation major, and pro- 
 faned the sacrament of life in the usual way. Mr. Parker 
 was the officiating priest for the occasion, and did his best 
 to make the ceremony impressive. He loved a little bit of 
 clerical display in his own fashion, as Mr. Goodfellow did 
 in his, which was so entirely different ; and he declaimed 
 his prayers and exhortations in a solemn roar that would 
 have been heard all over the ship had the wind not caught 
 it as it caught the bridal veil, mocking the unreality of the 
 whole business. 
 
 The religious ceremony over, Mr. Parker, laying down 
 his book, proceeded to the performance of what was (and I 
 believe still is) considered a necessary and pleasing duty 
 by clergymen of a certain class : he gallantly stepped up to 
 the bride and kissed her. It was a good hearty smack, with 
 all the air of long practice about it. The bridegroom fol- 
 lowed suit, in a still more demonstrative fashion, and Mrs. 
 Orme rushed up after him, and insisted on dragging her 
 husband with her. The major boisterously pleaded for his 
 share, and it looked as if a general kissing of everybody 
 by everybody else would ensue. The want of decorum that 
 characterised the marriage itself (at such a time and place) 
 began to glare very strongly in its details as a social func- 
 tion, and grew worse and worse as the day advanced. 
 Captain Kennedy wheeled away from the. improvised altar, 
 without so much as wishing the wedded couple joy; Van 
 der Veen quietly retired to his berth at the same mo- 
 ment, and Alexander and Katherine looked at each other 
 with little grimaces of amusement and disgust. As for 
 
146 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Elvira, the child was white with terror when the kissing 
 period set in. 
 
 " Don't let him kiss me," she gasped, dragging at the 
 hands of her protectors. " Oh, don't let him kiss me !" 
 
 "He sha'n't, dear," Forbes assured her, soothingly; but 
 the agony had to be suffered, in spite of him. 
 
 " Where's my child?" Mrs. Todd cried loudly, with a dra- 
 matic outstretching of arms. " Where's my precious child? 
 Come and kiss me, darling, and your new papa." 
 
 " Don't make her, Mrs. Brodie I beg pardon Mrs. Todd," 
 said Alexander, in his pleasant, persuasive way. " She's 
 shy, before all these people. And she's cold, too. Miss 
 Knowles is going to take her down and put something 
 warm on, if you don't mind. Allow me to wish you e very- 
 happiness, and I suppose I too may claim the privi- 
 lege?" 
 
 He bent his handsome, smiling face to kiss the bride a 
 desperate expedient to save Elvira which Katherine did 
 not object to, and under cover of which she attempted to 
 whisk the child away. But, having received his salute 
 with evident satisfaction, the mother called after her depart- 
 ing daughter in a tone that showed she was not to be trifled 
 with: 
 
 " Come here, Elvira, this instant!" 
 
 And, when the cowering little creature approached, Mrs. 
 Todd said impressively, addressing the company in gen- 
 eral : " Any slight to myself I can cheerfully put up with, 
 but I will not allow her or anybody to show disrespect to 
 him. Elvira, go and kiss your papa this minute. Ah, 
 she will be all the better fora father's authority, Augustus. 
 I trust you will rule and guide her, my love, exactly as 
 if she were your own." 
 
 " Oh, I'll rule her never fear!" replied the major, wag- 
 gishly. " Ruling is a thing that, as a soldier, I'm accus- 
 tomed to. No mutiny in the camp eh, young lady? I'll 
 have her in such good order that you won't know her. 
 Come and kiss your new papa, my dear a proper kiss 
 now none of your dodging, as if you didn't know what 
 kissing meant. Aha! I've got you you can't get away 
 from me now." 
 
 Alexander said bad words when he saw the poor little 
 woman in the grasp of the ogre she dreaded so much, and 
 Katherine shuddered and set her teeth. Elvira did not 
 struggle, as she had previously done when the major had 
 attempted endearments it was no use now ; she just hung 
 limp and passive in his arms, waiting for it to be over, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. M7 
 
 " The calmness of despair," said Forbes. " What a tragic 
 little piece of goods it is !" 
 
 " What a martyrdom she has before her !" sighed Kath- 
 erine. 
 
 The moment the child was released and her room was 
 soon felt to be of more value than her company she flew 
 to her two friends, and they took her below. They laid her 
 in her bed, and tucked her up in the fur rug ; and Miss Blake 
 came in and gave her some homoeopathic globules ; and she 
 sobbed and sobbed, in a deep, noiseless fashion, until she 
 sobbed herself to sleep. 
 
 Then came the wedding-breakfast the usual afternoon 
 dinner glorified and a great deal of rowdy mirth and 
 speechifying. The sailors had extra grog and hunks of 
 plum cake, provided by Mrs. Bellamy ; the steerage passen- 
 gers received similar favours from the same hand ; the sec- 
 ond-class was requested to drink the health of the bride and 
 bridegroom in good port and sherry; consequently the 
 whole ship sheeted with the spirit of revelry. But nowhere 
 did the revelry take so low a form as it did in the saloon 
 amongst the ladies and gentlemen. Mrs. Bellamy, of 
 course, got drunk; so did Major Todd. The bride took a 
 great deal more than was safe in her nervous condition, 
 and it made her maudlin ; good old Barrett was also over- 
 come. Jokes were joked and pleasantries indulged in that 
 the better-mannered could not stomach ; and the captain in 
 a black temper was called upon, and grew very dangerous 
 toward nightfall. The day ended with a couple of fights 
 and a general impression on the part of the authorities that 
 the fewer the weddings that took place at sea the better. 
 
 That night the obliging Alexander made his third move, 
 and for the first time had half a cabin instead of a whole 
 one. His mate was Mr. Terry, the quietest and most inof- 
 fensive of mates. 
 
 "I am very glad to have you, sir," said Mr. Terry, "in 
 place of that vulgar ruffian who calls himself an officer in 
 Her Majesty's service. As much an officer as I am, sir." 
 
 " Oh, I daresay he is or was," said Alexander easily. 
 " I've met a good few who have gone broke and dropped 
 into the mud got so disreputable you wouldn't know 'em." 
 
 "Well, he's no good anyhow. And, between ourselves, 
 the lady don't seem much better. They're a pair." And 
 then Mr. Terry proceeded to express his opinion as to the 
 origin of the Todd-Brodie alliance in the terms already 
 referred to. " Wait till we come to port," said he, " and 
 then you will see what will happen," 
 
148 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "Whatever happens will serve them right," said Alex- 
 ander. " But my heart does bleed for that poor, odd, sen- 
 sitive little child." 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ONE day at noon, when the sun was again shining, and 
 the Huntingdonshire bustling unsteadily along at the tail 
 end of her last gale, the look-out reported land in sight, 
 and the land was Australia that good land of peace and 
 plenty which no one knew the worth of in those days. The 
 shadowy blueness on the horizon solidified as the afternoon 
 advanced, and when the passengers went on deck after din- 
 ner their eyes feasted on the wooded ranges of Cape Otway, 
 on the feathery line of foam along the shore, on the flagstaff 
 and buildings of the lighthouse, which was already sighting 
 and telegraphing their arrival. 
 
 There was a gorgeous sunset behind the breakers on the 
 reef, and there was a most beautiful tender twilight after- 
 wards. Above the silver-gleaming sea lay the velvety, 
 black belt of land, and above the land a broad band of clear, 
 dark-grey cloud, and above that again a delicate pale sky, 
 full of light after its colour was gone the most charming 
 drop-scene to the new stage where the drama of Katherine's 
 young life was to develop all its strong situations an au- 
 gury of peace that was not to be fulfilled. She and Alex- 
 ander came on deck after tea, and sat there side by side till 
 bed-time (Elvira was helping her mother to pack), and 
 basked in the happy prospect they seemed to see opening 
 before them. 
 
 " I can smell the land," said Katherine, sniffing. " I can 
 smell the woods with the dew on them. Can't you? This 
 is to be my country, Forbes, for the rest of my life." 
 
 " We'll travel sometimes," said he. " But this is home. 
 I wonder if you'll grow fond of it, Katherine?" 
 
 " Sure to. I should grow fond of the Sahara or the North 
 Pole if I lived there with you." 
 
 " Darling!" He was holding her hand under the fur rug, 
 and began to knead it between his palms all he could do 
 in the way of acknowledgment for the present. " But I hope 
 you will like it for its own sake as well as for mine." 
 
 " Sure to," said Katherine again. 
 
 " It is going to be fine," he went on; " I'm glad of that. 
 I want you to land in the sunshine. I expect the Andersons 
 will keep you in Melbourne for a few days, to show you 
 round." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 149 
 
 " I suppose I shall not know my sister, nor she me. You 
 will have to introduce us, Forbes. Oh, I am glad I have 
 got you ! I love them all, but they are strange. You will 
 be my shelter for a little while." 
 
 " For always, Katherine, for always. I will just run up 
 to see if my father is all right a couple of days will be 
 enough and get back in time to go up home with your 
 party, if they will let me. Then we shall be within a few 
 miles of each other I shall see you every day and you 
 won't put off our marriage any longer than is quite neces- 
 sary, will you?*' 
 
 "No," she answered, quietly. 
 
 " My brother Jock will clear out soon he told me he was 
 only waiting till I returned to set him free and then we 
 shall have the place to ourselves. Our new sister-in-law is 
 one of those gay Melbourne girls who must have plenty of 
 excitement she wouldn't dream of living there ; but it's a 
 jolly place, if it is a little out of the way, and I know you 
 will like it. You and I, Katherine, all by ourselves and 
 your people close by and taking a little trip now and then 
 at a slack time I don't think you will find it dull. There's 
 a lovely garden, and the river at the foot of it, and a nice 
 rambling old bush house the very house to suit you and 
 a good few pleasant neighbours within a reasonable drive. 
 And you can ride over the run with me, and have poor little 
 Elvira and all the books you want from town. And if you 
 are fond of fowls, and that sort of thing " 
 
 " Oh, my dear," she interrupted, taking advantage of a 
 favourable moment of privacy to touch his coat-sleeve with 
 her cheek, "don't don't! Don't make it all seem too 
 good to come true !" 
 
 The pilot came on board in the dawn of the next morn- 
 ing, bringing a bundle of newspapers news of the world 
 of which the passengers had heard nothing whatever for 
 nearly a quarter of a year old news still, for there was no 
 telegraph then, and mails only once a month. The men 
 who had made bets on the Derby knew whether they had 
 won or lost, and the tidings that Dickens was dead sufficed 
 to give zest to the conversation round the breakfast-table. 
 
 Later on the ship anchored for the doctor, and the boat 
 that brought the doctor brought a man with letters, which 
 were claimed with a rush by their anxious owners. There 
 were three for Alexander, and one for Katherine; she 
 would not open hers until her lover had reassured her as 
 to his father's condition. 
 
 " There's his own crabbed old fist," said Forbes, hold- 
 
150 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ing a letter at arm's length before her. "Didn't I say 
 so?" 
 
 " And will he be here to meet you?" inquired Katherine, 
 in some trepidation at the thought. 
 
 " Meet me !" echoed Forbes. " Not he. My brother may, 
 perhaps. Yours is from Mrs. Anderson, of course. Who's 
 coming to meet you ?" 
 
 She opened her letter, and read it with a lengthening 
 face. " Oh-h !" she exclaimed, when she was about half 
 through. 
 
 Forbes looked up from his own epistle with a quick 
 " What ?" 
 
 " Belle couldn't come one of the children has had an 
 accident, and Joe is very sorry, but he says they are having 
 floods, and that it isn't safe to leave the run. Some Mel- 
 bourne people, friends of his, are coming to meet me and 
 take me to their house ; and a new nurse that Belle has 
 engaged is to accompany me on my journey up country. 
 Joe says he will make all arrangements on the road, so that 
 I shall have no bother." 
 
 " Who are the Melbourne friends?" asked Alexander, his 
 face lighting up. 
 
 " A Mr. and Mrs. Biddulph." 
 
 " I know them." He was rapidly skimming his father's 
 letter, and growing more and more excited. " My brother 
 is flood-bound too all wanted to look after the place 
 nobody in town. Katherine, I'll write to Anderson the 
 minute we land, and tell him to have no anxiety about you 
 that / will bring you home safely. I can take a look into 
 my own affairs, and then go to see my father. He's as well 
 as usual, and won't be in any hurry. Oh, what luck! You 
 and I, and a maid to do the conventional. Katherine, what 
 do you say to getting married in Melbourne straight away, 
 and going up as my wife?" 
 
 " That I won't," she replied promptly. 
 
 " But do think how convenient it would be and how 
 delicious !" 
 
 " Don't talk nonsense," she rejoined. " There's a time for 
 all things, and the time for that is not yet." She diverted 
 him from a topic that he was too much given to harp upon 
 by calling his attention to Major Todd. That gentleman 
 was strutting about in a disturbed and ostentatious manner. 
 
 " I can't understand it I can't understand it at all," he 
 was saying to anybody who would listen to him. " I gave 
 instructions that money should be awaiting me here, and 
 the remittances are not to hand. Most extraordinary ! And 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 151 
 
 a nice position for a gentleman to find himself in, 'pon my 
 word !" 
 
 " The letter may have been overlooked," suggested Forbes, 
 mildly. 
 
 " It has not, sir. I have the agents' word for it that no 
 letter has reached them for me." 
 
 " Then it will have reached the bank, or the General Post- 
 office." 
 
 " No. I particularly ordered my man of business to ad- 
 dress me to care of the ship's agents and nowhere else. It's 
 the most confounded, incomprehensible thing ! And a nice 
 fix for a gentleman, away from all his friends by Jove !" 
 
 As Alexander made no further remark, he moved off, 
 fuming. 
 
 After this our young gentleman was not surprised to be 
 solicited by Major Todd, later in the day, to lend him a few 
 pounds, like a good fellow just to carry on with till the 
 next mail came in. " For you see a man can't ask his wife 
 his new-made wife to pay his tinker and his tailor for 
 him," the major said. 
 
 " Oh, I don't know," drawled Alexander. " I don't think 
 I should mind, if it were my case." 
 
 "Don't you, sir? Well, I am not made that way I do 
 mind. I couldn't sponge on a woman if you were to pay 
 me for it." 
 
 Forbes briefly gave him to understand that he wouldn't 
 be permitted to sponge on him, and the interview closed 
 with " words." It subsequently transpired that, failing the 
 other young men, who had no money to spare (and he knew 
 better than to make attempts upon the old ones, who had 
 plenty), the major successfully negotiated a loan with Mrs. 
 Bellamy, woman though she was. 
 
 The Huntingdonshire anchored in Hobson's Bay that 
 night ; it was too late and dark to reach the pier, but boats 
 were out looking for her, and the bulk of the passengers 
 were taken off by their rejoicing friends. Mrs. Todd, when 
 Mrs. Brodie, had given her fellow-passengers to understand 
 that she was a sort of society queen in Melbourne, so worked 
 and worn by the exigencies of that position that she had 
 been driven to take a run home for the sake of rest ; the 
 true case being that her trip was a business enterprise de- 
 signed to better her condition as a commercial traveller's 
 widow in straitened circumstances, ambition having been 
 foiled in the place where she was known and where all who 
 knew her were tired of her. So it happened that when, boat 
 after boat having emptied itself over the ship's side, her 
 
152 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 husband demanded, in a tone unbecoming an officer and a 
 gentleman, where were all the fine friends she had bragged 
 about, whose various splendid houses were her second homes 
 (in which he had proposed to install himself) , she was driven 
 into an unpleasant corner. The only thing she could say 
 was," Where are yours?" And when he retorted, " In Eng- 
 land, madam, amongst the highest in the land," she was at 
 a further disadvantage. No friends came to meet either of 
 them, though Elvira had had hopes of a humble aunt, who, 
 she confided to Katherine, was not a lady, because she kept 
 a shop, but had all the virtues necessary to make her 
 beloved by all who knew her. 
 
 "Ma doesn't care to associate with pa's relations," said 
 the quaint child, gravely. " Ma's father was a doctor. She 
 wouldn't like Aunt Jane to come to meet her, before all 
 these people. But, oh, I do wish she had! She's so kind. 
 And what shall I do when I have nobody?" 
 
 She clung to Katherine, who held her tightly, while the 
 major bawled for a boat, and Mrs. Todd did her best to part 
 on good terms with the Spooners and Mrs. Orme. " Let's 
 
 get out of this d d rat-hole, at any rate," growled the 
 
 bridegroom (who would have been more amiable if he had 
 not had his grog allowanced by the captain). " I suppose 
 we shall find a hotel somewhere anything to get out of 
 this!" 
 
 Katherine scribbled her sister's address on an old envel- 
 ope and thrust it into Elvira's pocket, as the child was 
 swept, sobbing, to the gangway. " Good-bye, my darling, 
 good-bye," the girl cried, almost with passion. " Write to 
 me, dear, if you feel you want to. I have no home of my 
 own yet, Elvira, but when I have you shall come to me 
 you shall, my darling, you shall! I sha'n't forget you. 
 There, go, dear, go your mother is calling you." 
 
 Katherine hung over the rail to watch her little friend 
 depart, though her own new friends, the Biddulphs, were 
 already on board and beside her, talking to Alexander. 
 Only for a moment did she see the small, white, agonised 
 face in the light of the ship's lanterns, peering upward from 
 the rocking boat ; then Elvira became a little black blot on 
 the dusk, and vanished. 
 
 " Shall we ever see the poor little soul again, I wonder?" 
 said Katherine, sweeping her handkerchief over her eyes. 
 
 Alexander did not hear her, and he had already dismissed 
 Elvira from his thoughts and from his life. He was hastily 
 pushing on his slight acquaintance with Mrs. Biddulph, and 
 telling her that he was engaged to Mrs. Anderson's sister, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 153 
 
 whom he had courted in England under her father's eyes. 
 Mrs. Biddulph was Belle's intimate friend, the wife of a 
 Murray squatter who had a house in town ; she wore a seal- 
 skin coat, and had an air of fashion and consequence about 
 her that did not attract the homely country girl ; she was 
 glad that Forbes should do the talking for her, while she 
 answered the few conventional inquiries put by Mrs. Bid- 
 dulph, who was as reserved as herself. Before they left 
 the ship Forbes, as a matter of course, was warmly urged 
 to accompany his sweetheart, and joyfully accepted the 
 invitation. 
 
 " There's no need for you to hurry up country," said Mrs. 
 Biddulph, who made as much of the handsome young man 
 (being herself a handsome young woman) as he could have 
 desired. " I assure you the roads are impassable at present. 
 Belle Anderson will know that her sister is safe with me, 
 and she may as well have a little amusement before she 
 goes to bury herself alive up there. Just stay over the 
 Town-hall ball, at any rate." (The Melbourne Town-hall 
 had lately been opened with festivities of an unexampled 
 character, including a fancy dress ball, and a return ball 
 was to take place in a day or two.) 
 
 Forbes reminded her that Miss Knowles was in mourning, 
 and could not go to balls, and also that he was bound to 
 deliver her into Mrs. Anderson's charge at once. He was 
 terribly afraid lest delay should frustrate his project of 
 escorting her to Eurella (with only the nurse in attend- 
 ance), and expressed their mutual desire to set off on their 
 journey as soon as their things were through the customs 
 and the maid on hand no matter what the roads were. 
 " She's dying to get to her sister," said Forbes earnestly. 
 At which Mrs. Biddulph looked at the quiet girl with a 
 smile that seemed a little satirical. 
 
 " Well, we'll talk about it to-morrow," she said airily. 
 " Come along now, and let me give you some supper and a 
 decent bed to sleep in, and in the morning I'll tell you all 
 that's happened since you have been away. Harry, my 
 dear, you take Miss Knowles." 
 
 Great was the surprise of this fashionable lady when, as 
 her party was leaving the crowded cuddy for the crowded 
 deck, a blowsy mountain of a woman flung herself upon 
 Katherine with a vehemence that nearly knocked her back- 
 wards, crying loudly : " Good-bye, my darlin' precious heart ! 
 God bless you all the days o' your life, and old Martha's not 
 going to forget you don't you fear! You've not seen the 
 last o' me yet. I've got your address, darlin', and here's 
 
154 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 mine, and a little something take it, take it" cramming a 
 small box (containing her best diamond bracelet) into the 
 breast of Katherine's jacket, for her hands were full of 
 flowers that Mrs. Biddulph had brought her. " It's not the 
 wedding-present that I'm going to send you after you get 
 home only a trifle of a remembrance of the voyage, darlin', 
 and your being so kind to me." 
 
 She sobbed and slobbered over the girl in a way that dis- 
 gusted Mrs. Biddulph, who inquired of Forbes in an under- 
 tone who that dreadful creature was. Forbes blushed a 
 little as he whispered his explanation, and privately made 
 up his mind that Mrs. Bellamy had had her day, and could 
 not be allowed to reappear upon the domestic scene. It 
 almost annoyed him to see Katherine hastily detach herself 
 from Mr. Biddulph 's arm and clasp Mrs. Bellamy round the 
 neck, and kiss her affectionately on her baggy cheeks, 
 though he was ready with a cordial hand-clasp and farewell 
 when his own time came. 
 
 " Got anybody looking after you, Mrs. Bellamy?" he gaily 
 asked her, with the instinct of good manners that never 
 deserted him. 
 
 " Bless you, yes! There's plenty to look after a woman 
 that's got as much money as I have " she responded loudly 
 to the confusion of a group of shady-looking characters, 
 male and female, who were crowding at her heels. 
 
 Thus passed Mrs. Bellamy. The Spooners followed, call- 
 ing their maid, who was constantly getting lost in the back- 
 ground. Mr. and Mrs. Orme were taken off by Mrs. Orme's 
 brother, and the clergymen by deputations of their respec- 
 tive parishioners. Miss Blake remained on board till morn- 
 ing, when her nephew was to fetch her ; so did Mr. Terry 
 and his jackaroos, because it saved the cost of beds and 
 breakfasts at an inn ; so did Van der Veen, because he was 
 a stranger and wanted daylight to find his way about. 
 
 The young Dutchman stood on the gangway ladder to 
 help Katherine into her boat. It was not the custom in his 
 country to shake hands with ladies he thought it an inde- 
 cent liberty on the part of the men who did itf but when 
 he found Katherine's hand in his, he not only pressed it, 
 but kissed it reverently with his pure young lips. He did 
 not expect to see her any more; he did not ask for her 
 address, nor mention his own ; it was proper that he should 
 bid her a final good-bye at this point, under all the circum- 
 stances. Having done so, he went to the steward and 
 demanded " a grog of brandy" an act of desperation in 
 which to drown his misery at the loss of her, if possible. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. IS5 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 MR. BIDDULPH was advised by all the authorities whom 
 he consulted that travelling by road to Miss Knowles's 
 destination was out of the question at present for a lady. 
 Men had to swim creeks, converted by the rains into rivers, 
 and to drag the coaches that professed to carry them through 
 bogs that engulfed them to the waist; and thus, with 
 patience and perseverance, and many a wide detour made 
 necessary by the collapse of bridges, managed to get through 
 a twenty-four hours' journey in a little less than a week. 
 But it was not reasonable to expose women to this sort of 
 thing, except under dire necessity, and there was no neces- 
 sity in Katherine's case. 
 
 Mrs. Biddulph was urgent that her guests should remain 
 with her until the roads improved, and one of them, at any 
 rate, accompany her to the Town-hall ball : but Katherine 
 detected the fact that it was only that one who was really 
 wanted that she was herself too socially uneducated and 
 personally unornamental to be the companion and the credit 
 to a fashionable house that he was. And, though Alexander 
 had a faint inclination to stay and enjoy himself in the 
 manner proposed (which was a fact she did not detect) , he 
 had a stronger desire to be alone with his fiancee while he 
 had the chance. So they conspired together to compass 
 the desired end. 
 
 " There are more ways than one of doing everything," the 
 young man remarked, when he returned from getting their 
 1 belongings through the Custom-house, and the question of 
 the next step was under debate. " We can go by Echuca 
 and the river. It's a roundabout route, and the boat won't 
 seem much after the Huntingdonshire, but it will be easy 
 and straight ahead, and it will get us home, which is the 
 main thing. Katherine wants to get home. I'll write to 
 Anderson at once and arrange a meeting-place. The river 
 will be looking very pretty now, with so much water in it. 
 Shall we do that, Katherine? I'll undertake that you shall 
 come to no harm." 
 
 She said she would go that or any way he wished, and 
 did not care how roundabout it was, and was in no fear 
 at all of coming to harm. Privately she told him that the 
 longer and wilder the journey the better she would like it, 
 not being a conventional young woman trained to use lan- 
 guage to disguise her thoughts. 
 
156 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 They set off on a fine afternoon it was the last day of 
 August the day after they heard of the arrival of the mail 
 which brought news that war was declared between France 
 and Prussia (and little did they imagine how much it 
 brought beside) Mrs. Biddulph accompanying them to 
 Spencer-street, with baskets of fruit for the journey and 
 bunches of English violets and Australian wattle, now in 
 its beautiful spring bloom, for Katherine's delectation. 
 The nurse, a stolid young woman, who promised to be no 
 more inconvenience than an extra portmanteau, met them 
 at the station, and was disposed of and forgotten ; and the 
 lovers, in opposite corners of a railway carriage, started on 
 their circular tour in that dangerous state of happiness 
 which all our experience of life can't cure us of believing 
 to be a safe thing to trust to, and which at their age excited 
 no suspicion of ill-luck. Katherine, who had felt oppressed 
 in Mrs. Biddulph's house, and had never before had her 
 sweetheart wholly to herself, was so radiant that he could 
 not help remarking upon it, and telling her that she had 
 never looked so beautiful. 
 
 " I feel beautiful," she calmly answered, gazing back at 
 him with frank eyes full of love. 
 
 At which there being no one but themselves in their 
 compartment he crossed over and sat down beside her, and 
 put his arm round her neck. Hastily she removed and 
 tossed away her hat, so that she could lay her head on his 
 shoulder comfortably ; and they remained for some minutes 
 in that attitude, blissfully silent and content. Then they 
 said how they loved each other, and how sweet it was to 
 be away from everybody, and so on and so on ; and they 
 recalled the old days in Norfolk, and inquired into their 
 early sensations, and generally wanted to know things that 
 they were already fully cognisant of. An interesting con- 
 versation, but of no literary value. 
 
 It was interrupted at Kyneton; and they sat again in 
 their opposite corners, exchanging confidential smiles and 
 signs, until they arrived at Sandhurst, where they had time 
 for a little dinner and a turn in the dimly-lighted streets, 
 both of which were unspeakably delicious under the novel 
 circumstances. Then they went on again through the dark 
 night to Echuca, where a friendly person, instructed by Mr. 
 Biddulph, met them and convoyed them to the steamer 
 the little river boat that was as great a contrast to the Hunt- 
 ingdonshire as the Huntingdonshire would now be to the 
 vessels we have become accustomed to. A day or two 
 afterwards Echuca was under water it was in " her broad, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 157 
 
 her narrow streets," like the sea in Venice, and the inhab- 
 itants went about in boats ; but that night there was com- 
 paratively dry land, and Katherine's embarkation in the 
 lamp-lighted darkness, on the little bustling, spark-puffing 
 craft, lifted high on the brim-full river, was quite comfort- 
 able and delightfully picturesque. 
 
 She and the nurse, whose name was Mabel, were bestowed 
 in a tiny slip of cabin, furnished with two bunks, one above 
 the other, in which they fitted ^so tightly that they could 
 scarcely turn round in bed like corpses in their coffins, 
 as Mabel remarked. The bedclothes were none too fine or 
 white, and the mattress had an obdurate feel to bones grown 
 accustomed to the suavity of down feathers Aunt Mary 
 Ann's old-fashioned bed; and the cosmopolitan insect was 
 rampant. Katherine had been told of Australia's songless 
 birds and scentless flowers and cherries growing with the 
 stones outside those common objects of the country which 
 every British schoolboy is acquainted with, yet which don't 
 somehow force themselves on the attention of the traveller 
 who visits Australia but nobody had ever told her of 
 Australian fleas, and what they can be and do on a river 
 steamer. The circumstances generally were unfavourable 
 to sleep, as far as she was concerned. Mabel snored in 
 peace. 
 
 In the very early morning, before that young person 
 opened her eyes, Katherine dressed and went out on deck. 
 The deck was a little slip of planking between cabin walls 
 and rail, just wide enough to stand on, with a further small 
 space near the funnel, where by-and-by a seat was con- 
 trived for her ; which seat she occupied all day long, regard- 
 less of the wood sparks that speckled her all over and ruined 
 her clothes for ever. She found Alexander in ambush near 
 her door, and he joyfully pounced on her as soon as she 
 appeared. 
 
 " Ah, my darling !" An expressive silence followed this 
 ejaculation, and then he asked her how she had slept. 
 
 " Not much," she confessed. " But I am not in a sleeping 
 humour just now. It seems almost like a waste of time to 
 be forgetting how happy one is and dreaming of things 
 that don't interest one in the least." 
 
 He cast a swift look fore and aft, and kissed her without 
 being seen. 
 
 " I'm afraid it's a beastly hole you have to sleep in isn't 
 it? But do your best, Katherine. I want to have you fresh 
 for the day-time these few days that we can be together." 
 
 " I am quite fresh, dear. To-night I won't go to bed so 
 
158 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 early. I'll sit on deck with you if there's a place big 
 enough for us to sit on as late as they will let us. You 
 can smoke your pipe, Forbes, and we can watch the night 
 and talk." 
 
 " We will," he said promptly. And they did. 
 
 Until breakfast was ready they leaned on the boat's rail, 
 and looked at the silvery morning mists and the steel-bright 
 water shining through it, spreading on either hand through 
 the dim trees as far as eye could reach. Some of my read- 
 ers will remember how the Murray looked in those first 
 days of September in 1870, while it was still fair weather 
 before the heavy rains of the month, melting the mountain 
 snows, brought the historic deluge to its full dimensions. 
 For many miles together, for a whole day's journey at a 
 time, not an inch of land was visible from the decks of the 
 steamers, which had to find their route by the conformation 
 of the trees, as by lines of buoys in a sea-channel. Here 
 and there the searching eye discovered a row of dots that 
 indicated the posts of a paddock fence, or a bigger dot that 
 meant a house chimney, or the ridge of a shingle roof; 
 otherwise the low country was like a vast primeval lake, 
 on the remoter reaches of which the black swans and lesser 
 wild fowl sailed about luxuriously, puffing their soft 
 breasts, as if it had always belonged to them. 
 
 As the day grew and brightened the short bends of the 
 river, gleaming in the sun, became each more lovely than 
 the last. There were the yellow feathers of the wattle, 
 amongst the sedater gum trees, scenting the dewy air, and 
 clear-throated magpies carolling their defiance to the base 
 traducer who has made the world believe that there are no 
 singing birds. Great flocks of cockatoos and parrots flashed 
 hither and thither, tweeting and screaming, full of the joy 
 of the sweet morning; and laughing jackasses sat on con- 
 spicuous dead boughs and shook out that stream of gurgling 
 trills which, after all, is not exactly like laughter, though 
 delightfully cheerful to listen to. Katherine listened to it 
 with rapture, and gazed, and sniffed, and forgot about the 
 fleas and the tough mattress. "This is Australia!" she 
 sighed, with a long breath. "And, Forbes, I think it's 
 beautiful." 
 
 She thought so still when they were called to a breakfast 
 of greasy chops and post-and-rail tea, at which she sat with 
 Mabel and two or three male travellers who paid Mabel 
 attentions. She thought so more and more as the day wore 
 on, and new Australian features appeared upon the scene 
 a six-foot iguana sidling round a tall tree-trunk ; a white 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 159 
 
 ibis ; a flock of blue cranes ; a black fellow punting about 
 on a strip of bark, fishing for cod ; a station homestead on 
 rising ground, with its blossoming orchards around it. And 
 she thought so most of all when darkness fell, and she and 
 her lover sat together under cloaks and rugs in a sheltered 
 corner and listened to the strange noises of the bush at 
 night. It was worth all the risk of fleas, with centipedes 
 and scorpions and bull-dog ants (freely shipped with the 
 wood fuel) thrown in, to have such an experience as the 
 Murray journey afforded at this moment of the year. How 
 weird it was ! The frogs were deafening, when one hap- 
 pened to think of it, but the ear, grown accustomed to the 
 incessant clamour, a sustained bubbling shriek, took no 
 notice of it, and heard the finer voices as distinctly as if 
 they had the silence to themselves. The far-off wail of the 
 curlews was a new sound to Katherine, who had heard cur- 
 lews all her life ; and the long, repeating echoes that followed 
 each puff of the steamer gave an impression of unpeopled 
 solitude that no words can describe. 
 
 They " watched the night," but they did not talk much. 
 The fading of the lights on the water, the deepening of the 
 shadows of the trees, the gathering of the delicate mist, 
 that dissolved imperceptibly in the clear darkness it was 
 all as solemn and hushing as sacred music. When it was 
 dark enough, Katherine laid her head on Alexander's shoul- 
 der, and he slipped a tender arm round her waist. 
 
 " I wish," she said presently, " that father could know how 
 it is with me now." 
 
 " You think he would be satisfied?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ! He always liked you, Forbes from the first 
 from the night you went to see him Christmas Eve, you 
 know when you left all those gay young people to do a 
 kindness to a crippled old man that was how he put it. 
 He said it showed what you were. He was always very 
 quick at reading character bless him !" 
 
 Forbes stroked his moustache meditatively. " Your 
 father may have liked me," he remarked, after a pause ; " I 
 hope he did. But there was somebody he liked a great 
 deal better old Jim. It was Jim he wanted you to have, 
 Katherine." 
 
 " Dear old Jim !" murmured Katherine. " He was my 
 dear brother, Forbes that's all. He looked on me as his 
 sister." 
 
 Forbes knew better, but he said nothing. 
 
 " Dear old Jim !" she repeated. " Good, good old friend! 
 so true and so faithful. I never knew anybody so faith- 
 
160 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ful. He's like a devoted dog the Shepherd's Chief 
 Mourner, you know that sort of thing." 
 
 Forbes drew her closer to him with a spasm of jealousy. 
 He was more glad to be removed by the width of the world 
 from Jim than to have the terrible Neil at the same con- 
 venient distance, and he could not bear to hear Katherine 
 making plans for Jim to settle near them. " Well, I daresay 
 I can be faithful, too, if you give me time," he said. 
 
 " Do you think I doubt it?" sne answered quickly, putting 
 up her face to kiss him. 
 
 Then they changed the subject and talked of their married 
 life, which Katherine was so glad to think was to be spent 
 on this noble river. "We'll live on it a great deal," she 
 said. " I am accustomed to water and to boats I am at 
 home when I have the yoke-lines round my waist, and you 
 can catch fish and shoot ducks for dinner. And when the 
 summer nights come in the moonlight we can drift down 
 these lovely reaches, all alone by ourselves, when we want 
 to talk and rest." 
 
 " The Murray isn't always like this," said Forbes. " And 
 the mosquitoes of a summer night are awful." 
 
 The light words indicated the sort of answer that the 
 future would give to her young hopes. 
 
 The steamer could not travel at night, as she was accus- 
 tomed to do ; it was too dangerous, with this fierce flood 
 pouring down and carrying so many foreign bodies with it ; 
 she had enough to do to evade the snags that beset her 
 path by day. So she was moored stem and stern to the bank, 
 or where the bank should have been, and Katherine, lying 
 awake in her tight bunk, heard the growling sigh and snarl 
 of opossums over her head, and the soft quack of wild 
 ducks, and all the strange little rustlings and cracklings 
 that pervade the midnight solitude of the bush, as if spirits 
 were abroad. She fell asleep to the sound of lapping water, 
 and dreamed that she was in Jim's boat on the Broad at 
 home, and that Jim was rowing her ; and woke to hear the 
 paddle-wheels revolving in the grey dawn. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 OWING to her difficulties by day and her detentions by 
 night the steamer made very slow progress, and the voy- 
 age, that promised to be all too short, became extremely 
 irksome. Our travellers had embarked on Wednesday 
 evening, and on the following Saturday morning found 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 161 
 
 themselves still a considerable distance from the vessel's 
 destination, itself a long coach drive from the town at 
 which Forbes had appointed to meet Joe Anderson and his 
 own buggy. Katherine grew a little restless, lest her 
 brother-in-law should be put to inconvenience for her sake, 
 with his sick child and his flooded run ; and Alexander had 
 had enough of the crawling river journey, and yearned to 
 get her beside him behind a pair of fast horses. It was 
 worrying to think of Sunday being at hand, when coaches 
 did not travel, and when he and she, with no chaperon but 
 Mabel, might be obliged to camp as casual strangers in an 
 inn that did not know them. There was no real difference 
 between the hotel and the steamer, and yet everybody 
 would feel a difference themselves most of all. Katherine 
 thought her brother-in-law would certainly meet the boat, 
 but Alexander, who had arranged another rendezvous, was 
 convinced that he would not. 
 
 While they were discussing the matter on Saturday morn- 
 ing, the boat halted at a small landing-stage to put off some 
 cargo and take a couple of men on board. There were no 
 houses visible only a rough shed that was evidently a sort 
 of depot for goods carried on the river; but there was a 
 two-wheeled tilted cart standing under the trees, and a har- 
 nessed horse in hobbles grazing near it, and on these 
 Alexander fixed a covetous eye. 
 
 " I've got an idea," he exclaimed suddenly. 
 
 " What is it?" inquired Katherine. 
 
 " Wait till I have interviewed that Robinson Crusoe fel- 
 low," he rejoined, making off towards the gangway. The 
 next minute he was under the trees too, talking earnestly 
 to a bearded man in a mangy 'possum cap and water-rat 
 waistcoat, who had been exchanging news with the cap- 
 tain about the floods ; and he walked with this man round 
 the tilted cart and round the hobbled horse as he talked. 
 Then he came springing back to the boat, all smiles and 
 energy. 
 
 " Come along, Katherine! Where's Mabel? Tell her to 
 put your things together. We are going to make a short 
 cut through the bush. This man has undertaken to get us 
 to a station I know of to a married cousin of mine before 
 dark; it's right on the way to Joe, and he will send us on 
 in the morning ; we shall get there a day sooner, and you 
 will be comfortable, as you can't be on this beastly boat. 
 Where are your things? I'll get them taken off and put 
 into the cart." 
 
 He swept her out of her cramped cabin and off the 
 ll 
 
1 62 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 steamer before she knew exactly what it was he meant to 
 do ; but she was quite content to let him manage for her, 
 and saw the little vessel puff away without any misgiving. 
 It was not raining now, and she stood in the actual bush 
 for the first time, with the green spring grass under her 
 feet and the pendant-leaved gum trees over her head, which 
 was a very pleasant sensation. The liberty, the loneliness, 
 the purity of the bush air, refreshed her very soul ; and, in 
 sensible stout boots and an all-embracing tweed waterproof, 
 she was physically ready for any vicissitudes of circum- 
 stance that the day might bring forth. She had just a little 
 British scruple about foisting herself upon the married 
 cousin, whom she did not know, but Alexander laughed it 
 away, telling her she didn't understand the customs of the 
 country as well as he did, and as she herself would under- 
 stand them in a little time. 
 
 He packed her into the tilted cart, along with Mabel and 
 such small luggage as they carried with them, and they set 
 off at an ambling trot through the bush, driven by the fur- 
 capped man whom they called Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 " This is delightful !" they said one to another, with smiles 
 and rubbings of the hands. " What a relief after the 
 steamer ! What luck, that this cart happened to be here, 
 and not wanted by other people !" The magpies piped in 
 the most joyous manner, and parrots of all sizes and col- 
 ours whirred from branch to branch, as if wild with life. 
 All the feeling of the spring, and the fresh morning filled 
 the hearts of our young lovers as they jogged along over a 
 fairly good track, and congratulated themselves on their 
 good fortune. 
 
 However, as the day wore on the sky darkened, and the 
 rain fell, and the new enterprise did not look quite so 
 promising. The track grew muddy, and then muddier ; the 
 cart-tilt leaked; the wheels lurched into boggy ruts and 
 holes, and sank and stuck at alarming angles, and jerked 
 out again suddenly so as almost to capsize the party, like 
 the Huntingdonshire wallowing in steep seas when sail was 
 being trimmed to adjust her to a gale blowing from two or 
 three quarters at once ; and the poor horse laboured and 
 struggled, and was lashed along his arduous way in a man- 
 ner to make the compassionate heart of a new chum bleed. 
 Katherine said presently, when she saw his hind quarters 
 sink into a deeper slough than usual, and all his muscles 
 strain till they looked ready to crack in the effort to pull 
 out of it, that she couldn't bear it any longer. 
 
 " We are too heavy for him, on a road like this. Let m 
 
NUT ALL IN VAIN. 163 
 
 walk, Forbes, till we are over the bad part. I don't mind 
 the rain." 
 
 They walked accordingly, under one umbrella, which was 
 not much shelter, seeing that they could not keep abreast, 
 having to skip over water at every other step ; and Robin- 
 son Crusoe retained Mabel, who complained that her boots 
 were thin. The lovers would have liked to walk away from 
 the cart, and attempted to do so, but when it stuck in bogs, 
 such as bogs were at that time and place, all available man- 
 power was required to hoist it out and set it on its way 
 again. Forbes had to literally put his shoulder to the 
 wheel again and again, or to pull at the horse's head while 
 the driver admonished the poor animal with shouts and 
 blows ; and in these circumstances no comfortable ttte-a-t$U 
 was possible. After a time Katherine went on ahead by 
 herself, leaving the cart to follow, as the hare in the fable 
 followed the tortoise, its short rushes and frequent stop- 
 pages making its average pace about equal to hers. It was 
 the only help she could give to withdraw her not incon- 
 siderable weight from the load that was evidently too much 
 for the poor, game creature that so gallantly did his best 
 to meet his master's views. 
 
 At midday a halt was called, to spell and feed him. At 
 the same time hunger began to assail the travellers from 
 the steamer, who had brought no provisions with them. It 
 was a country of big stations, and there were no inns, as 
 there were no roads, in the locality; but they found a 
 selector's hut, and in the hut a hospitable woman, who 
 gave them milk, and slices of bread spread with thick 
 cream, and indignantly refused to be paid for what Kath- 
 erine said was the most delicious meal she had ever eaten. 
 Then the party went on again, in heavier rain and on a 
 boggier track than ever, Forbes staying by the cart (and 
 not in his usual sweet temper), and Katherine pursuing the 
 winding path under her umbrella, drenched to the skin. 
 In her anxiety to avoid being bushed for the night, which 
 dire possibility was hinted at and explained to her, she 
 plodded on at her best speed, without regard to the motions 
 of the cart, which sometimes disappeared for a long while, 
 and then presented itself to her anxious backward gaze, 
 careering along safely in and out between the trees. It was 
 such a road as she had never walked upon before, and she 
 would have found it very hard to retrace her steps had she 
 been required to do so. She took tremendous inelegant 
 leaps that modesty would have made impossible in a gen- 
 tleman's presence, swung herself from branch to branch of 
 
1 64 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 dead timber over soft spots that would have bogged her 
 fast had she dropped into them, and splashed through pools 
 of mud and water over her boot-tops. Anything to get 
 along, and to get to Forbes's cousin before dark; and it 
 was impossible to make herself wetter than she was. She 
 could feel little rivulets trickling down her back, and down 
 her arms from wrist to elbow, in spite of the w r aterproof, 
 and the rain ran from every rib of her umbrella in a continu- 
 ous stream. In spite of all this, she was quite happy and 
 cheerful, warming herself with pleasant thoughts. 
 
 By-and-by it struck her that it was already dusk almost 
 dark and that she had not seen anything of the cart for 
 perhaps half an hour. Also she came upon a track running 
 at right angles to the one she had been following, and she 
 did not know which turn to take. So she pulled up to await 
 her companions, and to ask Forbes how far they were how 
 from his cousin's house. She was tired with her long and 
 difficult walk, and sat down on a log to rest, and amused 
 herself with thinking how Aunt Mary Ann and Jim would 
 exclaim over the description of her first experience of the 
 Australian bush, which she would put into her next letter. 
 
 She sat for some minutes, looked at her watch ; sat on 
 for some minutes more, gazing eagerly into the backward 
 distance, which grew vaguer and shorter every moment ; and 
 then conceived the alarming notion that she had taken the 
 wrong path, and that the cart was probably travelling away 
 from her as fast as the poor horse could be urged along by 
 the inexorable Robinson Crusoe. She was not terrified 
 by the absolute solitude, and the prospect of being lost in 
 it for the whole of a dark and rainy night, as many a woman 
 might reasonably have been ; but it did terrify her to think 
 of Forbes's terror when he failed to find her. She walked 
 back along the track until she came to a bog that it was too 
 dark to see the other side of, and called him by name with 
 all the power of her strong lungs. The one ringing note 
 sounded strangely in the dripping twilight silence. 
 
 "Forbes! Forbes!! FORBES!!!" 
 
 No Forbes answered. She waited, and listened, and 
 called again. Still she heard nothing out the patter of the 
 rain. Then it became so dark that she was afraid to move 
 lest she should leave the faintly-defined bush path; and 
 she stood still, battling with a childish impulse to sob, and 
 wondered desperately what was the best thing to do. Of 
 course there was nothing she could do but call again and 
 again, and her " Forbes ! Forbes !" rang through the night 
 like the cry of a curlew. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 165 
 
 At last an answer came two answers. A faint " cooee !" 
 floated tip from the obscurity that hid the track on her 
 right the track of the expected cart ; and almost immedi- 
 ately another " cooee, "louder and nearer, came like an echo 
 from the opposite direction, where the bush roads crossed. 
 She turned her head that way, and presently saw a grey 
 horse looming through the rainy mist ; it was standing still 
 at the intersection of the paths, evidently with a listening 
 rider on its back. 
 
 Now Katherine had not learned to cooee yet, and even 
 in the present emergency, could not think of a word with 
 which to call a strange man's attention (when one comes 
 to think of it, such a necessity is almost unknown in a 
 lady's experience) ; but she felt at once that this opportune 
 strange man must not be allowed to pass on without mak- 
 ing himself useful. So she ran as well as she could towards 
 him, keeping in the open, where she had the best chance 
 of being seen. 
 
 The horse stepped forward to meet her, and the rider 
 dismounted. In spite of the darkness and the dripping 
 wide-awake pulled over his nose, she recognised a bluff, 
 gentlemanly figure that a woman had no need to be afraid 
 of ; and, for his part, he clearly understood that it was not 
 a " common person" whose presence so much astonished him 
 at such a time and place. They met on the streaming 
 track, and Katherine spoke after a moment of embarrassed 
 silence. 
 
 " Would you please cooee again? I have lost my party, 
 walking too far ahead of them to lighten the load the 
 roads are so bad " 
 
 " Certainly," he replied, and cooee 'd long and loud in 
 the correct bush fashion. The call was answered, and she 
 uplifted her own voice joyfully. 
 
 " Forbes ! Forbes ! I'm here, Forbes !" Then she turned 
 to the stranger, with an explanatory air. " Mr. Alexander 
 has not been able to leave the driver, who wanted his help 
 at the boggy places." 
 
 " Forbes ! Alexander !" he exclaimed hastily. " Not Alex- 
 ander of Wanderoo?" 
 
 " Yes. He is coming home he is bringing me to my 
 sister, Mrs. Anderson, of Eurella. Her maid is with me, 
 and my brother-in-law " 
 
 But the stranger interrupted her with a " God bless my 
 soul, you don't say so?" which informed her that further 
 explanation was unnecessary. " Why, I'm Forbes 's cousin 
 Lloyd-Price. You may have heard him speak of Hugh 
 
i66 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Lloyd-Price. What in the name of goodness is he doing 
 here at this time o' night?" 
 
 " I think he is trying to get to your house," said Kath- 
 erine, and she was beginning to explain and apologise for 
 what to her seemed a very cool proceeding, when Forbes 
 himself emerged from the surrounding gloom and took that 
 duty from her. Not that any apology was needed ; Mr. 
 Lloyd-Price was delighted to learn their destination, and 
 only complained because they had not sent him word to 
 meet them at the river. 
 
 " For you want the best horses you can get just now," he 
 said, " to pull you through. Never knew the country in 
 such a state. If I had had a notion you were coming this 
 way, I'd have made things more comfortable for Miss for 
 this young lady." 
 
 "This young lady," said Forbes, taking her hand, "is 
 you don't mind my telling him, Katherine? is my affianced 
 wife. I am taking her to her sister taking very bad care 
 of her, I'm afraid. I really thought I'd lost her just now. 
 What can you do for us, Hugh? The cart is stuck fast a 
 mile and more back bogged hopelessly, horse and all; 
 they'll have to be dug out. And Miss Knowles is wet 
 through. I shall never forgive myself, Katherine, for bring- 
 ing you into this." 
 
 " Oh, I'm all right, "she responded cheerfully ; and Lloyd- 
 Price echoed her hopeful tones. " We'll soon have her in- 
 doors and comfortable. You'd better just wait here where 
 I can find you, and I'll ride home as fast as possible and 
 come back with a buggy. And I'll send some men to look 
 after the cart. I may be an hour or two it's a good way, 
 you know and I don't like to think of you soaking in the 
 rain, Miss Knowles. I suppose you couldn't manage to 
 ride pillion, at a pinch?" 
 
 She said she was sure she couldn't, and preferred to stay 
 with Forbes. And so Mr. Lloyd-Price cantered off, splash- 
 ing hastily through the mire, to reassure Mabel and Robin- 
 son Crusoe and fetch aid for the party ; and the lovers seated 
 themselves on a log, with their feet on another log, and 
 their heads laid together under their joint umbrella, and 
 generally made themselves as comfortable as the circum- 
 stances permitted. 
 
 " I wouldn't care," said Forbes, " if you were not so wet. 
 I suppose you are very wet, aren't you, darling?" 
 
 " Middling," she replied. " But not cold, The walking 
 warmed me," 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 167 
 
 " If you get a chill, and an illness, I shall never forgive 
 myself," he went on anxiously. 
 
 " Pooh !" was her light retort. " I never get ill, and how 
 could you help it, dear? We are all right now. I think it's 
 rather fun." 
 
 " It would be great fun, if the weather were different. 
 Happy thought ! Have a grog of brandy, as Van der Veen 
 calls it." He pulled out a pocket-flask, diluted some cognac 
 with clean rain water, and almost forced the mixture down 
 her throat ; then he took a stiff dose himself. The result 
 was a comforting warmth of body and exhilaration of spirit. 
 They ceased to heed the rain ; they found no irksomeness 
 in idle waiting; they enjoyed the strange bush solitude and 
 the isolating darkness ; they felt that these accidents over 
 which they had no control were so many blessings in dis- 
 guise, ordained by a good Providence to give them oppor- 
 tunities for love-making. It did not seem that they had 
 been alone for an hour and three-quarters when they heard 
 the crashing and splashing of powerful horses and saw the 
 gleam of buggy lamps coming towards them through the 
 trees ; and when Lloyd-Price poured out his apologies for 
 having been so long though not a moment longer than he 
 could help they assured him with perfect honesty that 
 they had not minded it in the least. 
 
 Even in the lightest buggy, drawn by the strongest horses, 
 that little journey in the dark was anything but a joke, and 
 Katherine saw such driving as she had never had any idea 
 of, and such as, I make bold to say, is unrivalled if not un- 
 known outside of the Australian bush. The evolutions of 
 the pair were like fancy skating, and they swept in and out 
 on their curly track at a pace that brought her heart into her 
 mouth. They flew over rotten ground, where she could 
 see nothing, like winged birds, lest, if they rested on it a 
 moment, they should sink in; and they shaved the bogs 
 and stumps with a precision that seemed little short of 
 miraculous. 
 
 " You must have cat's-eyes," she said to Lloyd-Price. 
 
 " Why?" he inquired. " It is not really dark, when you 
 have been out a little while." He was not aware that he 
 was doing anything wonderful. 
 
 They first sought the cart and took off Mabel, who had 
 remained in shelter under the tilt, though the body of the 
 vehicle lay on the surface of the ground like a water-logged 
 ship, and the poor horse, whose flounderings had exhausted 
 him, was buried in the bog so that little more than his head 
 and neck were visible. Katherine exclaimed at the pite- 
 
1 68 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ous sight, but Lloyd-Price assured her that his men would 
 soon have the poor devil out of that, and would give him 
 a good bed and supper which would put him all right. He 
 severely lectured Robinson Crusoe for having undertaken 
 a contract that he might have known he could not fulfil, 
 and bade him to bed and supper also, though the invitation 
 was unnecessary. Then he continued his apparently reck- 
 less drive, and landed his guests in safety under his own 
 roof. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 IT was not one roof, but a dozen and more, covering one 
 of those charming homesteads of the old days which are 
 rapidly being improved off the face of the land. It rambled 
 over acres of ground in a number of loosely-attached build- 
 ings, built at different times and of different materials 
 slabs, weather-board, brick, according to age and the means 
 available with several front doors opening into the low 
 canvas-lined rooms and out upon the flowery verandah 
 which followed their arbitrary angles on every side. Mr. 
 Lloyd-Price shouted " Polly !" as he dashed up to one of the 
 doors, and the next instant Forbes was clasping in his 
 arms a lady who shrieked with delight at seeing him. 
 " And where is she?" Katherine heard her say. " Oh! you 
 naughty boy ! What do you think your father will say to 
 you? And why why didn't you tell us to meet the steamer? 
 Did you ever see such weather? And you must both be 
 perished, poor things ! Is that Miss Knowles? Oh, it's the 
 nurse go into the kitchen, my girl, and they'll attend to 
 you. Let Miss Knowles come to my room at once. How 
 do you do, dear?" And Katherine, descending from the 
 buggy, actually found herself in the arms that had embraced 
 her lover. "I must kiss you," said Mrs. Lloyd-Price, "for 
 you belong to Forbes, and Forbes belongs to me. Such a 
 surprise ! We have always thought him too great a flirt to 
 settle down. But I am sure we shall all love you. Your 
 sister, Mrs. Anderson, is one of my intimate friends, so that 
 we cannot feel like strangers. Come in come in ; I have 
 some dry clothes ready for you. I am smaller than you, 
 but you can manage to get into them, I daresay." 
 
 Katherine 's mind was at ease on the score of her accept- 
 ability as an uninvited guest, and she paid no manner of 
 heed to the remark upon Forbes's character (a girl always 
 feeling that she knows her lover better than his own rela- 
 tives can possibly do). She followed her hostess into a 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 169 
 
 charming bedroom, where a bright red-gum fire burned on 
 the white-washed open hearth, which she now saw for the 
 first time the fire and the hearth that make the chief com- 
 fort and beauty of our bush homes ; the cheerful blaze danced 
 on the rough hardwood floor and the wind-flapped canvas 
 ceiling, and the handsome, lavish furniture that combi- 
 nation of homeliness and luxury which, making no parade 
 of style, was so characteristic of the station life of the old 
 times, than which no life could be more delightful in its 
 way. On a sheepskin rug before the fire a pair of fur-lined 
 shoes were toasting, and silk stockings and garments of 
 fine linen hung over one chair-back and soft towels over 
 another. A bath and a can of hot water stood near them, 
 and a smart satin dress and smarter dressing-gown lay 
 spread out upon the bed. 
 
 " How kind how kind !" Katherine murmured gratefully. 
 " This is my first experience of the bush, and and it is 
 just what I have always imagined it." 
 
 " Well, the bush ought to welcome you, since you are 
 going to live in it," said the little woman, as she bustled to 
 and fro. " But I warn you, my dear, that he has a very 
 crabby old father really a very nasty old man indeed, be- 
 tween you and me who will no doubt do his best to make 
 things unpleasant. But you mustn't mind that." 
 
 " I think I should mind it very much if he made unpleas- 
 antness on my account," said Katherine. " But I don't see 
 why he should," she added, with a little dignity. 
 
 " That's just the very reason," Mrs. Lloyd-Price declared. 
 " The less cause he has for being disagreeable, the more 
 disagreeable he is ; and he just seems as if he couldn't bear 
 to see people enjoying themselves especially when it's 
 about anything that he hasn't had a hand in. However, 
 you needn't mind him if only he doesn't cut Forbes out 
 of his will, poor boy! How well he is looking! And isn't 
 he a darling? I can't help saying that you are a lucky girl 
 to get him, though of course the luck is really on his side. 
 And we all thought it so hard that he should be sent for in 
 the middle of his holiday, when we knew as well as possi- 
 ble that there was no need for it that his father just 
 grudged him the jolly time he was having. Here are 
 brushes, dear, and a sponge if you don't mind using mine. 
 Now make yourself dry and comfortable, while I go and 
 see about some supper for you." 
 
 Katherine did make herself very comfortable, completing 
 the process by putting on the smart dressing-gown, which 
 she barely managed to get into, and which rather cruelly 
 
170 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 exposed her feet, shod with a pair of Mr. Lloyd-Price's 
 carpet slippers. She did not look her best in this costume, 
 and with her slim little hostess in the height of fashion 
 beside her, but she looked happy in her quiet way, and 
 greatly pleased her host, who devoted himself to her. Mrs. 
 Lloyd-Price had dressed herself for Forbes's eyes, and he 
 thought he had never seen Polly look so pretty ; the pair 
 chattered and laughed together over the dinner table, and 
 throughout the evening, and hours after Katherine had 
 ceased to struggle with her yawns and gone to bed. 
 
 As the pair sat alone by the drawing-room fire for the 
 host, who had also been out in the rain all day, withdrew 
 as soon as he decently could Polly, with her feet upon the 
 fender and her skirt turned up over her knees, enjoyed 
 herself exceedingly. So did Forbes as long as he could 
 keep her from sentimental reminiscences. He did not like 
 to hear her harp upon memories of the Christmas camp, 
 and the older memories of her Eurella visit, when he and 
 she were so much and so intimately together. To distract 
 her from these themes, he asked about her marriage, about 
 the baby, about Jack at Wandaroo, about Mrs. Anderson, 
 about his father's health, and his young stepmother's 
 welfare. 
 
 Polly gave a description of her wedding, what she wore, 
 who was there, and the presents that she had. She told 
 him the baby was a beauty, of course, but did not offer to 
 take him to the nursery, as he expected she would. She 
 said Jack was fatter than ever, and that his fiancee thought 
 no small beer of herself in fact, was a detestable little 
 minx ; and she hinted at scandalous goings-on on the part 
 of her dear friend, Belle Anderson. As for Mr. Dugald 
 Alexander, she wondered whether Forbes had taken leave 
 of his senses, to come back engaged to a portionless well, 
 next to portionless girl, after all that had happened before 
 he went away ; and assured him that both gout and temper 
 had steadily increased during his absence. Regarding 
 Agnes but here Mrs. Lloyd-Price paused, and mysteri- 
 ously shook her head. 
 
 " Poor little woman !" exclaimed Forbes. " She must 
 have had a life of it. I do pity her, from my soul though 
 he is my father !" 
 
 " Ah !" said Polly, with a touch of unctuous malice. " She's 
 got somebody else to pity her now." 
 
 " Eh? What do you mean?" 
 
 " Do you remember George Wigram? an old flame of 
 mine." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 171 
 
 " Perfectly. A very good fellow he was, too." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Baird brought him to the house one time, and 
 he and Agnes fell in love with each other. Would you have 
 thought it of Agnes? One day your father was nasty to her, 
 and George up and spoke to him said he couldn't stand by 
 to see a woman insulted, or something of that sort and 
 your father went into a fury, and turned him out of the 
 house, and told him never to show his face again. But you 
 know he lives near them, and I've heard that he and Agnes 
 meet in the bush that he even comes into the garden after 
 dark ; in fact, their behaviour is something awful. I really 
 think," said Polly, with a virtuous air, "that somebody 
 ought to speak to your father about it." 
 
 " No one," said Forbes, in a low tone, with a flush in his 
 face and his eyes fixed on the fire, " no one would be such 
 a fiend" 
 
 " What ! You think it right for a wedded wife to carry 
 on with a lover behind her husband's back? Forbes, I'm 
 shocked at you !" 
 
 " If you come to right" said he, " it isn't right that she 
 should be the wedded wife of a man nearly old enough to 
 be her grandfather. It's against nature." 
 
 " And whose doing was that? Nobody made her marry 
 him." 
 
 " She didn't understand, I suppose. I thought, I hoped, 
 she never would; I fancied it wasn't in her. But of course 
 it is in us all. Poor little Agnes ! Look here, Polly, if she 
 gets into a row I trust she won't, but if she does I shall 
 stand by her." 
 
 " My dear boy, you'll have quite as much as you can do 
 to take care of yourself, believe me. What what do you 
 suppose your father will say when he hears about Miss 
 Knowles? He will go raving mad, simply." 
 
 " I can't help it, Polly." 
 
 " Have you I speak as your old friend, Forbes, dear 
 have you seriously counted the cost?" 
 
 " Oh, yes. I don't grudge the cost, whatever it may be." 
 
 Polly looked at him intently. He felt the look, and 
 blushed. 
 
 " You mean you are really and truly in love this time?" 
 
 " I am," he replied, firmly. " She is the only woman in 
 the world for me." 
 
 Mrs. Lloyd-Price looked at him again, and then looked 
 at the clock. It was past one in the morning, and she asked 
 for her bedroom candle. 
 
 " I wanted to bring her to you first," he said, with his eyes 
 
172 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 on the candle, as he lighted it rather labouriously. " You 
 have always been like my own sister, Polly, dear." 
 
 " Oh sister!" she laughed, as she turned away. 
 
 Next morning Katherine woke to the sight of her hostess's 
 pretty face bending over her, and to the delicious smell of 
 wet violets under her nose, and to the unwonted sensation 
 of feminine kisses. Mrs. Lloyd-Price did not in her heart 
 " take to" Miss Knowles at all she said very truly that 
 that young lady was not her style and she hated to have 
 Forbes monopolised ; but it was her way to lavish herself 
 on all her acquaintances in this affectionate fashion. She 
 had the character of being a charming and lovable woman, 
 and lived up to it systematically, for the pleasure of bask- 
 ing in a perpetual sunshine of approving smiles. Even a 
 scullery-maid was "worth while," and in the present case 
 there was Forbes to gratify, as well as Katherine 's heart 
 to win. 
 
 " And how do you feel, dear? Had a good sleep? I'm 
 so glad. Oh, what lovely hair ! And you do it so prettily. 
 You should have heard my husband raving about you last 
 night. He wanted to know why we didn't all have heads 
 like yours as if we wouldn't if we could! But if one 
 hasn't enough hair of one's own what is one to do? Pads 
 are my misfortune, not my fault, as I said to Hugh when 
 he was going on in the absurd way men always do, you 
 know, about horse-hair and steels and the things we have 
 to wear as if we could go about in trousers, like them ! I 
 should just like to try it, and see what they'd say then. 
 And now you must lie still, dear, and I'll bring you a nice 
 little breakfast on a tray oh, yes, you must." 
 
 Katherine protested that she had never had breakfast in 
 bed in her life, and couldn't begin now, when she felt as 
 fresh as possible. So her bath was prepared, and she was 
 allowed to rise and dress herself in her own clothes, and to 
 see her impatient lover. 
 
 He had been up for hours, and out upon the run and the 
 track they had intended to pursue after breakfast, to see 
 what the night's rains had done. He and his host came 
 riding back in some excitement, with the report that the 
 road was impassable, and that Katherine must make up her 
 mind to remain where she was until the floods subsided. 
 
 " Oh, dear !" she ejaculated in concern, meeting them in 
 the pleasant sitting-room, where breakfast was preparing. 
 
 " Don't be uneasy, Miss Knowles," returned her host, 
 heartily. " It's a bit rough on my fence and the sheep, 
 are all right. We will take good care otyou" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 173 
 
 " I'm thinking of my sister's anxiety," said she. 
 
 " Your sister's all right. I am going to send a man over 
 at once, to tell them not to worry about you that you're 
 quite safe, and that I'll drive you home myself as soon as 
 we can get through." 
 
 " If the man can go, why not we?" she inquired, looking 
 at Forbes. 
 
 "Because, "he replied, "the man will have to ride, and 
 swim, and do a lot of things that you can't do. Be easy, 
 my dear; we couldn't be better off than we are." 
 
 " It's worth a few miles of fencing to have you in the 
 house," said Lloyd-Price. And his wife came in, with the 
 breakfast at her heels, and backed up her husband's state- 
 ment with all her charming cordiality. "It's just beauti- 
 ful," she said, standing on tip-toes to kiss Katherine. 
 
 " You are too good," the girl responded gratefully, and 
 sat down to table with a contented mind. 
 
 After breakfast Lloyd-Price hurried away to the succour 
 of distressed sheep and the inspection of ruptured dams 
 and fences, and Forbes could do no less than go with him. 
 Mrs. Lloyd-Price showed Katherine over the house, gave 
 her illustrated fashion papers and a precocious baby to 
 amuse her for an hour, and then, her domestic duties dis- 
 posed of, sat down to talk to her guest about the Alexander 
 family, and the projected marriage, and the capabilities of 
 Forbes's house, and kindred matters. She scarcely paused 
 to take breath during the recital, and Katherine was con- 
 tent to sit still and listen, resting herself, until the men came 
 home to luncheon. 
 
 After that host and hostess made a transparent pretence 
 of having pressing business, and the lovers were left to- 
 gether. No sooner was the door shut on them than Forbes, 
 who stood before the fire, lifted his sweetheart out of her 
 easy-chair and folded her in his arms, rejoicing in the chap- 
 ter of accidents that still permitted them to remain together. 
 Katherine was ready to rejoice too, she said, except for her 
 sister's sake. 
 
 " Look here now," said the young man, when he had ten- 
 derly replaced her in her chair and taken a stool by her side, 
 " I've never said anything about it before, but the fact is 
 that your sister is a vain and selfish little woman, who 
 never frets about anything that doesn't immediately concern 
 herself." 
 
 ." Oh !" cried Katherine, in sharp pain. " Not Belle ! I 
 don't believe it." 
 
 " It doesn't signify a bit," said Forbes, easily, as he softly 
 
174 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 brushed her hand with his moustache. " I'm sure Polly has 
 been telling you all sorts of bad things about my people, 
 and / don't care a straw. We've got each other, my dar- 
 ling that's enough. I only tell you what Mrs. Anderson is, 
 so that you mayn't worry yourself I'm dead certain she 
 isn't worrying. Joe is a good fellow he'd go through fire 
 and water for anybody he cared for; but he's soft. She 
 just twists him round her little finger. She and Polly are 
 sort of rivals ; they are both pretty, and like to have men 
 about them, and pretend to be bosom friends ; but all the 
 time " 
 
 " Dorft!" implored Katherine, pressing her hand upon 
 his mouth. 
 
 " Very well I won't. But why do you care? You've 
 got me. We shall have our own home, and be independent 
 of everybody. How soon, Katherine?" 
 
 She would not say how soon, at this stage. She rose and 
 proposed a walk. 
 
 They went out through the wet paddocks, and rambled 
 about the run for hours, looking at the station appointments 
 and comparing them with those that would be their joint 
 possession by-and-by. They sat in the empty woolshed, 
 and talked of sheep ostensibly of sheep and lost all count 
 of time. Katherine thought herself troubled about Belle, 
 but she had never been less reserved with her lover or more 
 wholly absorbed in her relationship with him ; for what are 
 a stranger stepsister and brother-in-law compared with one's 
 own true love? It was a walk to which she looked back in 
 after years as to the moment of her life when she was per- 
 fectly happy. 
 
 Sauntering home toward nightfall they found that an- 
 other visitor had arrived in their absence a bedraggled 
 clergyman, on a missionary tour to the Upper Murray sta- 
 tions, flood-bound at this point like themselves, and equally 
 sure of a welcome and a pleasant lodging under the Lloyd- 
 Price roof. 
 
 "Now here's a chance," said Forbes, as his hostess met 
 them and told them the news. " We don't get a parson 
 every day, do we, Polly? It's what I call a dispensation 
 of Providence, his coming just now, when we are all here 
 and ready. I propose that we get married after dinner, 
 Katherine." 
 
 " How you do harp on getting married !" she exclaimed, 
 smiling at what she persisted in regarding as a too fre- 
 quent joke. 
 
 " Well, if you take my advice," said Polly, archly, " you'll 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 175 
 
 make sure of him while you've got the chance. You've 
 no idea what a slippery mortal he is. /know him." 
 
 The young fellow reddened, and laughed awkwardly. 
 " So does she," he retorted. And Katherine looked at him 
 with eyes that assented to that statement. She did not 
 consider this banter in the best taste, and refused to carry 
 it on. Whereupon Mrs. Lloyd-Price went to dress for the 
 evening meal, and said to her husband, who was perform- 
 ing his toilet in an adjoining room, that she wouldn't mind 
 betting him a thousand pounds that Forbes didn't marry 
 Miss Knowles, after all. 
 
 " Done," was the prompt reply. 
 
 " If she keeps him hanging on he'll get tired of her to a 
 dead certainty." 
 
 " No," said Lloyd-Price firmly. 
 
 " It's what he's always done, Hugh." 
 
 " Because he's never had a woman worth keeping till 
 now. This one is different. He's dead in earnest this time, 
 Polly." 
 
 " She's just as stiff as a bit of wood, and he always hated 
 stiff women." 
 
 " She's a beautiful creature, anyway." 
 
 " What! With that great mouth? and a figure like a 
 grenadier?" 
 
 Lloyd-Price only laughed. Mrs. Lloyd-Price flew about 
 her room for a minute or two, banging doors and hair- 
 brushes, and then joined her guests with a radiantly smil- 
 ing face. 
 
 The clergyman monopolised the conversation at table, 
 having much to say to this most sympathetic parishioner, 
 who showed such a deep interest in all that concerned him ; 
 and a very clerical evening ensued. There was a service 
 in the dining-room, to which all within reach were bidden ; 
 and there were three christenings of babies that had 
 arrived since the last visitation ; and there was a marriage 
 between a housemaid and a boundary-rider. Forbes wanted 
 to witness the marriage, but Katherine would not let him, 
 for she knew what it would lead to. She consented to a 
 walk in the garden, when he proposed that agreeable 
 alternative. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE rain had ceased for a little while, and the garden 
 was full of dewy odours strongest of all, the native wattle, 
 which makes the bush so sweet in spring-time. There was 
 
176 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 enough light in the clear air to show where its yellow feath- 
 ers mixed with the darker shrubs, and to disclose the daffo- 
 dils and arum lilies and white-blossoming almond-trees that 
 were more familiar to English eyes. Stars were shining in 
 the delicate, duck-egg-coloured sky. Far away, with echoes 
 repeated again and again, the curlews called to each other, 
 as from another world. 
 
 Katherine leant on her lover's shoulder, as he walked 
 with his arm round her waist (for there was not a soul to 
 see them), and she defied the fates by saying in so many 
 words that she was happy. " Oh, Forbes, I am happy !" 
 
 He was in the same .mood of exaltation, without exactly 
 knowing why (and it doesn't do to trace the inspiration of 
 these divine moments to its source). As the ecstatic utter- 
 ance sighed from her lips they were closed with a kiss that 
 shook her to the soul with its long intensity thrilled every 
 living fibre of her warm and healthy frame. He drew her 
 aside from the open path, and stood with his back against 
 a tree, while he clasped her in both arms, and she him, with 
 her's about his bent neck, and they closed their eyes and 
 held their breath in a swimming rapture that no words ever 
 invented could describe. It was her first experience of 
 love, and she gave herself up to it in the way that was 
 natural to one so honest and unsophisticated, and so full of 
 wholesome life ; it was very far from being his first experi- 
 ence, but he had never touched a point so high never real- 
 ised the possibilities of pure passion as he did now. 
 
 " I am a new man since I have had you," he murmured, 
 when he could find breath to speak. 
 
 " And I," she answered, " don't know myself. I seem to 
 be forgetting my father, my home, Jim, everybody, every- 
 thing, as if I had been born over again, into another world. " 
 
 " It is another world," he rejoined, as he again lifted her 
 face with a tender hand under her chin. " But as we are 
 now, Katherine, we are at the mercy of accidents that may 
 separate us." 
 
 " Nothing shall separate us, "she said, with the hardihood 
 of youth that is so prone to reckon without its host the 
 jealous fate that seems to hold the shears in a hand itching 
 to use them upon the fairest webs of human hope. 
 
 " Your brother and sister have rights over you now," he 
 persisted. " But if we were married, then nobody would 
 have any rights nobody could interfere with us. Then 
 we should feel safe. Look here, Katherine, if you don't 
 like being hurried and only just for the form of the thing, 
 and to make things secure let that parson fellow marry us 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 17? 
 
 to-night when he has done with the housemaid just for the 
 form of the thing, you know. We are both of age, and the 
 Lloyd-Prices would back us. It needn't make any immedi- 
 ate difference. I can just wait to take you home to my 
 home till you are ready to come. Won't you? Won't 
 you?" 
 
 She put the preposterous suggestion aside with a gentle 
 laugh. " Not to-night, Forbes. We'll let our people know, 
 and have things straight and comfortable first not spoil 
 all our chances of pleasing them and make ourselves look 
 like a pair of fools." 
 
 " What does it matter how we look?" 
 
 " A great deal, indeed. But don't fret yourself. Nobody 
 shall have any rights over me but you, and you shall fetch 
 me home as soon as soon as all the proper arrangements 
 have been made as soon as we have given them their 
 chance to say how they like it." 
 
 " Suppose they don't like it?" 
 
 She turned in the attitude of Leighton's " wedded" woman, 
 and laid her head back on his shoulder (they were again 
 sauntering down a shadowed path). " Nothing will matter 
 to me that doesn't matter to you that doesn't injure you," 
 she said. 
 
 ' What can injure me if I have you?" 
 
 ' Money?" she suggested. 
 
 1 No. Losing that wouldn't hurt me. I can work." 
 
 ' So can I. And I have a little of my own." 
 
 ' Oh, we shall be all right, if only we stick together. Tell 
 me this, Katherine you don't want to wait for the mere 
 sake of waiting?" 
 
 " As far as I am concerned," she answered, with that noble 
 honesty which is the mark of all love that is true and pure, 
 " as far as I am concerned, I hate to have you out of my 
 sight I shall feel that every day I am kept away from you 
 is wasted." 
 
 " We'll make them as few as we can, "he exclaimed exult- 
 ingly. " In a month, Katherine in a month, at the out- 
 side we'll have done all that sacred decorum requires of 
 us, and be home in our own kingdom, with the door shut. 
 I shall say that it was your father's wish to have you set- 
 tled and safe as soon as possible because I know it was his 
 wish." 
 
 " It was," said she. " And I'd give all in the world ex- 
 cept you if he could only know how safe I am." 
 
 Thus they talked, and tempted fate, until, as they leaned 
 sentimentally over one of the garden gates, they heard the 
 12 
 
178 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 sound of cantering hoofs approaching them. Forbes sent a 
 light " cooee" across the misty paddock, whence an answer- 
 ing call was echoed back. 
 
 " That you, Rogers?" 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " What news?" 
 
 " The water's down a bit, sir, and you'll be able to get 
 through in the morning." 
 
 " Oh, hardly so soon as that, shall we? What does Mr. 
 Anderson say?" 
 
 " He wasn't at home, sir; he went to meet the lady yes- 
 terday. But they've sent a man after him to bring him 
 back." 
 
 " Did you see Mrs. Anderson?" 
 
 "I did, sir; she sent her love, and said she was much 
 obliged to you for bringing the lady so far." 
 
 " Did you tell her Mr. Lloyd-Price and I were going to 
 drive her over as soon as the flood went down?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. And I told her I thought it would be to-mor- 
 row." 
 
 " How's the little boy that had the accident?" 
 
 " Doing nicely, they told me. He wasn't hurt much." 
 
 " All right. Good-night, Rogers. Any letters, Rogers?" 
 
 " No, sir. Mrs. Anderson said she hoped the young lady 
 would excuse her writing. She was very busy ; there was 
 a gentleman staying there. She looked forward to seeing 
 her to-morrow, she said." 
 
 " Who was the gentleman?" 
 
 " I don't know, sir." 
 
 " Well, good-night, Rogers." 
 
 " Good-night, sir." 
 
 The lovers turned back into the garden, and by a mutual 
 impulse stood still to kiss each other in the first shadow 
 they came to that was dark enough to conceal them. 
 
 " So this is our last night !" sighed Katherine. 
 
 "I don't see why we should hurry," grumbled Forbes. 
 " She has got a gentleman, as Rogers says she always has 
 a gentleman, more or less to keep her company and pre- 
 vent her from pining for you. Hugh and Polly want to 
 keep us, and we are very happy where we are. Moreover, 
 I'm sure the roads aren't fit yet." 
 
 But Katherine would not hear of unnecessary delay. And 
 the next morning Mr. Lloyd-Price reluctantly ordered his 
 buggy. He ordered two buggies, in fact, because the coun- 
 try through which they were to drive was in places too rot- 
 ten to bear a weight that horses could not draw at flying 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 179 
 
 pace, and intersected with bogs that well deserved their 
 name of glue-pots at that particular time. Into the light- 
 est of these vehicles Katherine was hoisted to a seat beside 
 her host; and Alexander, disregarding all his brother's 
 arrangements, mounted behind her, determined not to part 
 from her until he was obliged. Belle's nurse and the lug- 
 gage were put into an American waggon and the care of 
 Rogers, and troubled them no more. 
 
 " Good-bye, dears, "cried Polly to the lovers, as she kissed 
 them both in her effusive way. " It's too bad of you to 
 go so soon, but you'll come back by-and-by? You'll 
 promise to spend a bit of the honeymoon with me, 
 Forbes?" 
 
 "We will we will," he responded, carefully letting her 
 down over the wheel. " That is, if you can put up with 
 visitors at shearing time." 
 
 " You are not going to be married before shearing?" 
 
 " Before or after, or in the middle of it thereabouts." 
 
 " You'll have to look sharp then." 
 
 " I am going to look sharp." 
 
 The clergyman, who was standing by, with the propitia- 
 tory clerical smile upon his face, here broke in with a jest- 
 ing offer of professional services, and the host thought it 
 was time, for Katherine 's sake, to gather up the reins. 
 " Out of the way," he shouted, for his horses were fresh. 
 " We're losing the best of the morning. Good-bye, old girl ! 
 I'll be back to-morrow." 
 
 " Good-bye ! Good-bye ! Good-bye, Forbes ! Good luck !" 
 
 " Good-bye, Polly. Thank you. I've no doubts about 
 my luck." 
 
 " That's a rash thing to say," remarked Katherine not 
 having any doubts herself, however as they swept out of 
 the stable yard. " There's many a slip, you know." 
 
 " There'll be no slip between our cup and lip," he broke 
 in, confidently. 
 
 " How do you know? We may have a smash on a bad 
 piece of road, and some of us break our necks." 
 
 " I think I can answer for your necks, if that's all," said 
 the driver, who was one of the crack whips of his dis- 
 trict. 
 
 " That's all," said Forbes. 
 
 The rain still held off ; the roads were dreadful, certainly, 
 but presented no difficulties that Lloyd-Price and his horses 
 were not able to surmount ; and the trio pursued their way 
 with light hearts and no evil presentiments whatever. The 
 smell of spring was in the air the scent of wattle and 
 
i8o NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 growing grass and the fresh delicacy of the morning was 
 more exhilarating than wine. Forbes spouted poetry, with 
 his arms folded at Katherine's back and his nose touching 
 her shoulder ; and she sang a little song at his persuasion 
 a little song that Jim had loved in the old days and spouted 
 poetry too, pages. of Clough, out of the volume that Jim 
 had given her. Lloyd-Price was moved to be sentimental 
 too, in the sweet atmosphere and his congenial company, 
 and raked old tunes and verses from the recesses of his 
 mind, unexplored and forgotten since he had married Polly. 
 They dallied with the new ideas, suggested by Katherine's 
 quotations, and grew tenderly grave and confidential in the 
 utterance of their secret conjectures and beliefs. The girl 
 imagined she was expressing her own independent thought 
 when she said things that touched her companions on their 
 serious side in so unwonted a manner, but she was only 
 expressing those which Jim had moulded for her. Jim 
 never blinked the naked light, and had taught her not to 
 be afraid of it, however terrible it might appear. 
 
 " It fortifies my soul to know 
 That, though I perish, Truth is so." 
 
 She quoted these words, which described his attitude; 
 and the men, listening, and turning them over, felt lifted 
 up to a diviner air than they breathed every day. 
 
 " I'll tell you what," said Lloyd-Price, " we must have 
 some symposiums when you two set up house together. 
 A fellow gets rusty and indifferent, somehow, when he has 
 no one to speak to from year's end to year's end." 
 
 " I never thought of anything worth thinking about until 
 until I had her to speak to," said Forbes, laying his hand 
 on his sweetheart's shoulder. 
 
 " What nonsense !" she breathed gently, leaning back to 
 the caress. But Lloyd-Price said, with much heartiness, 
 "I believe you, my boy." 
 
 At noon they camped under trees, on the margin of a 
 clear lagoon. Lloyd-Price took out and watered the horses, 
 and Forbes made a fire and boiled the billy, and Katherine 
 spread a substantial meal upon the grass. They ate as 
 healthy people do in the open air, and the men had a pipe 
 afterward and talked about their sheep, while Katherine 
 took a quiet stroll, and gathered armfuls of purple sarsa- 
 parilla and sheaves of fantastic orchids, revelling in the 
 novel charms of the much-dreamed-of Australian bush. 
 Then they harnessed up again, and set forth to do the last 
 stage of this eventful journey. They ceased to talk senti- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 181 
 
 ment, and discussed the practical aspects of the situa- 
 tion. 
 
 "I wonder I wonder if she will be pleased to see me," 
 Katherine said, with an anxious sigh. 
 
 Lloyd-Price declared with energy that " she " would be 
 only too enchanted, and Forbes said that, if she wasn't, it 
 didn't matter two straws. 
 
 " I wonder if that gentleman is there yet," the girl contin- 
 ued, after a thoughtful pause. " I did want to have Belle 
 to myself after all these years." 
 
 " Oh, never mind him /'// entertain him," said Forbes 
 lightly. And he explained the social customs of the bush, 
 as affecting the casual visitor, who, if he was a decent fel- 
 low, could not be de trop. 
 
 Toward the end of the afternoon he began to take down 
 the slip-rails of Joe Anderson's paddock fences, and they 
 heard the dogs at the homestead barking. 
 
 "Here we are at last!" cried Lloyd-Price, as he urged 
 on his tired team, the colour of which was now hardly dis- 
 tinguishable for sweat and mud. " Now, Miss Knowles, 
 your troubles are over." 
 
 " And there's the family coming out in a body to meet 
 you," said Forbes, as they caught sight of a group of peo- 
 ple streaming toward an open gate first, three small chil- 
 dren, shouting in faint, shrill tones, " Here they are ! Here 
 she is! Here's Aunt Katherine !" and behind them three 
 adults, a lady between two men, making signals of welcome 
 with hats and hands. 
 
 Katherine leaned forward, , with a face all flushed and 
 eager, suffused with smiles. " My darling !" she breathed, 
 with tender exultation. " They are glad to see me !" Then, 
 suddenly, as if some invisible hand had struck her, she fell 
 back upon her lover's folded arms, and said a thing that 
 made him wonder if he could believe his ears, in a voice so 
 altered that he hardly recognised it. 
 
 " Oh, why, why, WHY didn't I marry you last night, when 
 I had the chance !" 
 
 " Hey? What?" said Lloyd-Price, bewildered. " What's 
 the matter with Miss Knowles?" 
 
 Forbes stood up in his seat and glared. " Good God !" he 
 muttered. " It can't be !" 
 
 But it was. None other than Neil Hammond, in his own 
 proper person, walking down the garden path at Mrs. An- 
 derson's side, with the air of belonging to the family 
 circle. 
 
 "Hullo, Katherine!" the giant shouted gaily. "You 
 
i2 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 didn't expect to see me here, did you? Let me lift you 
 down." 
 
 She stood up mechanically, tottered on the step of the 
 buggy for a moment, and then fell into his arms in a dead 
 faint. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIL 
 
 BEFORE dinner was served Lloyd-Price and Alexander, 
 making a pretence of wanting to look at the legs of one of 
 the horses, retired to the stables to discuss the situation. 
 
 " What in thunder does it mean?" the former desired to 
 know, with an air of angry excitement. " I never was so 
 taken aback in all my life. She went down like a shot, as 
 if she had seen the devil. They may say she was over- 
 tired with the journey, but she was no more tired than we 
 were. We shouldn't have let her get tired. It was just 
 the sight of that man thai terrified her out of her senses. 
 Who is he? And what call has she to be afraid of him? 
 We have no ogres in these days, though he's big enough 
 for the part. And I should have said she was the last 
 woman to play the coward, under any circumstances." 
 
 " She's no coward," said Forbes. " But he's a great brute 
 who has frightened her ever since she was a child. I be- 
 lieve that, even when she was a growing girl in her 'teens, 
 he used to lift her up and set her on a high shelf that she 
 couldn't get down from, if she wouldn't do what he wanted. 
 He used to kiss her by main force her ! And he wanted 
 I suppose he still wants to marry her by main force. She 
 slipped off without letting him know, because she was so 
 afraid of him, and here he follows her by the mail steamer, 
 hot foot, as soon as he finds her gone, though he knows she 
 loathes the very sound of his name." 
 
 " A man is no more than a man," said Lloyd-Price, sternly. 
 " And he'll have other men to reckon with if he persecutes 
 her now. But he won't dare." The good fellow breathed 
 quickly, and his eyes shone. He had grown very partial 
 to Katherine. 
 
 " There's not much that he won't dare," said Forbes, " and 
 snap his fingers at the lot of us. Oh, I'm not afraid that 
 he'll get her away from me," laughing savagely; "she'd 
 have to be dead first. But, seeing her terror of him, and 
 what an infernal brute he is, I can't leave her, Hugh. Did 
 you hear what she said when we drove up to the gate?" 
 
 Lloyd-Price nodded. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 183 
 
 " Do you think that parson fellow will be hanging on at 
 your place?" 
 
 " Most likely. He looked as if he wanted a spell, and so 
 did that scaffolding of a horse of his." 
 
 " We'll go back to him to morrow," said Forbes, smiling 
 darkly, " and he shall marry us straight off." 
 
 " That will be difficult to manage," said the other man, as 
 he stroked his beard and surveyed the plan in detail. 
 
 " But you'll back us up, Hugh?" 
 
 " I'll back up Miss Knowles in whatever she wishes you 
 may tell her so. But I think, in her calmer moments, she 
 will be content to trust herself with Joe." 
 
 The person alluded to put in an appearance at this junct- 
 ure a fair, stout, genial-looking man, rather flustered for 
 the moment, and with a certain propitiatory air that beto- 
 kened the husband whose wife had the upper hand of him. 
 
 " Why, you fellows, I wondered what had become of you !" 
 he cried, with hollow-sounding hilarity. " Looking at the 
 mare's legs? Oh, they're right enough. Upon my word, 
 Hugh, I am awfully obliged to you for taking all this 
 trouble for us." 
 
 " Don't mention it," said Lloyd-Price. 
 
 " As for you, Alexander, I don't know what to say to you." 
 Katherine's guardian laughed awkwardly. 
 
 " As for me," said Forbes, a little stiffly, " I am entitled 
 to no thanks. It was my duty and privilege to take care 
 of her, as her affianced husband." 
 
 " It's it's rather early to talk about that, isn't it?" 
 
 " Early ! We ' ve been engaged -practically engaged since 
 Christmas." 
 
 " Oh, come now ! Hammond says you came for a day 
 or two, and went away, a perfect stranger to them all to 
 her, particularly. And we don't count 'board-ship love 
 affairs with no chaperon to see fair play ; at least Belle 
 won't, you'll find. You've got Belle to reckon with, young 
 man. And she doesn't mean to give her sister away before 
 she's got her. You bet." 
 
 Forbes stroked his moustache and said nothing, which 
 judicious self-restraint was grateful to his anxious ally. 
 
 "In these cases," said Lloyd-Price, "we must leave the 
 lady to know her own business best. We can do so safely 
 in Miss Knowles' case, for there -never was a leveller head 
 on a young woman's shoulders than on hers." 
 
 " She's had no experience," said her brother-in-law, " living 
 all her life in a little village, shut up as close as a nun in a 
 convent. She must be as ignorant of the world as a baby." 
 
184 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "Oh, don't you believe it! I haven't known her very 
 long, certainly, but quite long enough to know that she's as 
 well able to find her way about as you or I." 
 
 They were passing through a gate into the garden, and 
 Forbes, shutting it, leaned his back against it, and said, 
 deliberately : " Look here, Anderson. What is Hammond 
 doing here?" 
 
 The other men paused perforce, and for a moment noth- 
 ing was said ; then Anderson spluttered and fumed : " Do- 
 ing here? Why, bless the boy ! One would imagine no one 
 had any business in Australia but himself! He's having a 
 trip to see us all and to see how Katherine is getting on. 
 The Hammonds, are her oldest friends hers and ours ; Neil 
 and I were boys together. They took it to heart that she 
 went off without saying good-bye to them. Mrs. Hammond 
 was as anxious as if she'd been her own mother, and sent 
 the kindest letters and presents for the children. One of 
 the best families in the county, Hugh, and the dearest peo- 
 ple in the world. Belle and I have been looking forward to 
 settling down near them when we go back we are thinking 
 of going in a year or two and being all together once more, 
 as we used to be." 
 
 " Oh," said Forbes, quietly. " And do you know that your 
 sister hates Neil Hammond like like the very devil? Did 
 you see her go off into a dead faint at the mere sight of 
 him? she that never fainted or gave in in her life, though 
 she's stood an amount of wear and tear that would break 
 down a navvy." 
 
 " Well, seeing that he threw up all his business at a mo- 
 ment's notice to come out, merely to see that she was safe 
 and well " 
 
 " He came out to try and force her to marry him, though 
 he knows she hates him. It is just because she hates him, 
 and tries to evade him, that he is so determined to conquer 
 her ; and he has been getting you to back him up. He has 
 got round Mrs. Anderson, I can see, and she gets round you, 
 and both of you together you two and that coarse brute, 
 who doesn't scruple to lay violent hands on Katherine, even 
 now, and would beat her if she were his wife you will 
 all make a dead set at her to try and drag her away from 
 me, whom she loves, and to force her into the arms of a 
 beast whom she detests whom she shudders and faints at 
 the very sight of. You won't do it you'd have to kill her 
 first before she'd let him touch her; but you'd make her 
 wretched and terrified and ill if I left her to it. But I 
 don't mean to leave her to it. I am of age, and so is she, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 185 
 
 and she's my affianced wife, and I mean to take care of her. 
 We were very nearly being married yesterday I wish to 
 God we'd done it, and so does she now. Hugh, you heard 
 her say she wished we had done it you may guess how 
 she felt when it came to that. However, we can do it 
 to-morrow. There's a parson at Hugh's place, and if you 
 don't like to have him over here, Hugh will drive us back 
 with him in the morning, and give away the bride, and give 
 us house room till we can make arrangements. Neil Ham- 
 mond may go to the devil. He shall not molest her again, 
 if I know it." 
 
 At this the finest flight of eloquence that the easy- 
 going young man was ever known to indulge in Mr. Joe 
 Anderson burst the bonds of matrimonial servitude, and 
 came forth to the combat in his own colours. 
 
 " What do you mean by raving at me in that way, you 
 conceited young ass?" he roared in his sudden passion. " I 
 don't want you to teach me how to behave like a gentle- 
 man. How was I to know that Katherine hated Hammond? 
 I'm not divine, to read the secrets of people's hearts. No- 
 body told me nor that she fainted because of seeing him. 
 Do you suppose that I'm such a sweep as to let her be 
 molested by any man while she looks to me for protection? 
 I'll be damned if you shall take her out of my house or 
 marry her either, until I'm satisfied that you are better able 
 to take care of her than I am." 
 
 The sound of these high words reached Mrs. Anderson, 
 as she stood on her front door-step, anxiously peering into 
 the dusk. She was a handsome, capable, dexterous woman, 
 very gracious and serene, and imperturbably self-possessed ; 
 and she was accustomed to control the domestic situation, 
 whatever it might be. When she heard three blundering 
 men attempting to deal with a difficulty that was obviously 
 beyond them, she stepped forth to their assistance, floating 
 down the pathway with her graceful, unhurried gait, hold- 
 ing the long tail of her gown daintily from contact with 
 dirt and dew. 
 
 She did not need to be told how the case stood, but it 
 was explained to her briefly by the younger of the comba- 
 tants, who was not afraid of her, and was too excited to sub- 
 side all at once. Joe fell silent as soon as she appeared. 
 He only said, " You hear, Belle, the sort of thing he is 
 accusing us of?" 
 
 " He knows he is talking nonsense," she laughed pleas- 
 antly. " But we forgive everything to a man with his com- 
 plaint. Come, my dear boy" taking Forbes' arm " come 
 
1 86 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 and have your dinner. You know me too well to seriously 
 suppose that I would thwart your interests or make my 
 only sister unhappy. She shall marry whom she likes, of 
 course; I only stipulate for having her with me a little 
 while, first. That isn't much to ask. We were parted so 
 many years ago, you know, and we have so looked forward 
 to being together." 
 
 " You shall have her with you for a little while, on one 
 condition that you send Neil Hammond about his busi- 
 ness." 
 
 " Pooh ! I am not going to be rude to him, or to any- 
 body, for no cause whatever. We must behave like civil- 
 ised beings, you know, and not like children, even if we 
 are in love. Neil Hammond came out to see the only 
 friends he has in this country friends deeply indebted to 
 his family for untold kindnesses and we should be queer 
 people indeed if we turned him out of doors, just because 
 he dared to look at Katherine as if she were the Mikado 
 of Japan." 
 
 " Very well. Turn her out. She won't mind." 
 
 "I'm not going to do anything so preposterous. And 
 you're not going to be silly for the first time in your life. 
 Come and have your dinner, and don't worry about Neil 
 Hammond. He can be kept in his place, of course." 
 
 " Oh, can he? That's all you know about him." 
 
 " I flatter myself," said Mrs. Anderson, with a serene 
 smile, " that I can keep any^ man in his place even when 
 he's so set on getting out of it as you seem to be just now." 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Forbes, moodily. " I know I'm 
 not myself. But if you only knew " 
 
 " Oh, I know I know," she interposed, with a caressing 
 pressure of her hand upon his arm. " You leave every- 
 thing to me, and don't worry yourself. I'll see that Kath- 
 erine is not annoyed in any way. I'll take care of both of 
 you, if you just leave everything to me." 
 
 He melted at once to the changed tone. " Will you re- 
 ally?" he pleaded, bending over her. " Will you be good 
 to us, and help us? You are so clever and so kind and 
 Katherine simply adores you." 
 
 " Dear girl ! We have already had some talk. I think 
 she knows she is quite safe in my hands." 
 
 " Is she better?" the lover inquired anxiously. 
 
 " Oh, yes. It was just the momentary shock, and she 
 was tired She is all right now, chattering with the chil- 
 dren, who are wild with joy at having their auntie at last. 
 A cup of tea was all she wanted. I will go and fefech her." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 187 
 
 They entered the lighted house, Anderson and Lloyd- 
 Price following those good old friends and neighbours 
 unwontedly silent, not enjoying the pleasure of a promis- 
 cuous meeting quite so much as usual. The house was a 
 commonplace two-storied brick house, newly built, with 
 all procurable modern " improvements" a source of pride 
 to its mistress, who despised the homely architecture of the 
 bush. It was a well-ordered house, on the same lines of 
 British respectability, and its dinner-table was now set 
 according to the latest fashion promulgated by the Queen 
 newspaper. That her establishment was not similar in 
 character, that her dinner-table was spoilt, as such, by 
 Hugh's indispensable teapot, was a source of raging envy 
 and malice to Mrs. Lloyd-Price. " Such airs as that woman 
 gives herself !" Polly would bitterly exclaim, after a visit to 
 her ostensibly dear friend. "And who is she, after al^ 
 She can't trace her descent for nearly a thousand years, as 
 we can." But Belle, fully aware that the longest Welsh 
 pedigree in the past was of little value compared with a 
 good house in the present, calmly sailed over Polly's head, 
 and laid down the law to that little person as if she were 
 no more than a common or garden Jones. Belle's standard 
 of style, in domestic matters, was the Hammonds' house 
 the great house of the village in which she had seen all that 
 she knew of the fashionable world ; and she had steadily kept 
 Joe up to it in their Australian wilds. No slab or weather- 
 board for her, when there was money for bricks and mor- 
 tar; no nondescript bush meals for one who had, as she 
 expressed it, been accustomed to have things "nice." She 
 was passionately, incorruptibly " English," and prided her- 
 self on it. " I have never allowed myself to sink" she would 
 say, " even when we were comparatively poor." And now 
 that Joe was prosperous, and as he gave her her own way 
 in everything, she soared to silk brocade for the drawing- 
 room and five courses at dinner. Which things, on an 
 Upper Murray station twenty years ago, naturally gave her 
 a position of distinction. Her present dream was to return, 
 wealthy, to the country whence she sprang, and to whose 
 traditions she was so loyal, there to take her place on an 
 equality with the Hammonds and the county families that 
 were their friends. These, to her, were the great ones of 
 the earth. It may therefore be imagined with what open 
 arms she welcomed Neil when he presented himself to her 
 astonished eyes, two days in advance of her sister; and 
 with what eagerness she fell into his project of marrying 
 Katherine, even though there was the difficulty of an ac- 
 
i88 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 cepted lover in the field. And her eagerness was increased 
 by the fact that she did not like the Alexander connexion. 
 They were very well in their way, but no more to be com- 
 pared with the English Hammonds than were the ordinary 
 bush housewives with herself. They were money-grubbers, 
 moreover, and would be sure to turn up their noses at a 
 girl who had no fortune. This view of the matter had been 
 carefully impressed upon Joe, and also the proper method 
 of dealing with the unwelcome lover's pretensions. Both 
 husband and wife, however, had been disconcerted by the 
 lover's show of spirit and determination, and the diploma- 
 tist of the pair felt that, under the circumstances, a tempo- 
 rising policy must be resorted to. 
 
 She ran into the tiled hall and up the crimson-carpeted 
 stairs in search of Neil, whom she met on an upper landing, 
 coming from his room in full dress for dinner. That crown- 
 ing anomaly (in such a locality) which she called her bou- 
 doir adjoined her own bedroom, and she motioned him into 
 it and closed the door softly. It would have been dark but 
 for the gleam of his vast shirt front. 
 
 " Now don't" she said coaxingly, " go about breathing fire 
 and slaughter, and looking as if you would eat us all. It 
 will only frighten Katherine and make Forbes obstinate. 
 Just keep quiet and leave things to me." 
 
 " I'd ring his damned neck for sixpence," growled Neil, 
 trying to be mild and reasonable. 
 
 " Oh, there are better ways than that ! Humour him to- 
 night, and let him go home peaceably in the morning, and 
 there'll be shearing now directly to tie him to his own 
 station, and then we'll go for a trip to town, perhaps. 
 Time is what we want time and patience, and everything 
 is possible. His people will be against it, because it is the 
 rule of the family to marry money, and she'll be too proud 
 to force herself on them when she sees they don't want 
 her. He has always been a butterfly in love affairs, flit- 
 ting from flower to flower, and a 'board-ship love affair never 
 does go very deep; a little time and good management, 
 and you'll see it will all come right. Just leave things to 
 me, and do what I tell you. Go down now, and make your- 
 self as pleasant as you can that's the first and most press- 
 ing necessity. Because otherwise he won't leave her, and 
 she won't stay. There's been talk of his taking her back 
 to Hugh Lloyd-Price's to-morrow, and being married at 
 once by a clergyman who is staying there." 
 
 " He'd better try it on," said Neil, calmly. 
 
 " Oh, don't take that tone! I'll throw up my brief," she 
 

 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 189 
 
 continued, laughing vexedly, " if you won't be guided by 
 my advice." 
 
 But he said he would be guided by her advice, and called 
 her a brick, and wanted to express his gratitude by kissing 
 her, on the ground that she would be his sister some day 
 which she did not allow ; and then he swaggered downstairs 
 with an exaggerated air of good-humour, resolved to do his 
 duty according to orders. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 FROM her boudoir Mrs. Anderson hurried to the room 
 where Katherine, in the travel-stained dress that she had 
 worn all day, sat on the sofa, with a nephew on her knee 
 and a niece on either side of her. The little boy was dis- 
 playing a wounded arm, that she might kiss it and make it 
 well, and the little girls were volubly describing the terri- 
 ble disaster that had befallen him how he had climbed a 
 ladder that he shouldn't have climbed, and how Rover 
 wagged his tail against the ladder and knocked it down. 
 Also how mamma had sent Eliza away, because it was her 
 fault, and how a new nurse was coming from Melbourne 
 to take care of them. 
 
 " And I wish she was here, "said the mother, as she swept 
 the children from the room. " I do think Polly might have 
 sent her on a little quicker. Run away to Topsy, dears" 
 Topsy was a black girl of one of the Murray tribes, domes- 
 ticated in the house and taught to make herself useful 
 " and you shall see auntie again presently." 
 
 When they were gone she sat down beside her sister and 
 put an arm round her waist. The action was graceful and 
 affectionate, but had no reality of love about it ; and Kath- 
 erine felt the something wanting, and did not answer to 
 the caress. She had read into Belle's letters, which were 
 full of tender epithets, the nature of a warm-blooded, gen- 
 erous woman, but five minutes of personal acquaintance 
 had discovered her to be cold at heart. The girl's instinct 
 for truthfulness divined the disappointing fact, which was 
 so well hidden from public view. Though she had had the 
 most cordial welcome, apparently she knew that she had 
 not found the home she had looked for. 
 
 " It is so sweet to have you with me," murmured Mrs. 
 Anderson. " Though, certainly, if you had given me time 
 to answer your letter, I should have advised you to wait at 
 home a little while, and save yourself all this expense and 
 
190 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 discomfort. Because we should have returned to you, dar- 
 ling. I was thinking how we would all settle down to- 
 gether in some nice place, close to our friends and dear 
 father's grave. However, all's well as it is, since you have 
 got here safely." 
 
 " I suppose I ought to have waited for your answer," said 
 Katherine. " The chief reason why I did not was that I 
 wanted to get away from Neil Hammond." 
 
 " Poor child! I can't understand your being so afraid of 
 Neil Hammond" and she laughed at the amusing idea. 
 " I never met a man yet that I couldn't twist round my 
 little finger. You don't know how to manage them, my 
 de^ar ; you should treat them like big dogs, which bark and 
 run at you if you look frightened, but let you alone if you 
 walk past them with a bold face." 
 
 " Neil is not a big dog; he is a tiger." 
 
 " Well, well, / can master him, if you can't. You just 
 leave things to me, love; I'll take care of you. And now 
 do you think you feel equal to joining us at dinner? Not 
 if you would rather not in this house you must feel quite 
 free to please yourself in everything ; but Joe would like 
 it, and you could help me to keep your rival lovers from 
 flying at each other's throats." 
 
 Katherine was anxious to make herself agreeable to the 
 house that she seemed to have entered by mistake, and, 
 moreover, her spirit was roused. Certainly she would go 
 down to dinner, she replied, if Belle would excuse her 
 morning gown. "You are so smart," she said, looking at 
 the lavender silk and black lace that trailed the floor round 
 her hostess' dainty feet. And the English girl did appear 
 homely and dowdy, from the dressmaker's point of view, 
 beside the elegant woman who had been buried for so many 
 years in savage wilds. Mrs. Anderson was herself struck 
 by the contrast, and secretly wondered what Neil Hammond 
 could see in Katherine to be so infatuated about her. 
 
 " Oh, I like to make a little difference ; I have always 
 done it," she said. " But don't you mind anything to-night, 
 dearest ; you will do quite well as you are. They all know 
 that your luggage hasn't come. I suppose you got your- 
 self a few things when you passed through London? If I 
 had only known, I would have asked you to bring me two 
 or three new gowns. You are not wearing very deep crape, 
 Katherine?" 
 
 " None," said Katherine. " Father had such a dislike 
 to it." 
 
 " I'm so glad. So have I. And, after all, we mourn for 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 191 
 
 him just as much in black and white and lavender, don't we?" 
 
 "I have no white or lavender," said Katherine, bluntly. 
 "They soil too soon." Then she strangled a rising sob. 
 " Don't don't talk to me about father now," she cried. 
 
 " Poor child ! But it was you who mentioned him, love. 
 Never mind. There's the bell! Just let me brush this 
 mud off there, you'll do nicely. Now come down and 
 show those idiotic men how to behave. They'll take their 
 cue from you; men always do. Don't, for heaven's sake, 
 let Neil Hammond think you are afraid of him it's the 
 greatest mistake in the world, I assure you." 
 
 " But I am afraid of him," said Katherine. 
 
 " Nonsense. You are too proud to be afraid of any man. 
 And he'll not annoy you while he's under my roof I'll 
 answer for that. I have already given him a good talking 
 to. Oh, you leave it all to me, dearest." 
 
 They went downstairs, hand in hand, and into the draw- 
 ing-room, which was brilliant with the positive colours of 
 those days green, principally and lighted with oil lamps 
 fixed in a chandelier with cut-glass pendants. Very 
 proudly Mrs. Anderson introduced her sister to these unex- 
 pected splendours, which were supposed to put wholly in 
 the shade the soft-toned, age-mellowed features of the oak 
 parlour at Weep Hall ; but Katherine had no eyes for them. 
 All her attention was concentrated in the effort to preserve 
 a composed demeanour under the ordeal of meeting Neil 
 Hammond again in trying to efface the effect of that igno- 
 minious fainting-fit from his mind. 
 
 The moment she appeared he rushed to meet her from 
 one side of the room, and Forbes from the other. Without 
 looking at either she walked up to her brother-in-law, who 
 stood in an embarrassed attitude on the white wool hearth- 
 rug, which gleamed on the vivid verdure of the carpet like 
 a patch of snow on moss. 
 
 "Joe," she said, with a laugh that sounded quite natural, 
 " I must apologise for coming into your house in that ridic- 
 ulous manner. I suppose it was excitement and and the 
 long journey and it is so many years since we saw each 
 other, isn't it?" 
 
 " It is, indeed, "he replied, cordially, with an air of relief. 
 " And you are grown out of knowledge, Katherine my 
 word, I couldn't believe my eyes ! Why, you were only 
 that high" holding an outspread palm about a foot above 
 the floor. 
 
 "I should have known you anywhere," she declared. 
 " You are not altered a bit, Joe." 
 
192 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Oh, come now! I'm fourteen stone, every ounce of it, 
 and I used to be as slim as Alexander here," etc., etc. 
 
 They went into the dining-room, where a white-capped 
 maid stood by the much-bedecked table, all in the un-bush- 
 like fashion that characterised the house and disappointed 
 the romantic expectations of the new chum. 
 
 " You sit by me," said Joe, as he placed a chair for her at 
 his right hand. 
 
 "And I'll sit here," said Neil, droping his hostess' hand 
 from his arm and striding to the other side of the table. " I 
 want to be where I can look at her after all this time." 
 
 " Oh, we all want to look at her, "laughed Mrs. Anderson, 
 gaily. " Katherine, dear soup?" 
 
 Forbes sat by his sweetheart's side, and moved his left 
 foot over the carpet ; her right foot moved by a simultane- 
 ous impulse, and they touched each other, and remained 
 touching which was a great support and comfort to them. 
 They told each other, in that secret pressure, to be patient 
 and to fear nothing for even booted feet have a language 
 of their own, when necessary. Mr. Lloyd-Price sat oppo- 
 site, on the hostess' right hand. Neil, in his wrong place 
 at the host's left, looked at Katherine and then surveyed 
 the table, with a broad grin of simulated hilarity and a glare 
 in his eyes. 
 
 " Hah !" he exclaimed. " This is quite like old times. 
 Ain't it, Katherine?" 
 
 "Not at all," she retorted quickly. "Not in the very 
 least." 
 
 " Think of we three meeting again, quite promiscuous, 
 as it were, on the other side of the world !" he went on, 
 with a sardonic audacity that the hostess tried in vain to 
 check. 
 
 " The world is a small place, after all," said Joe, who then 
 struggled to turn the conversation, but could not for the 
 life of him think of another subject. 
 
 " It is it is ; too small to hide in, Katherine ! Aha, young 
 lady, I've got a bone to pick with you " 
 
 " We'll have no bones picked here, if you please, Neil 
 Hammond," said Belle authoritatively, but looking at her 
 unmanageable guest with one of her most charming smiles. 
 " Please to understand that Katherine is in sanctuary now. 
 Jane, you have forgotten Mr. Hammond's decanter." 
 
 Neil could not drink the Andersons' port and sherry he 
 had used the privilege of an old friend to tell them how 
 detestable it was and the colonial wine of that day fully 
 deserved the bad character that it has since unjustly borne ; 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 193 
 
 so he drank whisky for lunch and dinner, as well as at odd 
 times. When the white-capped maid had supplied him 
 with his special bottle from the liqueur stand on the side- 
 board, he poured about a quarter of a pint into his tumbler, 
 added a little water, and drank the mixture at a draught. 
 Belle thereupon began to talk of the herring fishery, and 
 held the conversation gallantly till the meal was ended. 
 
 The ladies had hardly left the room when Neil rose to 
 follow them. But the big man was not quick in his 
 movements, and Forbes, who watched him with cat-like 
 vigilance, anticipating his intention, slipped out before him 
 and reached Katherine first. 
 
 " Dear, I want to speak to you," he said, taking her hand 
 hurriedly. Then, to Belle " Please keep Mr. Hammond 
 with you; I have something to say to Katherine." 
 
 How Mrs. Anderson managed to keep Neil the lovers did 
 not know, but she prevented him from following them. 
 They got out into the garden through a French window, 
 and reached a little summer-house that the young man 
 knew of. Here they stood for a minute or two, breath- 
 lessly listening ; then they laughed a little at the absurdity 
 of the proceeding, and fell into each other's arms. 
 
 " What would you like to do, my darling?" asked Forbes, 
 anxiously. " Tell me now, while we are alone. Shall we 
 get Lloyd-Price to drive us back with him? He will, if 
 you wish it." 
 
 " Oh, no, "she replied, in a tone of dejection. " Of course 
 we can't do that it would be too silly. If I had known that 
 he was to be here. I wouldn't have come at all, but now I 
 have come I must stay. I see that." 
 
 " You are not afraid to be left with him?" 
 
 " I hate it. But, all the same, I don't see how he can do 
 me any harm. I shall take care never to be left alone with 
 him." 
 
 " Yes, you must do that. You can always go to your 
 room, or to the children. And Mrs. Anderson has promised 
 me to take care of you." 
 
 Katherine sighed. " What are you going to do yourself, 
 Forbes?" 
 
 " See about making arrangements to be married as soon as 
 possible," he replied promptly. 
 
 " Yes, dear. But I mean immediately?" 
 
 "Oh, well, I don't feel particularly welcome here; I 
 should like to make an early start in the morning, if I could 
 be easy about you. I find my brother has sent over a trap 
 for me. The sooner I go the sooner I can come back* I'll 
 
194 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 see my brother, and what's doing; then well, then I 
 ought to look up my father, if I don't want him to get into 
 a rage with me." 
 
 " Yes. But sha'n't I see you again before you leave the 
 neighbourhood?" 
 
 " Of course. I must see you again, to hear how you get 
 on, and whether I can leave you. Look here, I'll walk over 
 to-morrow afternoon, and you can come half way to meet 
 me ; that will be better than my coming to the house, where 
 it is clear I am not wanted. You remember the road I 
 showed you this afternoon? Slip off by yourself at about 
 three o'clock mind you don't let any one see you. And 
 don't lose yourself, whatever you do." 
 
 He went into minute details as to the route she was to 
 take, and she promised to meet him. He also declared his 
 intention to tell Lloyd-Price to keep the parson for a 
 few days, in case of emergencies ; and to this she agreed 
 also. Then they fell into deep silence, broken at intervals 
 by a sighing murmur, as they bade each other good-night 
 and farewell the first farewell since they had been 
 together. 
 
 Emerging presently from the dark summer-house, with 
 the stealthy step of conspirators, they could see the plain 
 outline of the house, and the forms of men on the veran- 
 dah. Also they saw red sparks denoting pipes, and scented 
 tobacco on the delicate air. So they went into the house 
 by the back way. As they stole into the drawing-room the 
 rest of the party entered it by a French window, Mrs. An- 
 derson leading the way, and pretending that the truants had 
 not been missed. 
 
 When all had assembled Katherine walked up to her 
 sister and said: " If you don't mind, Belle, I think I will go 
 to bed. I feel a little tired after my day in the open air." 
 
 " Then I will say good-bye for the present," said Forbes, 
 advancing. " For I think I must be off before you are up in 
 the morning." 
 
 "Oh, not so soon as that!" exclaimed Mrs. Anderson, 
 politely. " Not before breakfast, at any rate?" 
 
 " I think I must, thank you. I have not seen any of my 
 own people yet, you know." 
 
 " No? Well, I suppose they have the first claim on you." 
 
 A subdued smile of satisfaction was felt to spread around 
 the room, though no smile was seen. Nobody pressed him 
 to stay, or expressed regret at his hurried departure. Only 
 Katherine, wheeling round impulsively, laid her hands on 
 his shoulders, and, lifting her face, kissed him full and fair 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 195 
 
 on the mouth, in the middle of the room, before them all. 
 As soon as she had done it a great blush flashed over her 
 face ; but she held up her head defiantly. 
 
 Neil burst into a savage laugh, and said to his host: 
 " Come, Joe, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the 
 gander, ain't it?" 
 
 The old phrase, associated with so many past indigni- 
 ties, made Katherine shudder as she quickly passed out of 
 the room Forbes holding the door for her, and setting his 
 back against it when he had closed it behind her. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 VERY early in the morning Forbes' man got his buggy 
 ready, and Katherine slept so soundly after her fatigues 
 and excitements that she did not hear them go. Her lover 
 made all haste through the sloppy paddocks of Anderson's 
 run and his own, divided only by a fenced road unmade, 
 of course, and a mere chain of bog-holes and but slightly 
 cut up at present by the free-selectors, who were sucking 
 the blood of the squatters of the period ; and he reached 
 his home before the station breakfast hour, and before his 
 brother had risen from his bed. 
 
 Very charming his home looked in the morning light 
 more charming than ever in his eyes, as he imagined Kath- 
 erine in the foreground of the picture. It was one of the 
 early houses, built in instalments, like Lloyd-Price's, with 
 an advantage of situation that his had not perched on a 
 slope above the river, with a beautiful old garden dropping 
 from the wide verandahs to the water's edge. The garden 
 was now flushed with the pink bloom of peach-trees, visible 
 a mile off. 
 
 " It's the very place to suit her," said Forbes to himself, 
 gazing with the pride of proprietorship at the nestling house 
 and all its comfortable surrounding appointments of stout 
 huts and stock-yards and brand-new wool-shed shining 
 white on a distant hill. 
 
 But his pleasant reverie was interrupted by an exclama- 
 tion from his man, witl\ whom he had been chatting inter- 
 estingly about all the affairs of the place. " There's them 
 dogs again!" 
 
 A flock of sheep were scampering in their panic-stricken 
 fashion ( about a distant paddock, where, here and there, a 
 fixed white spot denoted those which were unable to join 
 them. A pair of tawny kangaroo hounds cantered over a 
 green rise and disappeared. 
 
196 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Oh, confound it !" cried the owner of the sheep, oblivi- 
 ous for the angry moment even of Katherine's existence. 
 He turned the horses' heads, and galloped to the scene of 
 slaughter, breathing vengeance against the marauding 
 brutes and their owner, whoever he might be. But of 
 course there was nothing to be done. Twenty-three fine 
 wethers lay dead upon the ground, and no amount of cuss- 
 words would bring them to life again. 
 
 Forbes drove home a little damped in spirits by this mis- 
 fortune, which was, and is, an all too common one in the 
 experience of gentlemen of his profession ; but he recovered 
 himself as soon as he stepped within the house. After all, 
 it was delightful to be back on his own tauri, particularly 
 as he had brought or all but brought all he now cared 
 for in the world with him. He entered by the kitchen from 
 the stable yard, with the ringing tread of a young knight 
 returning from the wars, and barely saved himself from 
 the arms of the fat housekeeper, who was cooking oat-cakes 
 on a griddle, and who floured him plentifully in her joyful 
 absent-mindedness. She was an old servant of the family, 
 who had known him from a boy, and could not be made to 
 believe that he was grown up. 
 
 " And where's this young lady that all the talk's about?" 
 she inquired, when she had done asking after his health and 
 admiring his good looks. 
 
 " Who's talking about her?" demanded the young man, 
 quickly. 
 
 " Master Jock says you've been and got engaged to some- 
 body that nobody knows anything about." 
 
 " Nobody has had the chance yet. But you'll all know 
 her soon, and love her into the bargain. She's the dearest, 
 the sweetest " 
 
 " Oh, ay. That's what Master Jock says of his young 
 lady who's just nothing better than a walking fashion 
 book, to my mind." 
 
 "My young lady is. However, you wait till you see her. 
 Where's Jock, old woman? And how long to breakfast? 
 I'm fit to eat my boots, I'm so hungry." 
 
 She told him he should have his breakfast in ten min- 
 utes, and that Master Jock, who had not dropped his town 
 ways, was not yet out of bed. 
 
 He marched round the verandah to his brother's sleeping 
 chamber, which, like his own, opened upon it, facing the 
 terraced garden and the river. There was a delicate veil 
 of mist upon the water, through which it gleamed in spaces 
 as the rising sunlight spread a beautiful morning effect 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 197 
 
 that he had noted a thousand times, but never admired as 
 he did now. Looking down, he saw that the lower ter- 
 races and the whole of the Chinaman-gardener's vegetable 
 beds were under water the wild swans were sailing over 
 them. This was sad, in one aspect of the case, but the 
 splendid breadth and volume of the stream, with that sun- 
 shot mist between the hither and the further shore of 
 which no bank was seen, but only bushes and branches 
 dipping in the swift tide was a lovely picture that he had 
 reason to remember for many a day to come. 
 
 He lingered for a moment to gaze at it, wishing Kath- 
 erine could gaze with him ; and his brother, who had heard 
 the noise of his arrival, came forth unsummoned. Jock was 
 a handsome, florid, well-grown fellow, but built upon the 
 lines of his mother, who had been a gold-fields' shanty- 
 keeper's daughter, whereas Forbes " took after" the other 
 side of the house, which possessed a family tree with kings 
 and queens upon it. They exchanged the usual greeting 
 a casual " Hullo, old chap !" and at once fell into conver- 
 sation about the floods and the murdered sheep, as if they 
 had parted only yesterday. 
 
 All the necessary preliminary inquiries were made in the 
 ten minutes during which breakfast was preparing and Jock 
 getting into his clothes. When they sat down to table their 
 partnership in life and business interests was re-established 
 as if it had never been interrupted. They swore at the free- 
 selectors together, and at the kangaroo dogs, which they 
 were quite sure belonged to some member of the hated 
 tribe, which was capable of any iniquity; and they calcu- 
 lated their losses in burst dams and washed-away fencing, 
 and their probable gains on the season's " clip," as if these 
 matters only were of vital importance. Certainly, they 
 were of considerable interest to men who had inherited the 
 business faculty and careful temperament of a Scotch father 
 whose sole object in life was to get rich. But when they 
 had been duly dealt with, and the younger brother had sated 
 his savage appetite for porridge and mutton chops, the 
 modest reticence of the British male concerning his legal 
 female counterpart was broken through. 
 
 " When is the wedding to come off, Jock?" 
 
 "Somewhere about February or March, I think. The 
 date isn't fixed." 
 
 " Not till then ! I thought you were only waiting for my 
 return." 
 
 " But we didn't expect you so soon. And we don't want 
 to _ start on our tour till the English winter is over." 
 
198 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " The English winter is just splendid. If Amy doesn't 
 know what an English country-house Christmas means, 
 you ought to show her. Why, it was the best part of my 
 trip, all to nothing." 
 
 " Better than spring in Scotland with Maisie Chalmers?" 
 
 " I should think so ! Maisie Chalmers, indeed ! But, seri- 
 ously, Jock, do you mean to say you aren't going to be 
 married for six months?" 
 
 " What's the hurry?" said Jock, trying to butter an oat- 
 cake that fell to pieces under his knife. " We may as well 
 enjoy our liberty while we can." 
 
 Forbes disdained to joke upon such a subject. "Ugh!" 
 he exclaimed in disgust. " That comes of marrying for 
 money." 
 
 "I'm not marrying for money, my dear fellow. Amy is 
 a fine girl, and I'm very fond of her. Still" meditatively 
 and seriously "money is a deuced good thing to have 
 along with an expensive wife and all wives are expensive. 
 Money lasts, when love and beauty and everything of that 
 sort fades away in no time." 
 
 " That's just as it happens." 
 
 " I don't believe in love in a cottage, and the governor 
 doesn't either," proceeded Jock, sententiously. " Do you 
 know what he sent for you for, in that desperate hurry?" 
 
 " He said he thought he was going to die." 
 
 " Oh, he did imagine something of the sort, perhaps. But 
 what he really wanted was to see you married and settled 
 before that event took place." 
 
 " I can oblige him there, at any rate." 
 
 " He has fixed his affections on Amy's cousin, Honora 
 Brown. She has just come into .70,000 under her uncle's 
 will, and her father, who is on his last legs, will leave her 
 at least as much more." 
 
 Forbes laughed at this statement in a way which struck 
 Jock as little less than sacrilegious. Then the young man 
 burst into an impassioned laudation of his Katherine's 
 charms, which were worth, he said, all the money that ever 
 was coined in this world. 
 
 " I should like," he admitted wistfully, " to have a lot of 
 money, just as much as you, but if, to get it, I must ex- 
 change her for Honora Brown !" A defiant and con- 
 temptuous chuckle concluded the sentence, for words failed 
 him. 
 
 Jock looked over the edge of his tea-cup with a fat 
 smile. 
 
 " You were always weak about women," he remarked, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 199 
 
 " I always prophesied that something of this sort would 
 happen to you." 
 
 The privileged housekeeper came into the room at this 
 juncture, and he said to her, in his overflowing amuse- 
 ment, "Here's this boy determined to marry a girl without 
 a penny " 
 
 " She isn't without a penny," interposed Forbes. " She 
 has as much of her own as she'll ever want spent on her." 
 
 "How much?" 
 
 "About two hundred a year." 
 
 "Practically without a penny," Jock proceeded, laughing 
 outright. "And he expects the old man to give him his 
 blessing and set him up in the world " 
 
 "I don't expect it," Forbes interrupted agafti. "And I 
 don't care whether he does or not." 
 
 "Good Lord!" ejaculated the elder brother. "You are 
 far gone !" 
 
 "Well, if you ask my opinion," said the old woman, 
 whose name was Wickham, and who had always " favoured" 
 the handsome younger brother when called upon to decide 
 between them, " if you want to know what I think about it, 
 I must say that I don't reckon much of them young ladies 
 with money. That Miss Martin, now " 
 
 " Not a word against Miss Martin !" cried Jock; for Miss 
 Martin was his fiance'e against whom Wickham had con- 
 ceived a prejudice because the young lady would not 
 recognise her as a friend of the family, but as a hired 
 menial only. 
 
 " Well, she's too fine for me. And I'm not going to have 
 her for my missus, and so I tell you, Master Jock." 
 
 " Nobody asked you," retorted Jock. 
 
 " And if Master Forbes' young lady is a lady, and he likes 
 to bring her here, and her and me can agree together, why, 
 I'll stay, and do for her there !" Mrs. Wickham declared, 
 with arms akimbo. And further than that devotion could 
 not go. 
 
 " Done, old woman !" cried Forbes, slapping her on the 
 shoulder, which was as solid as a bullock's haunch. " I 
 want nothing better than to bring her here, and to have you 
 to do for her." 
 
 Mrs. Wickham presently retired, with the breakfast 
 things, in a glow of conscious virtue, and Forbes confided 
 to his brother the various complications in his affairs, and 
 how he was in a great hurry to be married, if Jock was not. 
 
 " If my father won't give his consent, I can't help it," he 
 said. " And I can do without money for the present. Let 
 
200 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 me only stay on here as I have been doing, and she'll be 
 content, bless her! She don't want carriages and sealskin 
 jackets she only wants me." 
 
 " She must be an extraordinary woman," said Jock. 
 
 " She is," said Forbes. 
 
 " Well," continued Jock, who thought it was all a great 
 pity and a huge mistake, but who was good-natured, and 
 fond of his brother, and concerned for his welfare, " if it's 
 what you're really set on, and you can manage to work it, 
 / have no objection. I'll clear out the minute we have 
 done shearing of course, I should want to be in town for 
 November, in any case and leave you the place to your- 
 selves. And I'll do what I can for you with the governor. 
 You'd bette'r go and see him as soon as possible, and try if 
 you can't get round him. I know you won't, but you can 
 try." 
 
 The great subject of interest being temporarily exhausted, 
 Forbes asked an anxious question, in a steadily careless 
 tone: 
 
 " How is Agnes getting on?" 
 
 The impassive expression of Jock's face was a relief. 
 " Oh, Agnes don't seem so well and bright as she used to be. 
 Takes fits of hysterics, they tell me. She never used to 
 have hysterics." 
 
 " Any cause for it?" 
 
 " Not that I know of. I expect the governor wears her 
 nerves fine. Doctor says she wants a change." 
 
 " Wants a proper husband, and a family of children," 
 growled Forbes. 
 
 " I daresay. She's a woman, like other women, I sup- 
 pose." 
 
 " Seen anything of Polly lately?" 
 
 " No. She and Amy don't hit it off rival belles, you 
 know and Amy forbids me to go and see her." 
 
 " That's lucky," thought Forbes. 
 
 Then the brothers lit their pipes, and called for their 
 horses, and went forth to inspect the run, and had a very 
 pleasant morning, in spite of visible disasters that they 
 encountered by the way. There was the new woolshed to 
 see an object of great pride and interest, that took a deal 
 of looking into all its smart woodwork smelling so fresh 
 and sweet compared with what it would do presently, when 
 its pens would be filled with bleating sheep, grey within 
 and white without, and its great press creaking with the 
 pressure of fat bales. Already the casual shearer, well 
 mounted and with his swag before him, was beginning to 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 201 
 
 stray up to the huts, and the storekeeper was full of busi- 
 ness, and the excitement of the coming campaign was in 
 the air. The young squatters lifted the wool from the 
 backs of their prize rams, to guess the length and weight 
 of the silky fleeces, and regarded their young lambs lov- 
 ingly, and feasted contented eyes on the lush green grass, 
 which seemed to grow while they looked at it. 
 
 " Your wife must 'take up ' at once," said Jock, express- 
 ing the thought that came uppermost in every squatter's 
 mind when regarding Crown lands that he had become 
 accustomed to consider as his own. " What a pity we 
 haven't half-a-dozen children apiece!" 
 
 Forbes smiled serenely. " We must hold on with dum- 
 mies until they come," he replied, also expressing a pre- 
 vailing sentiment of his class. " I'll get Wickham to peg 
 out for my first-born." 
 
 " Oh, Wickham has pegged out for mine, long ago." 
 
 As they rode home Forbes ejaculated musingly, " It's the 
 country for boys" a remark which had no connection with 
 the subject in hand. He was thinking of his own boys, his 
 young selectors of the next few years, with as strong a sense 
 of possessing them as if he were a husband and father 
 already. It was impossible to think of Amy Martin as a 
 mother, but to think of Katherine as a mother was to put 
 her at once into her right place. He hardly spoke the rest 
 of the way, so absorbed was he in his enchanting visions of 
 the home he felt so sure of, but was never to know except 
 in dreams. 
 
 Arrived home, the brothers were served by Mrs. Wickham 
 with the early bush dinner of roast mutton and vegetables, 
 and a pudding of which the virtue consisted in unlimited 
 cream poured over it; and these homely viands, accom- 
 panied by pints of tea, and constituting the last meal to 
 which our poor young man brought the appetite that is 
 born as much of a cheerful mind as of a sound digestion, 
 were as good, he declared to the producer of them, as any- 
 thing that he had tasted in foreign parts. " Talk of French 
 cooks!" he exclaimed, when she asked him how he had 
 enjoyed his dinner. " For my part, I want no better cook 
 than you, Wickham." 
 
 "And I'll cook for you," returned Wickham valiantly, 
 " for a score of years to come, if please God I'm spared, and 
 your young lady and me can agree together." 
 
 Then he was keen to start off for his meeting with Kath- 
 erine. Jock urged him to smoke a quiet pipe and digest 
 his dinner, and to ride to his trysting-place instead of walk- 
 
202 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ing ; but he said he wanted the walk, which meant that he 
 wanted to be alone to think of his affairs, and that he could 
 smoke out of doors as well as in, and better. So he got 
 himself up carefully in his English clothes, Norfolk jacket 
 and knickerbockers of grey tweed, finished off with stout 
 shooting-boots and leggings, and set a jaunty peaked cap 
 on his handsome head ; and, with a rose in his button-hole 
 and a red silk handkerchief sticking out of his breast-pocket, 
 fared forth like a young prince of fairy tale to seek his 
 fortune and his bride. 
 
 He had not gone far when he remembered that his way 
 led him near the paddock where he had seen the dead sheep 
 in the morning, and he thought he might as well carry a 
 gun with him in case he saw the dogs again. Those dogs 
 had been much on his mind all day, and it was absolutely 
 necessary to circumvent them somehow. Poisoned baits 
 had been laid freely, but the taste for live meat was apt to 
 weaken the temptation thus provided, and any way it was 
 expedient to lose no chance of despatching the brutes sum- 
 marily before they could do further mischief. So he re- 
 turned to the house, picked a favourite gun of his own from 
 three that hung on the wall of the bachelors' sitting-room, 
 loaded it with slugs, and sallied forth again with the weapon 
 over his shoulder, like a smart young English sportsman 
 going after partridges. It put the finishing touch to his 
 costume. 
 
 He walked through his own paddocks, looking about him 
 carefully, until he came to the boundary road, and not a 
 hair of a dog did he discover. If it had not been for those 
 villainous free-selectors, to whom doubtless the dogs be- 
 longed, he would have set his gun against a tree or a fence, 
 and picked it up on his return ; but those fiends in human 
 shape, or their prowling brats, would be sure to find it and 
 steal it, and it was too valuable to lose. So he continued 
 to carry it upon his shoulder as he marched over Anderson's 
 run, singing light-heartedly, or puffing in gentle meditation 
 at his favourite pipe. 
 
 And then, all at once, his dreadful fate overtook him. In 
 the midst of a happy dream of the imminent honeymoon, 
 when he and Katherine, at their topmost pinnacle of bliss, 
 would be safe from the machinations of evil men, he heard 
 her voice, in a strange, shrill note, calling to him from a 
 distance : 
 
 " Forbes ! For-r-bes !" 
 
 The baying of a whole pack of ravening hounds could not 
 have thrilled him like that thin, appealing cry, and fifty 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 203 
 
 thousand mangled sheep would not have been so madden- 
 ing to look at as what he saw when he stared, with clenched 
 teeth, at the spot from which it came. 
 
 He snatched his gun to his shoulder, and before the echo 
 of the second " Forbes" had died away, the bush rang with 
 ' reverberations that set the parrots screaming for miles 
 around. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 MEANWHILE, Katherine had been doing her best all day to 
 avoid Neil Hammond. When Belle suggested, as a polite 
 matter of form, that she should not get up to breakfast, she 
 accepted the suggestion. She said she felt a little shaken 
 by her faint, and thought a good rest would restore her. 
 The children sat upon her bed while she thus played the 
 invalid under false pretences, for the first time in her life, 
 and watched her drink her coffee and eat her broiled chicken 
 and buttered toast with the open-mouthed interest that 
 children do take in such transactions ; and meanwhile they 
 entertained her so well as almost to make her forget the 
 critical nature of her situation in what was obviously the 
 enemy's camp. 
 
 When the tray was removed, Mabel, who had now arrived, 
 bore away the children for a walk, by their mother's or- 
 ders ; and then Katherine said she would unpack, because 
 she wanted to get them their presents. She managed to 
 make her unpacking last out until lunch-time, and refused 
 to be lured from it by her sister's proposals to show her the 
 house and the garden. All the time she was aware of Neil's 
 proximity he was too big and too loud to be disguised 
 and the one thing she was determined on was not to be left 
 alone with him if she could help it. Joe was away on his 
 run, as a matter of course, at this time of day, and why 
 Neil had not gone with him was easy to guess. And Kath- 
 erine did not trust her sister not to play into his hands, in 
 spite of her protestations. 
 
 But at noon Joe came home, and the lunch-bell rang, 
 and there was no choice but to face her tormentor, who was 
 now comparatively harmless, though in rather a tigerish 
 mood. He breathed hard as he shook hands with her, and 
 there was a look in his eyes which she had seen many times 
 before, but never without a quailing heart a suggestion 
 of cruel determination that could bide its time. He knew 
 that she was fighting him, and let her see that he knew it ; 
 
204 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 also that it was his resolve to get the better of her in the 
 long run, by fair means or foul. She tried to feel that she 
 didn't care that it was a disgrace to womanhood to fear 
 him or any man, and absurdly unreasonable into the bar- 
 gain, now that she had Forbes to protect her ; but the force 
 of habit was so strong that her very hands trembled when 
 he looked at her. 
 
 It was an alarming symptom of his state of mind that he 
 scarcely spoke during luncheon. To all Belle's little bland- 
 ishments he returned wide answers or an absent stare, and 
 he allowed Joe to discourse at large about old days at Cam- 
 bridge, and old yachting excursions on the Broads, without 
 breaking in, as was his wont at such times, to correct the 
 details of a matter on which he was recognised to be the 
 best authority. He ate and drank in unusual moderation, 
 and altogether his mien was such that Katherine would 
 have been almost glad to see him drunk and disorderly, or 
 in some way giving vent to the suppressed excitement that 
 made his eyes glare under his careful smile. 
 
 As soon as the meal was over, and she had the chance of 
 a private word with her sister, she gave way to her appre- 
 hensions so far as to implore Belle to help her to get off for 
 her walk unobserved by " anybody." At which Belle called 
 her a ridiculous child, and asked her, with a merry laugh, 
 whether she really thought the poor fellow would eat her? 
 But seeing that the case was serious, and the ridiculous 
 child in no mood to be trifled with, she said : " Very well 
 of course, if you wish it, dear," and promised to throw any 
 amount of dust into Neil Hammond's eyes. 
 
 " Only keep him in sight, keep him with you, for the next 
 hour just for this once, Belle; that is all I ask." 
 
 " Have no fear," replied Belle, airily. " I never yet met 
 the man that I couldn't keep at my side, if I wanted to. 
 Trust to me, darling; I'll see that it is all right." 
 
 So Katherine trusted to her. 
 
 Whether her trust was betrayed, or whether Neil was the 
 first man to resist the powers of fascination on which Mrs. 
 Anderson so confidently relied, nobody but herself ever 
 knew. But before Katherine had crossed the second pad- 
 dock, and while resting in imagined safety under a clump 
 of bushes, having walked a good mile in a little more than 
 twenty minutes, there loomed upon her startled vision the 
 six-foot-six of solid manhood which, with a great deal of 
 goodness in it, was the evil genius of her life. 
 
 When she saw him she cried, " Oh, Neil !" in a tone that 
 was all but a shriek, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 205 
 
 "Now don't, <&#'/," he implored, lifting a big, depreca- 
 ting hand that shook as evidently as her's had done at lunch- 
 eon ; " don't look as scared as if I were a ghost or the devil. 
 Why are you frightened of me, Katherine? You know I 
 wouldn't hurt a hair of your head I'd lie down and let you 
 walk over me, if it would do you any good. Look here, 
 let's be friends shake hands, and let's be friends. Let me 
 walk a little way with you, and and let's talk things over 
 quietly." 
 
 He held out his tremulous hand, and there was something 
 like a tear in the eyes that had looked so wicked and cruel 
 an hour ago. The sight of that tear appalled her, and the 
 recognition of his tender mood, which might mean surren- 
 der in another man, but betokened only desperation in him. 
 She extended her hand with the pale fortitude of a martyr 
 thrusting it into the flames, and he seized it, and carried it 
 to his lips, and kissed it with the mumbling ferocity of a 
 hungry wild animal with a bone. 
 
 She tried to wrench it from him, but might as well have 
 tried to pull down the tree under which she stood ; and she 
 tried to call out in protest against the indignity to which 
 she was being subjected, and which, if unchecked, was sure 
 to lead to something worse ; but her throat seemed to close, 
 and she could only gasp, " Neil ! Neil !"in a husky, toneless 
 whisper. Wildly she looked down the track along which 
 she expected Forbes to come, but, like Sister Anne, saw no 
 prospect of timely deliverance ; and, while she looked, Neil, 
 still holding her hand, sank on his knees before her, and in 
 another moment had her bodily in his arms, with his great 
 bull head against her breast. 
 
 " Don't! Don't! Don't!" he cried, in savage anguish, as 
 she began to struggle. " Katherine, have some mercy ! I 
 have come all this way after you, and I must have you I 
 will! There's no man in the world can love you as I do. 
 
 I'll do anything you ask me anything, anything " He 
 
 choked, and could not go on, but looked up at her con- 
 vulsed face with his terrible eyes, that streamed with tears. 
 
 " Let me go !" she shrieked, finding her voice at last. 
 " How dare you touch me I, that am as good as a married 
 woman !" And she tore at her skirts, which his arms con- 
 fined as in bands of steel. 
 
 He let her go for just the instant that it took him to spring 
 to his feet, and then held her by the shoulders more fiercely 
 than before. 
 
 " Don't talk to me of him!" he cried, blazing out upon her, 
 all his tenderness gone, as she knew it would go at the first 
 
206 JVOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 hint of her engagement, his anger all the hotter for it, as a 
 fire that is fed with oil. " Am I going to give you up to a 
 . a thing like that? a little whipper-snapper of a would-be 
 London fop a mere 'board-ship lover, who has had a 
 hundred sweethearts, and will have a hundred more who 
 would have fallen in love with anybody to pass the time, 
 and fell in love with you because there was no one else. 
 Oh, you needn't look like that! I know what I am talking 
 about. Joe Anderson and your sister have told me the sort 
 of man he is. Why, that very Christmas that you fancy he 
 fell in love with you he was over head and ears with Carry ; 
 and after that he went away and forgot both of you, and 
 nearly engaged himself to a girl in Scotland his brother 
 told your sister about it ; he simply filled his letters with 
 ravings about her. And he's got a heap of them here Mrs. 
 Lloyd-Price, and I don't know who else. Do you mean to 
 say you can stoop to care for a fellow like that? to take 
 other women's leavings? I know better. You have simply 
 done it to spite me." 
 
 She was looking at him steadily now, with that look of 
 concentrated contempt in her eyes and her set mouth which 
 always provoked the devil in him to do its worst. " Will 
 you let me go, Neil Hammond?" she asked him, in a quiet, 
 breathless, deliberate way that was too maddeningly exas- 
 perating to be borne, in the mood he was then in. 
 
 He shook her slightly, but with an ominous suggestion of 
 strength against which hers was no more than that of an 
 egg-shell under a steam hammer, and ground his teeth 
 audibly. 
 
 " By God, Katherine, I believe I shall kill you some day," 
 he said, panting, " when you look at me like that !" 
 
 She felt, in the convulsive contractions of his steel-sin- 
 ewed fingers on her shoulders, that these were no idle words, 
 but she was too bitterly resentful of the outrage she was 
 suffering to feel either fear or pity now. 
 
 " Why don't you?" she retorted, with an icy smile. " It is 
 just the thing that would be worthy of you. Here I am 
 defenceless in your hands." 
 
 "I'd kill you, and hang for it cheerfully sooner than 
 see you put your arms round another man's neck and kiss 
 him, as you did last night. And," he continued, with a 
 fierce tremble running over him that struck through her 
 nerves like an electric shock, " if you would only do it to 
 me, Katherine put up your arms and kiss me of your own 
 free will anybody might kill me afterward. I should die 
 happy." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 207 
 
 It was better to be killed herself than to court the inevi- 
 table consequence of letting him dwell for a moment upon 
 this dream of bliss. All the answer she made was to look 
 at him from under haughty, half-closed eyelids, with the 
 hardness of marble, and repeat in a still voice, " Will you 
 let me go?" 
 
 " Nor he roared. " I won't let you go ! I'll hold you till 
 I conquer you by God, I will ! if we stay here till the day 
 of judgment. Katherine" panting fiercely " don't fight 
 like that, for your own sake, or I shall hurt you and I 
 don't want to hurt you. I only want to make you listen to 
 reason to say you will treat me like a civilised being 
 after all I have gone through for your sake Katherine ! 
 Well, if you will drive me to it " 
 
 In this moment of her extremity she caught sight of 
 Forbes, crossing the adjoining paddock. Quick as light- 
 ning she ducked out of Neil's arms, that were enclosing her 
 as in a toothed vice, and ran with the skimming gait of a 
 lapwing to meet her lover. Neil stood dumbfounded for an 
 instant, and started to run after her, cursing through his 
 teeth, and shouting with a savage attempt at conciliation, 
 " Come back, Katherine ! Come here a moment !" wild at 
 the thought of Forbes being called upon to interfere 
 between them. 
 
 But Katherine flew as if she had wings, and said nothing 
 until she found herself checked at the fence by her dress 
 catching on it, and heard him pounding at her heels ; then, 
 tearing herself free, and aware that her rescuer, though 
 near, was still unconscious of her approach, she lifted up 
 her voice in that sudden, shrill cry which was like a knell 
 of doom to all of them : 
 
 " Forbes ! For-r-bes !" 
 
 Neil was climbing the fence an old-fashioned chock-and- 
 log fence that could not be vaulted over at the moment 
 when Forbes took aim at him, and his great breast, heav- 
 ing with rage, was a target that could not well be missed 
 by a man accustomed to shoot straight. Simultaneously 
 with the report, that stopped the girl in her headlong run, 
 she heard the thud of the heavy body falling from the top 
 of the fence to the ground, and, turning, saw her enemy 
 lying there in a loose heap, face downward, with his head 
 under his chest, in the attitude of a man, thrown from his 
 horse, with his neck broken. 
 
208 NOT ALL LV VAIN. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 POOR Neil ! His neck was not broken, but he was in a 
 worse case than if it had been. Forbes frantically turned 
 him over, and Katherine tore away his necktie and collar 
 and opened his shirt, and there were no less than three 
 dreadful holes in his hairy chest, all bubbling with air and 
 blood. Seeing this breathing ooze, in which his life drained 
 out as from a pricked bladder, and hearing the gurgle of 
 fluid in his throat, she cried out that he was living still, 
 and implored her companion to hasten for help, that he 
 might be saved, if possible. 
 
 " He is past saving," sobbed Forbes, stricken with horror 
 at his deed. " His lungs are riddled like a sieve. It's no 
 good going for help now." 
 
 " Yes, yes, "she urged passionately for, though generally 
 calm in sudden emergencies, such as induce hysterics in 
 ordinary women, she felt this stroke of fate to be too swift 
 and sharp, too horribly inopportune, for endurance. " My 
 father lived with a shot lung, and so may he. Oh, he must 
 he must ! Or what will become of us?" 
 
 " He is dying now," protested Forbes, weeping like a 
 child. " I can't leave you alone to see him die " 
 
 " Yes, yes, yes yes!" she repeated, till her voice rose to 
 a shriek. And then he turned and ran, leaping the fatal 
 fence, and speeding over the ground faster than she had 
 done, uttering panting sobs as he ran, and hopeless pray- 
 ers for Neil's life and his own contingent salvation. 
 
 He was gone for nearly an hour, and Neil lived for about 
 five minutes. Katherine, left alone with him, bent over 
 him like a mother over her child, and first tried to stop the 
 leaks in his chest by pressing her hand on them, and then 
 to ease his choked breathing by lifting his head upon her 
 lap. The blood gushed from his mouth, and he made a 
 straining but futile effort to raise himself higher ; so she 
 got her knee under his shoulder, and took his head in her 
 arms, and propped it against her breast. In this attitude he 
 opened his eyes and looked up at her. She looked down at 
 him with her own full of pity and anguish, and his aston- 
 ishment was evident through all the change in him, and 
 showed her he was still conscious. 
 
 " Do you know me, Neil?" she asked him, in that angelic 
 voice which had never spoken to him before, a voice out of 
 which fear and hatred had gone at last. 
 
 He smiled at the question, and that smile, too, was differ- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 209 
 
 ent from any expression that she had seen on his face 
 before, when it was ruddy with life and insolent with con- 
 scious power ; then he tried to speak, and failed coughed a 
 little, choked, straightened his huge neck, and deluged her 
 breast with a gush of red blood. Seeing the stain he 
 made an inarticulate murmur of disgust and apology, and 
 tried to rub it off with her handkerchief, which she had 
 been using to wipe his mouth ; but she caught his hand 
 the great hand that had been so hard and heavy, but was 
 now as impotent as a baby's and gently laid it at his side. 
 
 " Don't talk don't move !" she cried. " Lie still till the 
 doctor comes." She did not know that there was no doc- 
 tor within thirty miles of them. " Oh, Neil !" with a sud- 
 den wail " oh, my dear ! What can I do to make you 
 easier?" 
 
 He held down his choking agony, the noise of his im- 
 peded breath, the gurgle of his blood-filled throat, that she 
 might not have a horror of him at the last moment ; for, 
 with all his faults, he was a brave man, and, with all his 
 cruelty to her, had loved her, and loved her still, with the 
 whole force of his rude soul ; and he looked up at her with 
 a look that simply transfigured him. 
 
 " What can I do for you?" she entreated him again, de- 
 spairingly. 
 
 " Kiss me," he whispered. 
 
 At once she stooped her head and laid her lips to his fore- 
 head, which was cold and wet : for their long battle was 
 over, and she had won, and he had lost wherefore she 
 would ha.ve given him her life, if it would have done him 
 any good, Forbes notwithstanding. 
 
 And so he had his wish. " If you would only put your 
 arms round my neck and kiss me of your own free will, I 
 should die happy," he had said not ten minutes ago 
 little thinking how soon his desire was to be satisfied. As 
 she kissed him, he closed his eyes, with a long, crooning 
 sigh that seemed to tremble through his whole body ; and 
 when she lifted her head and looked at him again he was 
 lying quite still, the smile still there, the struggling throat 
 and gasping mouth at rest, his whole expression denoting 
 the most absolute peace. So doubtless he did die happy, 
 as he had prophesied he would. 
 
 For a long time she nursed him like a sleeping child, 
 holding him to her breast, and moaning distractedly, now 
 lifting the half-dropped lids from his dull and empty eyes, 
 now laying her ear on the stiffened mat about his parted 
 lips the great, bulging, sweeping red moustache of which 
 
 14 
 
210 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 all the Hammond family were so proud now pressing her 
 hand to his pulseless heart, over which the outwelling blood 
 had congealed and darkened till it looked like a ragged bel- 
 ladonna plaster. When she loosened her arms to make 
 these vain inquiries at the locked gates of life, from which 
 the tenant had departed, his head rolled and bent, limply, 
 as she had seen a rabbit's head waggling and dangling at 
 the end of its soft body when newly shot ; and she knew he 
 was dead, but could not endure to acquiesce in a thing so 
 awful. A few minutes ago he was as splendid a piece of 
 manhood as living flesh and blood could make him, and 
 now no better than a shot rabbit, that a dog might play 
 with! What wouldn't she have given to feel those relaxed 
 fingers gripping her shoulders, and to hear the ever-silenced 
 voice threatening to kill her if she would not promise to be 
 civil ! 
 
 At last she laid him down upon the grass, and straight- 
 ened his giant limbs, and smoothed his ruffled hair, and 
 tried to shut close the lids through which his glazed eyes 
 seemed still to look at her with the gentle dying look that 
 was so new and strange ; and then she sat beside him, with 
 her hands clasped round her knees, and through the lonely 
 spaces of green paddock and blue sky stared, stupefied, at 
 the future that had suddenly risen before her. 
 
 By-and-by she saw the cavalcade from the house approach- 
 ing. Forbes and her brother-in-law rode ahead, and after 
 them galloped a stout horse in an American waggon, which 
 bumped and bounded over the ground in a way that would 
 have smashed the springs of any English vehicle. The 
 seats had been taken out, and bedding laid along the floor ; 
 and the driver stood up, with his legs apart, balancing him- 
 self like a circus rider. Behind the waggon (it was called 
 the ration cart) a line of diminishing figures, running at 
 full speed, could be discerned, to whom Joe, turning, waved 
 his hand peremptorily, signing to them to go back. 
 
 The cart had to make a detour to a distant gate, and the 
 riders came up first, and hitched their horses to the fence 
 on the further side of which sat Katherine, like a statue, 
 with that other still figure beside her. Forbes knew that 
 haste was useless, but Joe scrambled breathlessly over the 
 fence, dragging a spirit-flask from his pocket, and, drop- 
 ping on his knees, began to pour brandy into the dead man's 
 mouth. Of course it ran out as fast as it ran in, and the 
 hand-chafings that followed were equally useless to remedy 
 the irremediable. Katherine looked on at them with the 
 dull apathy of one already grown accustomed to the worst, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 211 
 
 and did not stir to help. Nor did Forbes, who crept to his 
 sweetheart's side, and stood, with head and hands droop- 
 ing, an image of despair. 
 
 Having felt, and listened, and probed, and tried all the 
 conventional expedients he could think of, Joe realised that 
 animation was not to be restored. He rose to his feet, and 
 pocketed his flask, and blew his nose protractedly. " My 
 God!" he burst out at last, " what will his people say?" 
 
 This was what Belle had been crying in his ears, " What 
 will his people say to us ?' and he was used to looking at 
 all the accidents of life from her point of view, under her 
 direction. Instantly there rose before his listeners' eyes 
 the picture of Neil in the bosom of his adoring family the 
 bright, old, fire-lit, holly-decked hall, full of laughing faces 
 revolving round their hero and idol like planet-satellites 
 round their sun ; and Forbes put his hand over his eyes and 
 groaned, and Katherine laid her head on her knees, as if to 
 shut out the vision they could not bear to contemplate. 
 
 The ration cart came jogging up, and somehow the man 
 in charge of it had become three men. They all gathered 
 round the dead body, and looked down upon it silently, and 
 then up at Forbes'sface, and then askance at the gun lying 
 on the grass. One of them picked up the gun, examined 
 it stealthily, and laid it alongside the mattress in the cart. 
 Another, who was an old and trusted station-hand, said to 
 Joe in an undertone, " It's a done job, master." 
 
 Joe, who was still blowing his nose, nodded; then he 
 made a sign to the men to back the waggon up to the body. 
 Forbes turned and laid his arms on the fence and his head 
 on his arms, and Katherine kept her face hidden on her 
 knees, that they might not see poor Neil hauled like a dead 
 bullock from the earth which he had trodden only just now 
 with the step of an emperor; but they heard the strenuous 
 pantings and scufflings with which the sad business was 
 accomplished. When it was over, and he lay on the mat- 
 tress with his feet hanging out from the end of the cart, 
 which was not so long as he was, there fell a significant 
 silence on the group. Each looked at the others, and then 
 at Mr. Anderson, who continued to blow his nose more 
 ostentatiously than before. 
 
 " What are we to do, sir?" asked the man who had secreted 
 the gun. 
 
 "There's nothing to be done," replied Joe, "except to 
 take him home. Go on; I will follow you in a minute." 
 
 "Isn't there, sir?" the fellow persisted; and he looked 
 meaningly at Forbes. 
 
212 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Go on," repeated Joe, sharply. " I'll attend to Mr. Alex- 
 ander." 
 
 With manifest reluctance they went on, leading the horse 
 gently, and avoiding ruts and stumps, as if a shake of the 
 cart would hurt its occupant; and they looked back at 
 almost every step. When they were out of earshot Joe 
 addressed himself to P'orbes, keeping his eyes carefully 
 from the young man's face. 
 
 " Look here," he said, " I'm a justice of the peace, and I 
 oughtn't to do it, but you've been my friend, and and 
 well, I'm not going to be the one to hunt you down not 
 till I'm obliged. If they come to me and tell me to do my 
 duty, why, of course I must do it; but I'll shut my eyes 
 for a few hours, at any rate, if if there's anything you 
 want to do. You can take that horse, and keep him ride 
 him where you like as soon as the cart is out of sight." 
 
 Katherine looked at her lover, to ask him whether he had 
 strength to resist this temptation. His face, though strained 
 and pale, was resolute, and its new expression uplifted her 
 heart ; she saw that he would not disgrace himself and her. 
 Indeed, the hour that followed the commission of his crime 
 was the noblest of his life, which had not been particularly 
 noble hitherto. 
 
 " I'll take the loan of the horse, thank you," he replied, 
 " but not for any purpose of escaping from justice. I will 
 ride at once to a police station and give myself up. I in- 
 tended to do that. I never meant to wait to be hunted 
 down by anyone. I did it, and I will take the conse- 
 quences." 
 
 Katherine reached for his hand, and clasped it tightly in 
 her own ; whereupon a strong quiver of emotion shook his 
 frame and changed his face. 
 
 " For me," she murmured, " for me ! And I will go with 
 you. We will go by way of Mr. Lloyd-Price's, and be mar- 
 ried there to-night, and then I can stay with you all the 
 time." 
 
 " No, Katherine." 
 
 " Yes, Forbes. We must bear it together." 
 
 " We must, indeed. But not in that way. I've done 
 enough to blight your life, poor girl, but I won't do that." 
 
 " I couldn't allow it, Katherine," Joe struck in, with an 
 air of authority. 
 
 She answered, with a pale smile, " It is between Forbes 
 and me." 
 
 " Leave us for half an hour half an hour to say good-bye 
 in," pleaded Forbes; " that is, if you are not afraid to trust 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN'. 213 
 
 me. I will give you my word of honour to stay here till 
 you come back with something to take Katherinehomein." 
 
 " You needn't bring anything to take me home in," she 
 said quietly. 
 
 But the men exchanged a look, and Joe slowly turned 
 away, and heaved himself over the fence and into his sad- 
 dle, and rode after the cart. He had been forbidden to feel 
 compassion for the murderer, and wished heartily on his 
 own account that his sister-in-law had never darkened his 
 doors ; and he kept saying to himself, as he blew his nose 
 and fought against the emotions of a tender heart, " What 
 will Belle do about it?" and "How shall we tell his 
 people?" 
 
 He found Belle with all her wits about her. She stood 
 on the doorstep to receive the body of her guest, and calmly 
 superintended its removal to the dining-room, where, when 
 it had been laid on the table, she desired that it should 
 not be touched again until the doctor and the police had 
 viewed it. She had already despatched messengers to a 
 distant town for these officials, and taken other steps to- 
 wards dealing with the situation in a proper and legal man- 
 ner; insomuch that her husband's soft-hearted wish to shut 
 his eyes for a few hours was of no avail whatever. 
 
 " Where is Mr. Alexander?" she demanded of him, with 
 her pale eyes shining ; and when he told her how he had 
 left Forbes and Katherine to bid each other good-bye, she 
 ordered the man who had found the gun, and was now 
 delivering it to her (as the person best qualified to know 
 what to do with it), to return at once to the scene of the 
 tragedy and see that the murderer made no attempt to 
 escape. Joe did not dare to dispute the order before her 
 face, but went out after the man and " squared" him in the 
 usual way. Returning, he found his wife spreading a fine 
 sheet over the corpse, drawing the corners level, with the 
 neat-handed precision of a parlour-maid laying the cloth 
 for dinner. 
 
 "Joe, "she said, resolutely and solemnly, "we must do 
 our duty without regard for our own feelings. They" by 
 " they" she meant the Hammond family " shall never have 
 it to say that we did not do our duty by him and by them. 
 No stone must be left unturned. He was our guest he 
 was my old friend his people have a right to look to us to 
 do for him what they can't do. I regard myself and you as 
 in the place of his father and mother / will see that he is 
 avenged." 
 
 " Oh, we needn't talk about vengeance," Joe ventured to 
 
214 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 protest. " The boy could never have meant to do it. And 
 poor Hammond was to blame, in a great measure." 
 
 " He was not to blame," returned Mrs. Anderson, who, 
 having taken her side, defended it in the uncompromising 
 feminine fashion. " I will not allow you to say he was to 
 blame, Joe. He was deliberately shot by Forbes Alex- 
 ander, because Forbes was jealous of him." 
 
 Joe thereupon held his tongue. He stood and gazed 
 mournfully at the long white heap on the table, and Belle 
 went round the room, drawing curtains across the windows, 
 and putting away decanters and fruit dishes, and setting 
 chairs against the wall effacing the signs of life that had 
 become inappropriate with her wonted elegance of move- 
 ment and immutable self-control. 
 
 " And when all is done that can be done," she proceeded, 
 once more straightening the sheet over poor Neil's stiffen- 
 ing limbs, " I shall take him home to his own people." 
 
 " What?" cried Joe, open-mouthed. 
 
 " I shall have him cased in lead," said she, quietly, as if 
 discussing the packing of her clothes. " And I will make an 
 arrangement with one of the shipping companies it will 
 have to be secret, but I can manage that ; and he shall be 
 laid in the family vault with his ancestors, and his mother 
 shall have the comfort of being able to weep over his grave." 
 
 It had a sublime and touching sound about it, but the 
 sense of this speech was that Mrs. Anderson intended the 
 dark cloud upon the Hammond house to have a silver lining 
 for herself. If she did this thing for the family there 
 would be nothing that the family would not do for her 
 thereafter. Joe knew that if she had made up her mind to 
 take Neil home in lead, as a piano or a sideboard, it was 
 useless for him to try to dissuade her from it ; but, as a 
 plain man, the idea revolted him. 
 
 " There's the shearing," he suggested timidly. 
 
 " You can leave a manager quite well. If not, I will go 
 alone." 
 
 " There'll be a trial, and you will be wanted." 
 
 " Perhaps not ; my evidence at the inquest may be suffi- 
 cient. I think I might be able to manage that," said Belle, 
 who thought herself capable of managing anything. 
 
 " But if you can't?" 
 
 " Then he must be buried, and we can quietly take him 
 up again." She had thought it all out carefully. 
 
 Joe looked at the white sheet, and shuddered, for he had 
 some imagination, though a very dull person compared with 
 his wife. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 215 
 
 " And about Katherine?" he inquired. 
 
 " Katherine, of course, must come home too, and live it 
 down as best she can. It is all Katherine's fault." 
 
 " She won't leave that fellow." 
 
 " It will be no question of leaving by that time," said Mrs. 
 Anderson significantly. 
 
 " It's my belief she '11 stick to him through thick and thin. 
 No, Belle, he won't be hung; no jury would call it wilful 
 murder they couldn't." 
 
 " They will," she said. " For that is what it is, and the 
 thing is as clear as day. And they will sentence him to 
 execution, and they will commute it to imprisonment for 
 the sake of his position and his family. And I wonder how 
 those purse-proud people, who think none of us are good 
 enough for them, will feel then? In any case, Katherine 
 must have nothing more to do with him." 
 
 " She won't agree to that I know she won't." 
 
 "If she won't," said Mrs. Anderson, "I shall wash my 
 hands of her though she is my sister." And she added, in 
 a tone of apology, " We must think of our own children, 
 Joe, dear" the fair-seeming excuse for so many base pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 AND in the distant paddock, with a pale sunset glow 
 about them, the poor lovers clung together, and tried in 
 different ways to meet the dreadful crisis worthily. Kath- 
 erine begged to be married at once, with a passionate fer- 
 vour that no impatient lover of the other sex could have 
 surpassed, and Forbes, with the fortitude of an early mar- 
 tyr, refused her absolutely. 
 
 " We have not time to get as far as the Lloyd-Prices*," he 
 said, " and it will be midnight before I can reach the police 
 station, and I must give myself up before I can be caught. 
 We have no opportunity now, but if we had if we were 
 standing before the altar at this moment I hope I should 
 be man enough to resist the temptation to sacrifice you for 
 life for the sake of a present comfort to myself " 
 
 " Not for your sake, for mine for mine ! I have thrown 
 in my lot with yours this doesn't separate us and, be- 
 sides, I did it quite as much as you ; and I shall stay by 
 you always, whatever happens. We are already married, 
 as far as that goes. But if I were your legal wife I should 
 be so much nearer I could do so much more I should 
 
216 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 have personal power and liberty that nobody will allow 
 me now. Oh, Forbes, do, do, DO let us stick together ! It 
 was what we promised when we were engaged." 
 
 " I was not a murderer then, Katherine." 
 
 "What am I?" She held up her hands, which were 
 smeared with blood from poor Neil's wounds. " But for 
 my screams and cowardice you would never have dreamt 
 of it. I made you do it we did it together. And we 
 didn't know what we were doing; we have not the souls of 
 murderers. Don't think of the outside world on my ac- 
 count; I don't think of it for a moment I only think of 
 you. We have nobody but each other to consider. Let us 
 make haste and get it done while we can ; we shall feel 
 doubly strong to face things afterwards. I am sure we can 
 manage it if we try. When the buggy comes let us drive 
 together to the Lloyd-Prices', and let the police take us 
 there if they are in a hurry. Joe can tell them that we are 
 not running away." 
 
 She stood, with her hands laid on his breast, looking at 
 him with her strong, courageous eyes. She herself inspired 
 him to resist her. They were like Millais's " Huguenots" 
 in the way they strove against and yet upheld each other. 
 
 " I cannot I must not," he said, with set teeth and tear- 
 filled eyes. " You know as well as I do, Katherine, that 
 you wouldn't do it, in my place." 
 
 She sighed despairingly with a quicker breath. " Oh," 
 she burst out, " how keen you were for it two nights ago !" 
 
 "Don't don't!" he implored, laying his head on her 
 shoulder. " Oh, my God, if only we could have two nights 
 ago back again !" 
 
 They sobbed together, and she put her arms round his 
 neck and kissed his hair and his ear and his smart grey 
 coat. " I shall go with you anyhow," she whispered, " wife 
 or no wife." 
 
 " No, no ; keep out of it keep out of it as far as possible, 
 for my sake," he urged. "It's the best thing you can do 
 for me." He clutched her tightly, and added, in a choked 
 voice, " I may be hanged, Katherine." 
 
 " You won't be hanged," she said, rallying herself quickly, 
 and speaking with quiet confidence. " There's no fear of 
 that. There will be a dreadful time to go through, poor 
 boy, but we must bear it, and keep up we shall be bear- 
 ing it together ; and when it is all over, soon or late it 
 may be in a few days or weeks we will go away somewhere 
 together, and still be happy, or, at any rate, make some- 
 thing of our lives. I shall be waiting for you I will have 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 217 
 
 everything ready. But if I were your acknowledged wife, 
 dear, from the beginning 
 
 "Don't, Katherine, don't; I can't bear it! Don't you 
 see? you can never be my wife now." He sobbed aloud. 
 " Think of the children with a murderer for their father !" 
 
 " For their mother, too, if you come to that," she said, 
 gently. " But it is only a legal expression ; we are not 
 murderers really." 
 
 However, at this point she ceased to urge the question 
 of marriage, and set herself to the task of bracing him for 
 the ordeal, whatever its severity and duration, that he must 
 pass through before he could rejoin her as a free man. 
 
 " Will you promise me, "she implored him, as they sat on 
 a log together, conscious of a buggy in the far distance, and 
 that the dreadful parting moment was near at hand, " will 
 you promise me not to let anything, anything, tempt you to 
 give up in despair to break you down, and degrade you, 
 and spoil you no matter what it is even if it should be 
 years of imprisonment, which it won't be. Not only for 
 my sake, Forbes, but still for my sake, because I shall be 
 waiting all the time, and counting on having the year's that 
 are left over on your making up to me, as I will try to 
 make up to you, for what we have now to suffer and lose. 
 Will you try to keep noble and brave, and conquer it all 
 in the long run? Oh, Forbes! Forbes!" 
 
 " I will I will," he responded, clasping her. " I will try 
 to be worthy of you. I'm a poor creature, I'm afraid, but 
 you can make me anything, I think. I will keep up, my 
 darling I will do all I know to be worthy of you." 
 
 " Worthy of yourself, "she said, looking with passionately 
 solemn eyes into his handsome, quivering face "to try 
 how fine and true a man can be. It will be a tremendous 
 test perhaps more than you can bear but try,/ry to bear it ! 
 Remember that I shall be close by, wherever you are, and 
 waiting for you. Don't let it beat you down, and break 
 your heart I shall be struggling to keep up, and we must 
 help each other and it will come to an end some time. 
 And if you have been strong and noble if we have done 
 our best what will it matter how other people look at it? 
 It was not murder only a moment's anger and forgetting. 
 And the children even the children can be made to under- 
 stand. Forbes, Forbes!" they could hear the jingle of the 
 buggy wheels in the next paddock " if the worst comes to 
 the worst, and they imprison you for years, will you, can 
 you hold up through it? It is the only thing that would 
 kill me to think you might be throwing it all up in de- 
 
218 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 spair, and letting yourself go that I should never have you 
 back, my own Forbes as you are now after keeping my- 
 self for you and I will keep myself for ever, no matter 
 how long it may be " 
 
 Words failed to express her agony of solicitude for his 
 moral safety in the adversities that were to try him, and she 
 knelt by his side and persuaded him with kisses that went 
 to his heart like wine. 
 
 " I'll keep up," he said in a resolved voice. " Any man 
 would keep up with such a woman to back him. I'll not 
 let myself go, if I can help it if I have you. You oughtn't 
 to stick to me, Katherine if I could make you go and for- 
 get me and be happy with a more fortunate husband, I 
 would; but if you won't " 
 
 " I won't, indeed. I am not made that way. You may 
 consider me your wife, Forbes, though you will not marry 
 me." 
 
 " Then I will try to be worthy of you," he repeated; " as 
 worthy as a poor wretch in my position has the power to 
 be." 
 
 " You have a greater power now than ever you had be- 
 fore." 
 
 The buggy came round the fence from the gate towards 
 them, and they watched it in silence, hand in hand. Joe 
 was driving, and tried not to look at them as he came up ; 
 he dismounted and fumbled at the harness, with his back 
 turned, and the lovers took a long, last kiss, with closed 
 eyes and bursting hearts. 
 
 " You'd better," said Joe over his shoulder, " look sharp, 
 if you want to get there before anything happens. Some- 
 body has sent already. They will be coming out to-night. 
 Best do it yourself, I think." 
 
 " Yes, "said Forbes, with a start. And he discussed with 
 Joe which route he had better take to avoid those who 
 might be seeking him on his way to the town. He also 
 asked that his brother and Lloyd-Price might be communi- 
 cated with, and that everything possible might be done to 
 spare Katherine ; bearing himself like a man, despite his 
 tears, which were irrepressible. 
 
 " She is going to stick to me," he said, as he led his un- 
 happy sweetheart to the buggy. 
 
 " And are you going to allow that?" queried Joe, gravely. 
 
 " I can't help it. She will." 
 
 " Joe," Katherine broke in, " I don't want to be a trouble 
 and embarrassment to you and Belle. I am almost a 
 stranger to you both, and and I am on Forbes's side. 
 
Mav T p* 
 
 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 219 
 
 May I go to the Lloyd-Prices', who are his people and our 
 friends? Mr. Lloyd-Price said, only last night, that we 
 were to let him know if we wanted help." 
 
 Joe protested, rather vehemently, that he was her brother 
 and the proper person for her to look to ; and he further 
 intimated that Belle was the authority to which all must 
 bow, and that she would settle the plan of action for them 
 all. 
 
 " Not for me," said the girl firmly. " I want you to under- 
 stand now, before Forbes goes that I am a quite free 
 woman, free in everything except in being bound to him, . 
 and that I must be allowed to do whatever I feel is best for 
 us both. If Forbes doesn't come back to-morrow morning 
 I must go to him." 
 
 " We'll see we'll see," said Joe, evasively. " Come home 
 to Belle now." 
 
 " Will you send a messenger to Mr. Lloyd-Price to-night, 
 Joe?" 
 
 " Perhaps I will if there's a man to spare." 
 
 " Will you send to Mr. Jock Alexander?" 
 
 " Oh, certainly." 
 
 She flung her arms round her lover's neck. " I'll write 
 to Mr. Lloyd-Price myself," she whispered, " and I'll write 
 to your brother and ask him to send the letter on. And 
 Mr. Lloyd-Price will come back at once I know he will 
 and we will see about everything together. Keep up, my 
 darling, keep up, and. don't fret about me. We shall get 
 through, if we are brave." 
 
 They wrenched themselves apart, for time was flying. 
 The sun had gone down, and Forbes had more than thirty 
 miles to ride. He vaulted into the saddle of Joe's big bay 
 horse, rode a few paces, and, turning, leaped the log fence ; 
 then he set off towards the road, along the grassy track 
 which he had passed over so lightly a little while ago, 
 wondering if it could be the same world, and he the same 
 man, that he knew then. 
 
 Joe drove the buggy homewards, and said no word to his 
 companion, who said no word to him. When about half 
 way they met a man on horseback, who, being interro- 
 gated, said he was taking the news to Mr. Alexander's 
 brother, by the missus's orders. 
 
 "Let me go with him," said Katherine, lifting her 
 shrouded face. " Take his horse, Joe dear Joe and let 
 him drive me there. I want to see Jock, and I am the 
 proper one to break such news to him." 
 
 Joe protested, for he was afraid to meet Belle and tell her 
 
220 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 that he had permitted such a thing to be done ; but Kath- 
 erine was resolute, and a resolute woman was a power he 
 had become unable to withstand. Begging her to be as 
 quick as possible, he vacated his seat at her side, and the 
 sheepish boundary-rider took it ; and thus the poor girl saw 
 for the first time what was to have been her home the 
 cosy house and the blossoming garden and the substantial 
 out-buildings, all so prosperously neat and plentiful, all 
 softly folded now in the mists of twilight and river fog, 
 through which the ruddy lights of evening fires winked 
 fitfully as she drew near. 
 
 Some dogs bayed at the noise of her approach, and a 
 beautiful collie with a big ruff came up to her as she de- 
 scended from the buggy, wriggling, and wagging his 
 fringed tail. She stooped and kissed him between his 
 half-closed eyes and his flattened ears, and said, " Poor 
 doggie ! poor, poor doggie !" And he licked her face, as if 
 he knew what she meant. 
 
 But, after all, she did not see Jock. He had got the news 
 already, and gone tearing off, nobody knew where, over- 
 whelmed by the disgrace impending upon him and his 
 unsecured wife and his most respectable and respected 
 family. Only Mrs. Wickham was at home, sitting forlornly 
 in the kitchen, amid the wreck of the splendid tea that she 
 had been half a day preparing as a fitting celebration of 
 Master Forbes's first night at home. 
 
 With her Katherine made a friendship in half an hour 
 that lasted without interruption or abatement for ten good 
 years which was until death divided them. That she was 
 poor Master Forbes's choice, and that she was as different 
 from Miss Amy Martin as one girl could be from another, 
 would have recommended her to favour in any case ; but 
 when she gave the old woman a frank statement of the causes 
 for which she and her lover were suffering and this she 
 did because Wickham was the only woman sympathiser that 
 the world afforded her in that moment of dire need and 
 revealed her intentions with regard to the future, there was 
 no longer any room for doubt as to how they would " agree" 
 together. 
 
 They wept in concert over their common grief, and Wick- 
 ham explained how again and again, on that very day, she 
 had promised Master Forbes that she would do for him and 
 his young lady and which she would, whatever happened, 
 to her last breath, if they would only show her how. They 
 went together to Forbes's room, where his bed had been 
 turned down for the night, and Wickham washed the blood- 
 

 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 221 
 
 stains from the girl's dress and hands with the clean towels 
 that had been laid out for him ; and they filled a portman- 
 teau with clothes and necessaries to be sent to the town to- 
 morrow, Katherine kneeling on the floor while she packed, 
 like a wife packing for her husband, consumed with wild 
 regrets that she had not consented to be married two nights 
 ago, while she had the chance. She sat at his writing-table 
 to write her letter to Lloyd-Price, and in the kitchen to be 
 almost forcibly fed with wine and tit-bits from his wasted 
 dinner. Then, with mutual promises to communicate next 
 day, and poor little plans for helping each other to help 
 Forbes, the women parted, and Katherine was driven back 
 to the dreadful house of death and the homeless misery of 
 the long night. 
 
 All the time Forbes rode and rode, through the darkness 
 of the bush, and of the strange world into which he had 
 been newly born. In the one he knew his way perfectly, 
 where there was apparent^ nothing to guide him ; in the 
 other he was as bewildered as a child that opens its eyes 
 crying, not understanding the life that has come to it, 
 except that the taste is bitter. In the midst of his stunned 
 sensations he had one clear thought that he must keep up ; 
 that was all. 
 
 At midnight he reached the pretty town amongst the 
 hills in past times associated with racing and agricultural 
 meetings, and balls where the girls smiled on and sought 
 him as if he were a young prince now silent, and uncon- 
 scious of his presence and his misery, as he rode through 
 the dim streets, muddy and weary, his horse stumbling 
 under him. When he presented himself at the police sta- 
 tion, under the shadow of the county gaol, he found that he 
 was already expected. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 MRS. ANDERSON'S prediction as to the issue of the trial 
 was fulfilled to the letter chiefly by her own agency ; for 
 it was she who brought into prominence the circumstances 
 of the first meeting of the murderer and the murdered at 
 her house, and whose testimony not consciously false, but 
 coloured in every word by her woman's prejudice cast all 
 the blame of the bad feeling displayed on that occasion 
 upon the former person. When to this revelation of pas- 
 sion and jealousy provoked by the mere presence of a 
 rival in the same hemisphere, and nothing more was 
 
222 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 added the fact that the irate lover marched home in the 
 morning and came back in the afternoon carrying a gun 
 loaded with slugs, and when there happened to be nobody 
 but himself to know that he had taken it to shoot dogs 
 with (a suggestion that was smiled away as too thin to be 
 considered seriously), the case appeared to be a very simple 
 one; and judge and jury warned themselves, and were 
 warned by counsel, to deal even-handed justice to rich 
 and poor, and not allow themselves to be influenced in 
 their deliberations by any regard for the social position of 
 the accused. The result was a verdict of wilful murder 
 against Forbes Alexander, with a recommendation to mercy 
 on several obvious grounds; and he was condemned to 
 death in due form, and subsequently reprieved, his sen- 
 tence being commuted to imprisonment for life meaning 
 twenty years of penal servitude, less the few months he 
 might be able to purchase by good conduct in gaol. 
 
 It was all very well for Katherine to talk of keeping up, 
 tinder these circumstances! Flesh and blood were unequal 
 to the task flesh and blood of the texture of his, that had 
 lived delicately, in the warmth of wealth and woman's 
 smiles, through all the days of his careless existence. When 
 the bolt fell it stunned him. For a while his reason tot- 
 tered under the shock and horror of his doom, in spite of 
 Katherine 's heartbreaking effort to uphold him, and he 
 cursed his life and the Maker of it in the extremity and 
 futility of his despair. 
 
 " Is this mercy?" he raved, to the chaplain who preached 
 an impossible resignation, and the doctor who dosed him 
 for incipient brain fever. " I could bear to die that would 
 be nothing but, oh, good God, I can't I can 7 bear this!" 
 
 However, he did bear it as we all bear the manifestly 
 unbearable when we are actually put to it. 
 
 No sooner had he fallen from his high estate to these 
 depths of agony and ignominy than all his family and 
 connections fled from the scene of his disgrace as from a 
 country plague-stricken. 
 
 His father, as Wilkins phrased it, " up and died " while 
 the trial was still in progress. The fury of his excitement 
 brought on a fit, in which he lay and snored insensibly for 
 some days before surprising those who had heard the cry 
 of " wolf" so often by yielding to the enemy. But before he 
 had his fit he altered his will, cutting off the son that had 
 dishonoured him and brought his life-long toil to naught ; 
 and when the fit was over, and the passions that had caused 
 it, it was too late for the kindlier second thoughts that 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 223 
 
 might have brought repentance for the deed. Mrs. Alex- 
 ander, ill herself, made selfish for the first time in her life 
 by the urgency of her private interests, was carried off to 
 Tasmania by her father, and heard of no more for a long 
 time. 
 
 Jock lost his heiress, as a matter of course, and was tem- 
 porarily shattered by the disaster to his house. When the 
 trial was over he said he could bear no more he could not 
 face his friends again he could not endure to see poor 
 Forbes, or to think of him ; and he realised his property, 
 went away to travel, and never returned again. In course 
 of time he absorbed himself into the crowd of London city 
 men, became identified with financial companies, grew rich, 
 married a baronet's daughter, bought out an old family 
 from a historic castle and estate, and became a county 
 magnate and went to court with his wife who turned up 
 her nose at Mrs. Joseph Anderson, when that lady attempted 
 to resume relations with her rehabilitated old friend. 
 
 Of all that bore the name of Alexander, and of Katherine, 
 who insisted that she virtually bore it, Belle " washed her 
 hands" at the conclusion of the trial, which was as soon as 
 the law permitted her to do so; and Joe had no choice but 
 to wash his at the same time. Shearing, as well as the trial, 
 had ended before she could get her release from the coun- 
 try that she had never cared for and now abhorred ; so there 
 was plenty of time for him to settle his affairs in such a way 
 as to enable him to accompany her when she was ready, 
 and to remain with her and his children in their new home, 
 as a well-ordered husband and father was expected to do. 
 He hated it heartily, but that didn't matter. In years gone 
 by, when poor Major Knowles was living, an object to be 
 nursed and shuddered at, a trip home had several times 
 been suggested to Belle, in a humane and Christian spirit ; 
 and then she would not hear of it. The number of excel- 
 lent reasons against going to England at those particular 
 times had overwhelmed and crushed the one poor reason put 
 forward by the proposer of that course that it might be 
 their duty towards their step-father and sister-in-law, and a 
 comfort and support to those lonely sufferers. Now, when 
 he could not bear the thought of settling down in an Eng- 
 lish country house, with nothing to do but to swear at the 
 rain, and when it seemed to him a horrible thing to leave 
 Katherine behind, impracticable and troublesome as she 
 undoubtedly was now he had to be dragged away from 
 his familiar life and activities, for good and all, and knew 
 that it was useless to protest. Belle said it was their duty 
 
224 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 to take Neil home to the family vault, and to see about the 
 children's education. 
 
 Poor Neil, after being autopsied and inquested, was given 
 to his mother earth in a little bush graveyard, where he 
 might well have been left to the kindly oblivion which is 
 the last due that reverence can pay ; and Mrs. Anderson 
 took great trouble and satisfaction in making people believe 
 that he really was to be left there. Then, as guardian of the 
 dignities of death, she entered into elaborate conspiracies 
 with government and maritime officials to have him dug up 
 again in the middle of a dark night, and put into a deal 
 case as a grand piano, and bundled about wharves and rail- 
 way stations by porters and lumpers who swore at the 
 weight of the unwieldy package, being on no account al- 
 lowed to know what it contained. And he had a second 
 temporary grave in the hold of a Blackwall liner, all the 
 crew and passengers of which were blissfully unconscious of 
 having a corpse on board except Belle and Joe ; and Belle 
 did not seem to mind, in the ardour of successful enterprise, 
 while Joe laid the foundations of a habit that ruined him, 
 because he felt it necessary to drown the feeling of being 
 haunted by an ever-present ghost. 
 
 And so in due time the poor relics of what had once been 
 Neil arrived at the London docks, and were received by the 
 old squire and Tom, and put into a van, and conveyed to 
 a house prepared for them. Once more surrounded by the 
 legitimate pomp and circumstance which called itself re- 
 spect for the dead, he lay in a sort of state on another din- 
 ing-room table, with black-draped walls and lighted candles 
 about him, and flowers heaped upon the silver-mounted oak 
 coffin that enclosed his leaden shroud. Then a plumed 
 hearse carried him through the roaring streets to Shoreditch 
 station, and that funeral truck, which living passengers 
 shudder to think of when they know it to be whirling behind 
 them in the dark, bore him to his native county and his own 
 people, who came in shoals, all scarved and hat-banded, with 
 another plumed hearse, to meet him. Finally, he was con- 
 ducted to the old churchyard, where Mr. Brand awaited him 
 at the lych-gate, prayer-book in hand, and where, from a 
 large block of ancient masonry almost adjoining the graves 
 of Major and Mrs. Knowles, a slab had been removed, re- 
 vealing a dim stone staircase and a stone-walled crypt. In 
 this underground chamber his unconscious wanderings and 
 post-mortem indignities came to an end. They laid him 
 down by his dead grandfathers and grandmothers all 
 packed in close rows, with their ornamental adjuncts tar- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 225 
 
 nished and rotting in the horrible, moist, black air, hermet- 
 ically curtained from the wholesome earth and they rolled 
 the stone to the door of the sepulchre, and sealed it, until 
 such time as another Hammond should be borne thither. 
 " Also of Neil, "etc., etc., was engraved upon an outer slab, 
 and a mural tablet was erected in the chancel over the 
 squire's pew, to record the fact that here lay the remains of 
 the beloved son who had been so cruelly cut off in his 
 splendid prime. 
 
 Then did Belle Anderson receive her reward. 
 
 " I knew," she said, to the weeping mother, " I knew what 
 you would wish. I am a mother myself, dear Mrs. Ham- 
 mond, and only mothers can enter into those things. It 
 was difficult to do, but I was determined to do it. And now, 
 if anything can comfort us who loved him, and have lost 
 him in such a dreadful way, it is to know that he rests with 
 his own people that we have, at least, his grave amongst 
 us." 
 
 " Bless you, my dear, bless you for ever !" the good old 
 lady responded, with tears and embraces. Naturally, she 
 wanted her son's grave where she could see it, and cry over 
 it, and lay flowers on it, and some day share it with him ; 
 and she had not seen, and would not think of, the means 
 that had been used to compass the desired end. " No 
 words," she declared again and again, "can express our 
 gratitude !" 
 
 " Don't speak of gratitude," Belle murmured. "I loved 
 him as my own brother. I always did love him, when we 
 were children together. I am only too thankful that it fell 
 to me, and not to strangers." 
 
 " Ah, you knew what he was ! You understood him !" 
 
 " I did indeed. And he knew it too. Though we were 
 only a few days together, he leant on me he looked to 
 me " 
 
 Belle put her handkerchief to her eyes, overwhelmed by 
 the heartrending remembrance. 
 
 " My darling girl ! I shall always feel now that you are 
 one of us. Not like that dreadful sister of yours " 
 
 " Only half-sister," corrected Belle. 
 
 " That half-sister of yours, who was so cruel to him when 
 he loved her so ! and who was certainly responsible for his 
 death." 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Anderson, with the humility of conscious 
 virtue, " I hope not." 
 
 " You must come and stay with us, my dear yes, I in- 
 sist on it till you find a house to suit you. There's plenty 
 
226 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 of room for you all, and your husband can come and go as 
 he likes. It's a house of mourning, but you mourn with 
 us, and I needn't apologise for its being dull. You and I 
 we can talk about him together." 
 
 So Belle, strikingly elegant in her black gowns, made a 
 long stay with the Hammonds, and in course of time became 
 known and popular amongst the married members of the 
 family and the county folks who came to offer their condo- 
 lences. Then she took a good house in the neighbourhood, 
 and set up a carriage, and gave parties, and ceased to re- 
 member that she had a blood relation in the world. Joe did 
 not cease to remember it, but poor Joe became of less and 
 less account as time went on. In the utter emptiness and 
 uninterestingness of his life he took to drinking badly, and 
 had to be kept much in the background. 
 
 Katherine, however, was faithful unto death or what 
 was the equivalent for death. Entreaties and reproaches, 
 reasonings and threatenings, were alike powerless to seduce 
 her from her allegiance to the fallen man whom she deemed 
 herself bound to " for better, for worse," and to whom she 
 clung with a passion of devotion commensurate with his need 
 of comfort. Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I 
 forsake thee, was her steadfast assurance, and the encourage- 
 ment which enabled him to wear out his years of penance, 
 after all. 
 
 Hugh Lloyd-Price was her tower of strength until Mrs. 
 Hugh suddenly developed an attack of rabid jealousy, which 
 necessarily dissolved Katherine 's partnership with him. 
 But this did not happen until the agony of the trial was at 
 an end, and the three, living in the same house, had noth- 
 ing to do but to watch each other. Katherine, having spent 
 all her strength for Forbes, and being confronted with six 
 months of utter separation from him, knowing him to be 
 sounding the lowest depths of human woe meanwhile, her- 
 self collapsed for a time, as was inevitable ; and her host, 
 who had not believed it possible that a woman could bear 
 up so nobly and so long, and who, between admiration and 
 pity, really could hardly attend to anything but the task of 
 mitigating her grief, certainly laid himself open to those 
 misjudgments which are so liable to occur in such a case. 
 At first, and for a considerable time, Polly took pride and 
 glory in making common cause with those who stood up for 
 Forbes in his day of adversity, and she spurred on her hus- 
 band to serve and shelter Katherine, whom Belle had so 
 disgracefully deserted Belle, who had at last shown her- 
 self in those true colours to which only men had been wholly 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 227 
 
 blind. But when Belle was gone, and the novelty of the 
 thing had worn off, the little woman who was used to being 
 petted herself grew tired of petting another woman, espe- 
 cially when that woman had others to pet her; and then 
 Polly felt neglected, and then aggrieved, and then resentful, 
 and then flew into a sudden temper and demanded of Hugh 
 whether it had come to this that she was to stand tamely 
 by and see herself supplanted in his affections, and reduced 
 to be a nobody and a nonentity in her own house? 
 
 A coolness all round, and much mutual discomfort and 
 embarrassment, ensued ; and very shortly Katherine took 
 her departure from the house never to resume any cordial 
 relations with it and went to " do" for herself in Melbourne ; 
 and she would not allow Lloyd-Price to escort her thither, 
 to his intense mortification. She had rallied from her col- 
 lapse, and was desperate for something to do and to live 
 for, by this time ; her brain seethed with plans ; and all her 
 plans were for one end, and that end not to be reached for 
 eighteen or twenty years. 
 
 Jock Alexander was leaving the country, and giving de- 
 livery of his Murray station to a new owner; Mrs. Wick- 
 ham was severing her long connection with him, and seeking 
 to ally herself with the poor remains of the family that 
 were left behind. 
 
 " I promised him as I would do for you, "she said to Kath- 
 erine, when visiting her at the Lloyd-Prices', " and do for 
 you I will, if so be you're agreeable, and never mind how 
 small a place we're in, and we needn't say nothing about 
 wages at present. It will ease his poor heart to know as 
 I'm doing for you. 'Look after her, Wickham,' says he to 
 me; and I says to him, 'My dear, I will,' I says; and that 
 I'll stand to, money or no money." 
 
 " Money," said Katherine, when she had duly acknowl- 
 edged the foregoing handsome offer, " money is the only 
 thing I think I shall care for in the world for the next eigh- 
 teen years it won't be more than eighteen, they tell me, if 
 he is good, and I know he will be good. I have only about 
 enough for one person to live on, and he has nothing ; but 
 when he comes out, Wickham when he is beginning to get 
 old, and has only that little piece of life left, I must see to 
 it that he has ease and rest, and everything that can com- 
 fort and restore him. I am going to work for that only 
 that to have plenty for him when he wants it. I don't care 
 how I work or what I do I shall not be bothering about a 
 home for myself in the mean time ; I shall live on as little 
 as possible, save as much of what I have, and make as much 
 
228 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 more as I can, against the time when they will give him 
 back to me if he can hold out till then." 
 
 " Two heads are better than one," said Wickham. " And 
 two pairs of hands better still. Suppose you take boarders? 
 or have a school ? or go into business ? How'll you do 
 without somebody?" 
 
 Katherine cogitated. 
 
 " It'll ease his poor heart to know as I'm looking after 
 you," the old woman reiterated. " And we mustn't let him 
 fret more'n we can help." 
 
 This was the strong argument, and prevailed. 
 
 So they went to Melbourne together, and, set up house- 
 keeping, and a trade whereby money might be made. And 
 Wickham became a great despot, and the faithfullest of that 
 class of family servants which are but a fading tradition in 
 these days. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 MORE than two years passed, and Forbes was keeping up, 
 to the extent of preserving life and reason and an excellent 
 prison character. He had grown used to the black night 
 that had so early and suddenly eclipsed his sunny day, and 
 could even see glimmerings of the path of hope athwart the 
 gloom occasionally once a month, at any rate, when he 
 had a letter from Katherine, and once in three months, when 
 he was permitted to imbibe the inspiration of her voice and 
 face. Though the conditions of a prison interview seem ex- 
 actly calculated to make an interchange of thought impos- 
 sible, she managed not to be chilled and checked from saying 
 what she had come to say by having to call across the cold, 
 barred space dividing her from him into the ears of a listen- 
 ing warder. The opportunity was too precious not to be 
 turned to the best account. 
 
 " Are you managing to bear it?" would be almost her first 
 words, in such a tone of entreating love that the very sound 
 of it would make him pluck up heart, and lift his head, and 
 try to look and feel as like the man she took him for as 
 possible. He would do his best to reassure her, in his al- 
 ways unsteady, tear-filled voice (being generally unnerved 
 by the meeting, whereas she did not break down till it was 
 over) ; and he would want to know, in his turn, how she was 
 managing to bear it. To cheer him, she would give him 
 the brightest account of herself that a regard for truth per- 
 mitted ; and he would say how thankful he was, and then 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 229 
 
 spoil it just a iittle by desiring that she would continue to 
 make herself happy and not mind him. She never re- 
 proached him for this characteristically man-like innuendo, 
 but regularly, every three months, made a fresh declaration 
 of the fact that all her happiness and welfare was bound up 
 with his disregarding the third person present, who would 
 turn away his eyes and try to look as like an automaton as 
 possible. 
 
 " You ought to take him" Forbes would also say, at nearly 
 every interview, after making searching inquiries anent the 
 proceedings of the person referred to. " Why should you 
 waste your life when you might be cared for and made 
 comfortable?" 
 
 " You know why, "she would gently answer, never dream- 
 ing of being angry with him for anything he might say or 
 think. " And I don't feel that I am wasting it. My com- 
 fort is in looking forward to having you again. That is all 
 I live for." 
 
 " It will never come, Katherine !" 
 
 " Oh, yes, it will ! Here is another quarter gone be- 
 tween two and three years already !" 
 
 " It will be too late then." 
 
 "Oh, no, it won't! We shall not be really old. For a 
 man, you will be young, and I they say a woman of forty 
 is in her prime ! In the mean time we are being tested here, 
 to try the stuff we are made of. Let us try to hold out 
 only keep up and we shall see some precious years before 
 we die. We will even look back without any shame with 
 pride and thankfulness if we have gone through all this, 
 and not allowed ourselves to be the worse for it." 
 
 Thus she would strive to stock him with courage and 
 patience for another three months' trial, and then go home 
 to weep herself like the weakest child, and to feel for a little 
 while that the task set before them was an impossibility. 
 
 Her home was a neat little house, airily situated, as near 
 to the Pentridge fortress as she could get ; for, as Mrs. Ham- 
 mond wanted Neil's grave where she could see it con- 
 stantly, so the bereaved girl could not bear herself out of 
 the vicinity of that sepulchre of the living which was so much 
 more dreadful than the coffined vault. Moreover, she was' 
 confident, judging from her own woman's sentiment in the 
 matter, that the knowledge of her proximity must be a com- 
 fort to the poor convict within ; and no grain of comfort that 
 could sweeten his bitter lot was withheld from him, if she 
 knew it. 
 
 There were two rooms in the front of her house, each fur- 
 
230 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 nished in the plainest manner, with no adornment save the 
 flowers and little odds and ends that her friends contrived 
 to force upon her. In one room she slept, or should have 
 slept, and the other was a sitting-room that she shared with 
 Wickham promoted to an equality of companionship in 
 these grief-levelling times, and to the position of the cha- 
 peron, which circumstances and the girl' sown convenience 
 required. There were three more rooms, besides Wick- 
 ham's bedroom and kitchen, and these three comprised a 
 small but excellently-managed hospital for a certain doctor's 
 patients as many of his choicest cases as could be accom- 
 modated on whom the capable old woman waited as nurse, 
 directed and supplemented by her experienced young mis- 
 tress. 
 
 This was the work (by which money was to be saved and 
 made) that they, after a few unsuccessful experiments in 
 other directions, adopted as in every way more congenial 
 to Katherine than a school, or a boarding-house, or a fancy 
 shop; and the little business, very cautiously developed, 
 had prospered steadily. It had outgrown two smaller houses, 
 and was outgrowing the present one, by reason of the in- 
 creasing extent of its good repute and of the doctor's prac- 
 tice. That gentleman was daily protesting against the young 
 matron's habit of putting a patient, and sometimes two, into 
 her own sleeping-chamber, thereby reducing herself to a 
 cane couch in the sitting-room, and a general personal com- 
 fortlessness inimical to her precious health. 
 
 Who was the doctor? 
 
 He came one evening to make his last rounds, and every 
 one of the five sick faces seemed to brighten at the sight of 
 him. Yet he was but a plain and quiet little man, with a 
 reserved manner and nothing " taking" about him ; and he 
 hardly spoke to them beyond making the necessary inqui- 
 ries about their ailments. As he and Katherine stood at the 
 bedsides gravely intent upon their work, he said to her, 
 " How is the temperature, nurse?" and she said to him, " A 
 hundred and two, doctor ;" but when they afterwards retired 
 to consult together in her sitting-room, he said, " How are 
 you yourself, Katherine?" and she replied, " Quite well, 
 Jim, thank you." 
 
 Jim Hammond, with all his proper credentials, and a 
 medal or two thrown in, had been admitted to practise his 
 profession in Victoria, and thereby to realise the main ob- 
 ject of his life, which was to watch over Katherine 's wel- 
 fare. He it was who, having got afloat himself, had launched 
 her on the little enterprise that suited her so well except 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 231 
 
 that it did not bring in money fast enough, which no busi- 
 ness within her power to manage seemed capable of doing 
 no small achievement on his part, or on hers either. For 
 she never fell into the mistake, common to romantic young 
 women like the delusion as to farming with young men 
 that nursing is an accomplishment which comes by inspira- 
 tion, and needs no hard apprenticeship like other trades. 
 With all her sickroom experience and natural gifts for this 
 career, she went to school to the hospitals in the regular 
 manner, though for a much shorter course than usual ; and 
 what was then lacking to finish her professional education 
 her old friend supplied, at infinite pains to both, before they 
 considered her justified in setting up business for herself, 
 even in a small and private way. The initiated know, and 
 no one else knows, the severity of the training that every 
 properly qualified nurse must undergo eighty or ninety 
 hours a week of such physical effort and nerve-strain as no 
 labouring man ever dreams of ; and only those who conduct 
 the business of a hospital as it should be conducted can 
 measure the expenditure of vital force continually required 
 of them of " weak" women, as they are called, whose 
 spiritual endurance is beyond the conception of any eight- 
 hour working male. Katherine was exceptionally strenuous 
 and devoted ; her heroic fortitude and unflagging energy 
 proving her descent from her gallant father and a sound, 
 stout-hearted race were a burden upon Jim's mind more 
 heavy than all his own professional cares. For it was he who 
 took charge of her now invisibly to her, to a great extent, 
 but absolutely, like an unsleeping providence. It was what 
 he came to Australia, to this unlovely suburb of Melbourne, 
 on purpose for. He it was, also, of whom Forbes was as bit- 
 terly jealous as a poor man in his condition, so far removed 
 from the sphere of social trivialities, could be ; and whom, 
 with a crushing magnanimity, he used to beg her to marry 
 and be happy with, notwithstanding the fact that marriage 
 was a subject never alluded to, and certainly never for a 
 moment contemplated by either party. Katherine was vir- 
 tually wedded already, and Jim had accepted the situation. 
 He lived only to promote her welfare on the lines she had 
 herself laid down, being the one man in a thousand to whom 
 his beloved woman's happiness was of more consequence 
 than his own. 
 
 They sat down on either side of Katherine 's firelit hearth, 
 and for a moment she dropped her hands in her lap. Usu- 
 ally, when she sat down, she immediately snatched up a 
 piece of complicated needle-work, a certain surgical appli- 
 
232 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 ance of their joint invention that she manufacture din great 
 numbers, and sold (at a profit of eighty per cent, on the cost 
 of the materials) to Jim's patients, and, through him, to 
 those of his medical colleagues, who appreciated it so much 
 that she talked of taking out a patent, and taking in a sew- 
 ing-woman to assist her in the production of larger quan- 
 tities. To-night her work-basket stood untouched for a few 
 minutes, which was a " symptom" in Jim's professional eyes. 
 He looked sharply at her drooped figure, which had certainly 
 grown thinner than it used to be, and at her colourless face, 
 which was thinner too, but much more beautiful, in his 
 estimation. 
 
 " You may say you are quite well," he remarked, " but I 
 can see for myself that you are not." 
 
 " I am only rather tired." 
 
 " Overtired. That won't do, Katherine. You'll defeat 
 your own ends if you work so hard. You'll knock up ; and 
 then where '11 you be?" 
 
 This was a suggestion that always frightened her a little. 
 "Oh, well, I'll rest a bit now," she said; and she leaned 
 back in her cane rocking-chair, and reached for her work- 
 basket. 
 
 Jim jumped up and took it from her. " Let that alone," 
 he said, with a touch of professional peremptoriness. " You 
 must do nothing which is really the most profitable occu- 
 pation you can engage in just now, from the lowest com- 
 mercial point of view, if you would only think so. Look 
 here" he dragged a largish parcel from a bulging coat 
 pocket " I've brought you a taste of some new tea that's 
 been recommended to me." 
 
 " A taste !" she cried. " Two pounds, at the very least. 
 Now, Jim, I won't have it! Do you think I can't buy tea 
 for myself?" 
 
 " And I'm going to make you a cup," he went on quietly, 
 " and to have one with you, for I have been a long round and 
 missed my dinner. Sit still" she was jumping for the 
 cupboard that held her private tea-things " I know where 
 to find everything." 
 
 Accustomed to obey him, she contented herself with 
 placing the ever-ready kettle on the fire, where it immedi- 
 ately began to sing, and resumed her seat and idle attitude, 
 to watch his proceedings. He was gravely business-like, 
 as was his wont at all times, and set out teapot and crock- 
 ery with a labourious air that kept her smiling; and his 
 soul basked in that rare and precious smile like a cat in 
 sunshine, though he appeared not to notice it, 
 

 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 233 
 
 " Got any bread and butter, Katherine?" 
 
 " They are in the pantry, Jim. May I not go and fetch 
 them? And a little meat or something for you, if you have 
 had no dinner?" 
 
 " No." He left the room, and returned with bread and 
 butter in either hand and a jug of milk under his arm. 
 " This is all I want. Now to make the tea." He knelt on 
 the hearth-rug (the only textile fabric in the room, except 
 the window-blinds, and the coverings of a pair of pillows 
 on the cane sofa), and poured some hot water in the teapot. 
 
 " You should always warm the pot first, Katherine ; I 
 suppose you know that?" 
 
 " I do, Jim." 
 
 " Then put in four spoonfuls of tea" he measured them 
 out carefully " and fill up the pot" he filled it " and set 
 it on the hob to draw for three minutes exactly. Not a sec- 
 ond more or less." He followed his own instructions, mark- 
 ing the time on a gorgeous clock that Mrs. Bellamy had 
 given her for a birthday present. Then he turned up the 
 gas. 
 
 "Jim, don't waste the gas!" she cried, regarding the 
 bright flame anxiously. 
 
 " Katherine, I am not wasting it. I must have light enough 
 to see to cut your bread and butter properly. Do try not to 
 worry over the cost of things for half an hour. By the way, 
 you're not eating cheap butter, I hope?" 
 
 " Nothing that comes into the house is cheap in the sense 
 of being inferior," she answered quickly, with sudden 
 warmth. "Jim, I hope you don't think, because I am 
 economical " 
 
 " Stingy," he interpolated. 
 
 " That because I am stingy in regard to my personal habits 
 I am stingy to your patients?" 
 
 " Oh, if you were, they'd soon clear out, and you'd be 
 left without any. No, I have nothing to complain of there ; 
 nor have they. But just as stinginess wouldn't answer in 
 their case, so you'll see it won't pay in your own. Stingi- 
 ness isn't economy. Where's the toasting-fork, by the way? 
 Toast doesn't cost any more than bread, and I'll make you 
 a nice piece." 
 
 " All the millionaires have been stingy people, Jim all 
 those who have made their own money. It's the only way 
 to make it." 
 
 " All the same, you'll have to take on another nurse, 
 Katherine." 
 
 " Tim, I can't afford it." 
 
234 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Then I shall take away some of your patients." 
 
 " No, no ! With the night-nurse to give us our proper 
 rest, Wickham and I can do the day work perfectly well, 
 and do justice to the patients too." 
 
 " Wickham may kill herself, if she likes, and welcome ; 
 but I'm not going to let you do it. You are worn out. You 
 never get any fresh air. You are using up your nervous 
 energy so fast that it won't hold you out. Hah! the tea 
 has been standing a minute too long. And here's the toast 
 done to a turn. Sit where you are, and put your cup on 
 this little table and give yourself up to the luxury of feel- 
 ing comfortable, for once." 
 
 " You are good to me, Jim !" 
 
 " I promised your father to look after you, if I could," he 
 said, quietly, turning aside to butter the toast, " and one 
 must not neglect promises of that kind. To-morrow I shall 
 install another nurse." 
 
 " Then you must give me more patients." 
 
 " Then you must take a larger house. This one is too 
 crowded already." 
 
 " It may be. But it is sweeter than any hospital in 
 Melbourne." 
 
 She was proud to say it, and he did not contradict her. 
 The little house, so airy without and so bare and polished 
 within, so delicately cleansed and antisepticised, bore its 
 five or six patients without detriment to their chances of 
 thriving well therein. It was getting a " name" for its good 
 management, as Jim reminded her. 
 
 " I know it is like asking you for your heart's blood to 
 ask you to lay out money," he cried; " but I believe, if you 
 were to take Redmount" naming a large house to let in 
 the neighbourhood " you would have it full in a week." 
 
 " The rent is ^150 a year," said Katherine, quite pale. 
 
 " Well, let us talk it over. When you have finished your 
 tea, put a hat on and let me take you for a walk. You have 
 not been out for days. Wickham can do all that is needed 
 till the night-nurse comes in." 
 
 She went to put on the very hat and jacket that she had 
 worn on the Huntingdonshire, both shabby and out of date, 
 though neat with careful mendings and furbishings ; for she 
 had ceased to " dress" in these days. When she returned 
 to him, thus attired, and without gloves (which she had dis- 
 carded, along with all the useless surface proprieties that 
 hindered her and cost money), Jim was entirely satisfied 
 with her appearance. Nothing could destroy the air of 
 dignity and good breeding that was her essential charm. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 235 
 
 He never thought of her clothes, except to see that they 
 were warm enough. 
 
 " Now where shall we go?" he asked her. 
 
 " It doesn't matter," she replied. " Anywhere." 
 
 " I wish it wasn't too late to give you a whiff of the sea; 
 that's what you want most." 
 
 " I believe it is though it didn't occur to me before. 
 But it's too late for the sea to-night, Jim. We must be 
 content with the common road." 
 
 " Then do you mind going with me to see a patient a 
 couple of miles off? I've seen her once to-day, and don't 
 owe her another visit; but she isn't a paying patient, and I 
 may be able to start her with an easier night." 
 
 " Certainly we will go. What is it?" 
 
 " Cancer." 
 
 " Poor soul ! And why isn't she a paying patient?" 
 
 " Hasn't anything to pay with. I have the greatest work 
 to get the scraps of nourishment and things that are neces- 
 sary for her, and I often wish I had the courage to give her 
 a dose that would end her pain for good and all, instead." 
 
 "It seems hard," sighed Katherine, "that we should be 
 denied that." And she thought of her father's protracted 
 torments, which no poor dog would have been allowed to 
 undergo. 
 
 The question raised had been discussed between them 
 many times, and they discussed it again as they walked 
 briskly down the road. Then, as they neared their desti- 
 nation, Jim reverted to the concrete case. 
 
 " I wish," he said, " that you could take her in, Katherine." 
 
 " Ah, Jim," she answered, " I can't afford non-paying 
 patients, if you can." 
 
 He did not tell her that many of her patients had been 
 paying ones only by the good grace of Mrs. Bellamy, who, 
 being stubbornly thwarted in her efforts to supply her dar- 
 ling with clothes, food and furniture, had conspired with 
 the doctor to keep the hospital beds filled until such time 
 as the voluntary supply was equal to the demand. Mrs. 
 Bellamy, it may be stated by the way, was an often trouble- 
 some but always devoted friend. She had cropped up at 
 the trial, as a fierce defender of Forbes Alexander's char- 
 acter, damaging his cause by her excited partisanship, which 
 did not stick at perjury of the most flagrant kind, and which 
 exposed her repeatedly to committal for insulting behav- 
 iour and contempt of court. Not only did she abuse the 
 judge and jury (being forcibly "removed" by the police 
 therefor) when they condemned the prisoner in spite of 
 
236 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 her testimony, bnt she afterwards tried to bribe and cor- 
 rupt the Pentridge officials, by the offer of more or less 
 large fortunes, to contrive that he should escape from cus- 
 tody. However, the law was lenient with Mrs. Bellamy, if 
 not with Forbes, and she had quieted down since those 
 days. She now lived in a gaudy house at Brunswick (to be 
 near Katherine), besieged by a crowd of hungry applicants 
 for her favour and a place in her will; and these encouraged 
 her in her besetting sin, while Jim and Katherine made 
 constant efforts to wean her from it. Sometimes one side 
 succeeded, and sometimes the other. 
 
 "Why," said Katherine, not alluding to Mrs. Bellamy, 
 but to the poor woman with cancer who could not pay for 
 medical attendance, " why don't you get her into the Mel- 
 bourne Hospital, Jim?" 
 
 " The reason is that she has a daughter whom it would 
 be cruelty to separate from her." 
 
 " Only a daughter?" 
 
 " No one else at all, that I can see except a bad husband, 
 who used to beat them both, and is now in prison for 
 forgery." 
 
 They turned into a shabby street, and stopped at the door 
 of a squalid lodging-house, while Katherine was thinking of 
 her poor boy, condemned to associate with wife-beaters 
 and thieves. 
 
 " You may as well come in," said Jim. " It will be a treat 
 to her to see a decent woman." 
 
 Unsuspectingly, Katherine followed him into a small, 
 poor room, with her grave, sympathetic face and soft sick- 
 room step. And there, on a ragged bed, lay the emaciated 
 and offensive wreck of what had once been the fashionable 
 Mrs. Brodie ; and there, by the bedside, stood a tall, gaunt 
 slip of a girl whom Katherine instantly recognised as 
 Elvira. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 BUT for Elvira's presence, Katherine would have found it 
 hard to identify the sick woman with her former fellow- 
 passenger, so utterly had three years changed her. The 
 plentiful butter-coloured hair was now a meagre wisp of 
 mixed tints, evidently bleached with age as much as with 
 cosmetics, and the brilliant complexion was unimaginable 
 in connection with a face so withered and livid as it now 
 appeared, parched with hectic fever. The poor creature 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. - 237 
 
 moaned in a monotonous way, and rolled her head from 
 side to side, gazing at her visitors with bright but unintel- 
 ligent eyes. She did not know that it was Miss Knowles 
 who had come to see her, and did not care. 
 
 But Elvira knew in a moment ; and the doctor could not 
 imagine what was the matter when he heard her, who was 
 always so still and reticent, utter a quick cry, and saw her 
 throw herself, wildly sobbing, into Katherine'sarms. Still 
 more surprised was he to see Katherine clasp the shabby 
 child to her breast, with a wholly responsive passion. 
 
 " My darling ! my darling !" she ejaculated in broken tones. 
 " I thought I had quite lost you, Elvira. And now to find 
 you like this ! Oh, my poor, poor child ! Oh, Jim, how 
 I wish I had known before !" 
 
 Jim was soon made to understand who Elvira was, and 
 Elvira soon recovered self-possession enough to pour her 
 brief tale of woe into Katherine 's sympathetic ears. It was 
 a narrative of poverty, cruelty, and degradation, to make 
 one's heart bleed. 
 
 "Just what we expected," was Katherine 's indignant 
 comment ; " though we hardly expected it to be quite so 
 bad. And now, darling, we must think what is to be done. 
 Is there no one here to wait on your mother but you?" 
 
 " A neighbour comes in sometimes," Elvira said. 
 
 " Oh, dear, is that all?" 
 
 " Dr. Hammond has shown me how to do everything, and 
 I try to do it right." 
 
 " And succeed," said Jim. " She is almost as much of a 
 born hand at it as you are, Katherine." 
 
 Elvira looked at him in blank concern when she heard 
 him address Miss Knowles by her Christian name. Kath- 
 erine also looked at him, struck by an idea that his words 
 suggested. In that moment she settled what was to become 
 of the lone child when her mother was taken from her. 
 
 Presently Mrs. Brodie roused herself to know and speak 
 to Katherine. 
 
 " Is that you, Miss Knowles?" 
 
 " Yes, dear Mrs. Brodie. I am so grieved to see you like 
 this. I did not know you were here, and ill." 
 
 "No; I didn't want anybody to know how I had come 
 down. Ah, my dear, I've had a hard time of it since I saw 
 you last!" 
 
 " I am afraid so, indeed." 
 
 " That man was a fiend" she spoke with a fierce bittei- 
 ness that was almost startling " a vampire, fastening on 
 the blood of the widow and orphan! Look here, Miss 
 
238 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Knowles my very teeth he stole and took to the pawn- 
 broker's!" She displayed her shrivelled gums, where a 
 gleaming row of pearly teeth once gave their charm to her 
 fascinating smiles, and about which the men on the ship 
 used to make irreverent bets as to whether they were real 
 or false. 
 
 " He struck me here," she went on, pointing to her breast. 
 " He hit me with his clenched fist, and a lump came, and it 
 grew bigger and bigger, till it turned to cancer ; and now 
 it's killing me, and he is my murderer and ought to be 
 hung! He's killed me worse than if he'd cut my throat, or 
 put a bullet into my heart, like Alexander did to the doctor's 
 brother." 
 
 " Don't talk any more," interposed Jim, who felt the sud- 
 den pallor in Katherine's face. " It will only make you 
 more restless." 
 
 A few minutes later, when all was done that they could 
 do, and they were preparing to depart, Elvira drew her old 
 friend aside and whispered in her ear, " Is he a relation of 
 yours, Miss Knowles?" 
 
 "No, dear," Katherine whispered back. "Only an old, 
 old friend." 
 
 " You are not not engaged 'to him?" 
 
 " No, indeed. You ought to know who it is that I am 
 engaged to, Elvira." 
 
 The child's face lightened instantly. " Ah, I thought so !" 
 she sighed. Then she continued, with suppressed passion, 
 " Oh, Miss Knowles, he never did it I know he never did 
 it he couldn't /" 
 
 " He did, dear. But of course he never meant to do it." 
 
 They clasped and kissed each other, while the doctor 
 waited at the door. 
 
 " Have you ever seen him since?" breathed Elvira, 
 tremblingly. 
 
 " Yes; I saw him a very little while ago." 
 
 " And how ?" 
 
 " I think he is a brave man. But I can't talk about it, 
 dear." 
 
 " I pray for him every night," said Elvira, in an intense 
 voice. " I pray for him always always." 
 
 " My precious child !" Katherine clasped her more tightly 
 than ever. " I will tell him that in my next letter. Now 
 good-night good-night ! I am going to see what I can do 
 to get help for you. You shall not be left to struggle alone 
 after to-night." 
 
 " It won't be for long," said Elvira quietly. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 239 
 
 " Ah, you know that, poor child? No, I don't think it 
 will. And the shorter the better, dear, since she suffers so 
 dreadfully." 
 
 " Yes," said Elvira. 
 
 " I did not like to say anything to her to-night, but if you 
 find her fretting about you about what is to become of you 
 tell her I told you to say that I would look after you." 
 
 " Oh, Miss Knowles !" Elvira burst into tears. 
 
 "We are companions in sorrow," continued Katherine. 
 " We might live together and help each other." 
 
 Fresh tears gushed forth, but they were evidently tears 
 that, for once, had no bitter drops in them, despite the fact 
 that Mrs. Brodie had never betrayed any anxiety as to what 
 was to become of her daughter after she was gone. " I 
 never thought of this !" sobbed Elvira. " I used to think 
 that some day I would go and find you and ask you to let 
 me be your servant." 
 
 " You shall be my sister," said Katherine. 
 
 When she and Jim had left the house she stated her 
 plans to him. 
 
 " Jim, that poor woman is too far gone to be moved now, 
 even if I could take her," 
 
 " Perhaps so," said Jim. 
 
 " And I can't afford to find the nurse and the comforts 
 that she needs and must have. So I shall ask Mrs. Bellamy 
 to provide them." 
 
 " I am sure Mrs. Bellamy will jump at the opportunity." 
 
 " Yes, I believe she will, even though Mrs. Brodie used 
 to treat her as the dirt beneath her feet except when she 
 wanted to get something out of her. Oh, poor Mrs. Brodie ! 
 What an end to come to !" 
 
 She gave Jim a few details of the Huntingdonshire life, 
 and for the first time made him understand how Elvira, of 
 whom she had never spoken to him, came to be so intimate 
 a friend. 
 
 " When her mother is gone, Jim, she shall come to live 
 with me. She is like a woman already, poor little soul, and 
 can be train edinto a nurse in no time. By-and-bye she 
 shall be my third nurse." 
 
 " And you'll pay her in love, and save money?" 
 
 " Precisely." 
 
 On their way home they called at Mrs. Bellamy's house, 
 for there was no time to lose. That gorgeous mansion, full 
 of gilded mirrors and satin chairs, had one small room, re- 
 served for use and comfort, in which survived the broken- 
 springed and rusty furniture of the diggings shanty parlour, 
 
240 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 with all its endearing associations of youth and stirring 
 times. Here sat the mistress of the house at ease, with her 
 slippered feet on the fender, and her steaming toddy at her 
 side, in company with a couple of women who were her 
 husband's distant cousins, and who looked daggers at the 
 new-comers. 
 
 Mrs. Bellamy, seasoned as she was, and only in the mid- 
 dle of her second tumbler, was fairly sober and sensible, 
 and quite capable of doing business. With very little cere- 
 mony she bundled her discomfited relatives out of the house, 
 and joyfully established her dear friends in the vacated 
 chairs. She tried to press whiskey and lemons on them ; 
 failing which, she gave large orders for a miscellaneous 
 supper. 
 
 " As usual," said Jim, " we have come to ask a favour of 
 our Lady Bountiful." 
 
 " Ask away," cried Mrs. Bellamy, beaming. "As long as 
 you come I don't care what you come for, and Katherine 
 knows she's welcome to all I've got." 
 
 " Do you remember Mrs. Brodie?" asked Katherine. 
 
 " That huzzy that was on the ship with us, and pretended 
 to be so fine and grand, and never paid her honest debts?" 
 snorted Mrs. Bellamy, who, with all her lavishness, was 
 careful of her money in certain ways. " Ten pounds did I 
 lend that bottle-nosed husband of hers, and she promised 
 to send it back directly she got home, and never a penny 
 have I seen from that day to this, nor ever heard a word 
 from either of them. Remember her, indeed ! Just let me 
 get hold of my lady, and I'll show her whether I remember 
 her or not." 
 
 "Well," said Katherine placidly, " I've just found her out 
 dying in the most dreadful misery and poverty." 
 
 " What? Lor ! You don't say so !" Mrs. Bellamy's anger 
 was gone in a moment, and she was as soft as melting 
 wax. " Then I'll be bound that major fellow turned out 
 bad." 
 
 "He did, of course. He ill-treated her shockingly, and 
 the poor child too." 
 
 ' ' Oh, what a burning shame ! The poor little dear ! Well, 
 I had my doubts that he was a rascal when he didn't pay 
 me back that money." 
 
 "Most of us had our doubts long before that. He was 
 not a major to begin with, and his name was not Todd; he 
 was only personating a real major of that name." 
 
 "Look at that now!" ejaculated Mrs. Bellamy, with fat 
 hands uplifted. "And I lent him ten pounds, thinking he 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 241 
 
 was a gentleman! Well, I'm an old fool, and I deserve to 
 be taken in." 
 
 "He is now in Pentridge for forgery," continued Kather- 
 ine, in a low, bitter tone. ' ' And one who is a gentleman has 
 to associate with him as an equal, and with other wretches 
 like him." 
 
 " Ah, dear, dear !" sighed Mrs. Bellamy, and looked so like 
 falling upon Katherine's neck in tears and condolences that 
 the girl quickly left that subject. 
 
 "Little Elvira she's a big girl now, but oh, so thin! I 
 am sure she has never had enough to eat. Elvira is the only 
 person the poor woman has to wait on her; that young 
 creature has to be doing night and day dreadful work that 
 would try the strongest of us." And she went into a few 
 particulars. 
 
 "What's the time?" Mrs. Bellamy presently demanded, 
 with an air of determination. 
 
 * ' Too late to do anything to-night, " said Katherine. ' ' But 
 if you would help us to-morrow to get a few comforts a 
 proper nurse 
 
 She broke off, because Mrs. Bellamy, she saw, was not 
 listening ; she was hastily snatching up sheets of newspaper 
 and filling them with bread, cold chicken, ham, and cakes, 
 to the astonishment of the servant, who was arranging those 
 viands for the visitors' supper. 
 
 " That child shall be fed before I sleep," said Mrs. Bel- 
 lamy. "Jane, you go and tell Robert to get a cab for me 
 this minute." 
 
 Jim said he could not allow his patient, who had had an 
 opiate, to be disturbed again that night. But his hostess 
 was obstinate. 
 
 "I sha'n't shut my eyes if I have to think of that child 
 hungry, "she urged, her coarse lips shaking and her bleared 
 eyes running over. " I'll not disturb Mrs. Brodie. It'll be 
 enough to put the things just inside the door." 
 
 To please her they allowed her to load herself with pro- 
 visions sufficient for the supper of a dozen schoolboys, and 
 they both accompanied her in the cab to the sick woman's 
 lodging to see that she did no mischief there. 
 
 The spectacle of that wretched lodging, and of the misery 
 that it contained, quite overwhelmed the soft-hearted and 
 weak-nerved old woman, who had to be dragged away rather 
 summarily after a few minutes, lest she should disturb the 
 patient with her uncontrollable ejaculations. But outside 
 the door she was allowed to cuddle the scared and irrespon- 
 sive Elvira in her fat embrace, and to pour out incoherent 
 16 
 
242 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 assurances that everything should be done to-morrow that 
 money could do. 
 
 "And you eat a bit of this nice, tender chicken, darlin', 
 just to please me me, your old friend on board the Hunt- 
 ingdonshire, don't you remember?" she coaxed, as she dis- 
 played the dainty in its smeary newspaper. "And if your 
 poor ma should feel able to pick a bit, just you give it to 
 her, for there's nothing like good vittles for sick folks. And 
 as soon as it's light, love, old Martha'll be round, and you'll 
 see how comfortable she'll make you!" 
 
 Then Jim and Katherine dragged Martha away. She re- 
 turned home weeping, and babbling of trained nurses and 
 calves' feet jelly, and how she would have Mrs. Brodie car- 
 ried in her bed on the butcher's lorry, with a tilt over her, 
 to a new lodging, and how she would have her plum-coloured 
 satin cut down for Elvira, and make the child drink a pint 
 of stout every day to fatten her. 
 
 The good old woman good, in spite of her coarse fibre 
 (wherefore Katherine loved her, and not because she was 
 the symbol of a large fortune, in which all her charm for the 
 superficial consisted) was all a-tremble with emotional ex- 
 citement when she re-entered her own house ; and Kather- 
 ine took her upstairs and helped her to bed, lest she should 
 be tempted to physic her weakness from the whiskey bottle. 
 
 " Eh, but it's like old times, ain't it?" she said, as the girl 
 tucked her up. " Ah, those old ship days ! Little we 
 thought ! And to think o' that poor soul, that lorded it over 
 us all, being brought so low ! Well, good-night, lovey, if 
 you must go. Give me a kiss. Bless you, darlin' ; bless 
 you ! Just you come to your old Martha whenever you want 
 anything you'll never have to ask twice." 
 
 " Dear old woman, I know that ! And I'm so glad I came 
 to you to-night. Now go to sleep, and don't make your 
 poor old head ache by taking any more spirits. Good folks 
 are scarce, you know, and I want you to take care of your- 
 self so that you can help me." 
 
 "I will, darlin', I will," said Mrs. Bellamy, as she said 
 daily always honestly meaning to do what she knew was 
 for her good and Katherine 's pleasure, and always failing 
 to do it when it came to the pinch. 
 
 The best of the servants of the house, who were an indiffer- 
 ent lot, was a middle-aged woman who had been in Kather- 
 ine's hospital, and whom, on her recovery, Mrs. Bellamy 
 had taken into her service on Katherine's recommendation. 
 This woman let the visitors out, and had a customary con- 
 fidential word with her former nurse. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 243 
 
 " Thank you, ma'am. I'm keeping well. And Mrs. Bel- 
 lamy, she's much as usual. It's when these people come 
 to see her that she gets bad. I'm sure they encourage her 
 to do it, so as to get her silly, and get money out of her. 
 But let her be as bad as she may, she 'sal ways sharp enough 
 to know what they are driving at, and they never succeed. 
 It's wonderful how she keeps her wits about her where her 
 money is concerned, though she does spend it like water 
 when the fancy takes her." 
 
 " I wish they had it, if that would free her from them," 
 said Katherine. " You'll do all you can, Hester?" 
 
 " Indeed, I always do, ma'am. But, you see, Mrs. Bel- 
 lamy gets cross if she feels she's being interfered with." 
 
 " You must try not to let her feel it. Good-night, Hester." 
 
 " Good-night, ma'am," 
 
 Katherine seemed so staid and old that few people called 
 her " Miss." 
 
 She ran down the garden to Jim, who was waiting for her, 
 and the pair hurried home at their best pace, for it was 
 nearing midnight. Jim parted with his companion at her 
 own gate, and bade her get to rest quickly. 
 
 " What about Redmount?" he asked her, as he was turn- 
 ing away. 
 
 Let it go," she replied promptly. " I simply can't pay 
 
 for rent. What about the new nurse, Jim?" 
 I shall send her to-morrow. But I'll let you have an 
 extra patient, as a set-off. I'll come and see about the 
 rearrangements in the morning." 
 
 He arrived next day at his usual hour, installed an active 
 young nurse, and had Katherine 's bedroom prepared for 
 two new patients Katherine taking Wickham's room, and 
 Wickham the pantry, the contents of which were transferred 
 to a shed outside. This gave them all a busy morning, 
 and it was impossible for the young matron to leave her 
 own establishment to see what was doing for Mrs. Brodie. 
 She asked Jim if Mrs. Bellamy could be trusted by herself, 
 and he said: "Oh, that's all right; she's got one of the best 
 nurses in Melbourne, who won't let her go wrong." And 
 then she was perforce absorbed in her own affairs for the 
 time being. 
 
 But in the afternoon she was " off duty," and Jim brought 
 a cab, and said they would now go and see what Mrs. Bel' 
 lamy had been about. And when they reached their desti- 
 nation they found a transformation that was like a fairy 
 tale the sick-room large and airy, the bed luxuriously soft 
 and clean, tables crowded with choice wines and a strange 
 
244 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 assortment of expensive eatables ; a bright fire in the grate, 
 a neat nurse in uniform by the bedside, and the good fairy 
 in the midst of all, swelling visibly with satisfaction and 
 pride. 
 
 The invalid, however, still moaned in a dull anguish that 
 these things had not assuaged. And Elvira sat on the edge 
 of a smart blue couch, a picture of scared bewilderment. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 As long as she lived, Mrs. Brodie (as her benefactors called 
 her, repudiating the sham title conferred by her second 
 marriage) wanted for nothing that her condition required 
 and that a long purse could supply ; but she lived only for 
 three weeks after Mrs. Bellamy took charge of her. During 
 this time the latter scarcely left the sick-room, was always 
 sober, always devoted to her suffering protegee, and gener- 
 ally showed herself to such great advantage that Katherine 
 and Jim used to ask each other what they could do to keep 
 her permanently occupied in this way. 
 
 " When she is busily employed, and thinking of others, 
 she is a different woman," they agreed. "And when she 
 isn't all day long muddling her brains with whiskey she 
 has quite a surprising amount of sense." 
 
 But Mrs. Brodie died never having had an interval suffi- 
 ciently free from pain or the stupor of sedatives to enable 
 her to enjoy the luxuries surrounding her in her last days; 
 and Mrs. Bellamy, when she had ordered a first-class funeral 
 and any amount of crape for Elvira, returned to her own 
 house and the temptations of wealthy idleness. 
 
 Elvira went home with Katherine, had a short illness in 
 one of the hospital beds the penalty demanded by nature 
 for the long strain her undeveloped body and mind had un- 
 dergone and, getting well again, began to grow into a 
 shapely and pretty girl, which no one had suspected her of 
 being capable of. She was fed with good food, and with 
 plenty of love, which is the best of all nourishment ; she had 
 an active life, working for the house (and never did hired 
 servant pay for wage and keep as she did), to help her be- 
 loved Katherine towards the great end which was now the 
 goal of both; in a word, she was happy for the first time 
 in her young life and happiness is the elixir vit<z which 
 can make the weak robust, and the dull intelligent, and the 
 plain beautiful, as we all know. 
 
 Katherine soon began to feel like a mother with a daugh- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 245 
 
 ter growing up. As in duty bound, she sent the child to 
 school until she was fifteen, Mrs. Bellamy paying the fees ; 
 but even during these long years, and in spite of careful 
 safeguarding in the matter of health, Elvira contrived to 
 make herself the right hand of her protectress in the lat- 
 ter's professional pursuits. Too young to nurse the patients, 
 she cooked, and dusted, and carried trays, and sorted linen, 
 and remembered everything that she was told to do; so 
 that, when once Katherine insisted on her going away fora 
 holiday with Mrs. Bellamy and Hester (which, by reason 
 of acute home-sickness, did her more harm than good), the 
 gaps that she left yawned on every side. She was a miracle 
 of sense and thoughtfulness and unflagging industry, being 
 inspired by the passionate love of a grateful heart for the 
 only, or nearly the only, human being who had ever shown 
 her sympathy. Never before had Katherine been so tended 
 and coddled and comforted, in woman ways, as by this little 
 creature, who seemed to have been herself a woman from 
 the first, and never to have had any proper childhood. 
 No matter how early the matron had to rise in the morning, 
 there was her little tray of tea and bread and butter, more 
 punctual than the alarm-clock, at her bedside, with Elvira 
 behind it ; and all day she was dogged with warm water for 
 her hands, and soft slippers for her feet, and little cups of 
 soup and arrowroot things she would not have thought of 
 for herself until night came, and she found a hot bottle in 
 her bed, or a mosquito net so arranged about it that not a 
 crevice was to be found. She pooh-pooh 'd these things, 
 and made fun of Elvira's solicitude, but she accepted every- 
 thing, all the same, rather than stab the tender heart of her 
 protegee; and there is no saying how much the child's mouse- 
 like nibblings slackened the daily strain of the lion-hearted 
 woman's life. 
 
 Dr. Hammond, rather to Katherine's vexation, did not 
 appreciate Elvira's many excellences, and Elvira, in re- 
 turn, did not appreciate Dr. Hammond a little to Kather- 
 ine's annoyance likewise. Jim had strongly objected to 
 seeing her, who was already over-burdened, " saddled" with 
 a child who, he naturally concluded (when he found she was 
 to be educated like a lady), would be more expense than 
 profit to her for several years, if not for all time believing 
 that the loss would be made up out of her own precious 
 flesh and blood, since her money was never spent save from 
 unavoidable necessity ; and Elvira knew this, and was never 
 at ease in his presence. She always showed herself to him 
 at her worst, dull and shy and awkward ; and he had no op- 
 
246 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 porttmity for knowing how much she did to discharge her 
 obligations to Katherine when he was not there to see, ex- 
 cept from Katherine 's statements, which, on this one point, 
 he took with a grain of salt. Both he and Elvira were sen- 
 sitive and reticent people, who required a great deal of un- 
 derstanding ; and they never tried to understand each other, 
 though they worked in concert for so many years. Their 
 mutual jealousy was alone sufficient to divide them. Jim 
 had schooled himself to accept Forbes Alexander, but he 
 resented the intimacy and privileges that Katherine be- 
 stowed on a waif and stray who was " nothing to nobody," 
 and who unduly encroached upon her affections ; and Elvira 
 never reconciled herself to his familiar relations with Kath- 
 erine, detecting, with her sharp insight into all that con- 
 cerned that beloved person, the something at the bottom of 
 his friendship for her which he made such superhuman 
 efforts to conceal, and which she herself was too preoccu- 
 pied to discover. This something, in Elvira's eyes, was a 
 wrong to Forbes Forbes, who, on his pedestal of martyr- 
 dom, was a figure before which her fervent girl's soul bent 
 in secret adoration ; who, in his cruel inability to defend 
 himself from the machinations of free men, claimed the 
 whole fealty of that soul, and of all who loved him. 
 
 And during all the years that she was a child and went to 
 school, Wickham, who, like a good old family servant, de- 
 spised outsiders that had no family belonging to them, and 
 regarded nobody's interests in comparison with those of 
 her mistress, endured Elvira under protest. A demeanour 
 of more or less grudging tolerance was varied now and then 
 by a tempestuous outbreak of " words," which disclosed the 
 green-eyed monster as the cause of trouble. It must be 
 said that Elvira was as jealous of Wickham 's claims to 
 special proprietorship in Miss Knowles and Mr. Alexander 
 as Wickham was of hers, and had not a parti cularly^ pleas- 
 ant disposition towards those whom she did not love ; but 
 their mutual desire to help Katherine restrained them from 
 making discomfort for her by a too frequent exhibition of a 
 feeling that she deplored. And by-and-bye poor old Wick- 
 ham suffered badly from varicose veins, which hindered 
 her in her work, and later on other infirmities developed 
 themselves, which stopped her work altogether; and then 
 the young nurse, growing into a sensible woman, took care 
 of the old one, whereby both were cured of their antipa- 
 thies; and the hatchet was finally buried in Wickham 's 
 grave. 
 
 As for Forbes, when he was told that Elvira had been 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 247 
 
 found, and adopted into Katharine's house, he just said, 
 " Won't you find her rather a burden to you?" and, being 
 assured that she would turn out a profitable investment 
 in the end, apparently never gave her another thought. 
 Once or twice, in subsequent visits to the prison, Kath- 
 erine mentioned the child, to tell him of her loving remem- 
 brance of himself, but he was not interested in hearing 
 about her. His whole mind was preoccupied with his own 
 dull misery, and Katherine's whole mind bent on speak- 
 ing of whatever would cheer him most, and their inter- 
 views were too few and brief not to be economised to the 
 utmost; and so Elvira was soon dropped as a topic of 
 conversation, and practically forgotten by one of her two 
 friends. 
 
 Not that Forbes wholly lost interest in his past life and 
 companions, or always found his faithful sweetheart the all 
 in all that he was to her. Cravings for new sympathy 
 attacked him now and then, and he never hesitated to tell 
 her so. 
 
 " I want to see Agnes," he said one day. " She was so 
 sweet and kind I know she feels for me I know she'd 
 never think of the disgrace ; she would come in a moment, 
 if she were asked." 
 
 " I will ask her," said Katherine, readily, rejoiced to hear 
 him express a wish, and not dreaming of jealousy. " I will 
 find her and bring her, dear. She shall come with me 
 next time." 
 
 Agnes' address in South Australia having been discov- 
 ered, Katherine wrote to her at length, anticipating that an 
 acquaintance with the woman who had filled the place of a 
 tender sister to Forbes, in his young and happy days, would 
 ripen into warm friendship in process of time; looking 
 forward to the talk they would have, the sacred confidences 
 they would exchange, before visiting the prison together. 
 But George Wigram intercepted the letter, because, as 
 he explained in a brief reply to it, his dear wife was in 
 delicate health, and he was anxious that she should not be 
 fretted by any reminder of the sufferings she had under- 
 gone in her connection with the Alexander family ; and so 
 Katherine had to go to Pentridge three months later, alone 
 as usual, and apologise for Mrs. Wigram 's non-appearance 
 on the ground that she had a young baby and was not 
 strong enough to travel at present. 
 
 " Agnes with a baby !" exclaimed Forbes, quite excited 
 for once. " And a husband so careful of her ! Poor, dear 
 little Agnes! Give her my love, Katherine, and tell her 
 
248 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 I'm glad, I'm glad, indeed, that she is happy that I have 
 not brought ruin on her, whatever else I've done. And ask 
 her to come and see me as soon as she can. I want to tell 
 her myself how glad I am that she is happy." 
 
 Katherine was constrained to write again, and this time 
 Agnes got the letter, and later on she came to answer it 
 in person, bringing husband and baby with her. From 
 Forbes's description of her, Katherine expected to see a 
 delicate and pensive woman, and was surprised when a 
 blooming and handsome young matron, beautifully dressed, 
 and evidently in perfect health, walked into her sitting- 
 room, and with quiet self-possession asked if she had the 
 pleasure of speaking to Miss Knowles. Alas ! Agnes was 
 now too happy in her own circumstances to be able to 
 mourn as she would have done for the unhappy, who had 
 once been so near and dear. That her baby might want 
 her while she was away at the prison was a more anxious 
 thought than that she might be curtailing the precious 
 opportunity for Forbes and Katherine by lingering after 
 they were ready for her to attend to its small conveniences ; 
 and as for Mr. Wigram, he made no disguise of his annoy- 
 ance that she should be made to weep and suffer un- 
 necessarily. That was the only thing which concerned 
 him. He made no pretence of any interest in Katherine 
 and her affairs ; and Forbes was merely a member of the 
 hated family which had been cruel to Agnes himself the 
 cause of some of the keenest of those pangs from which 
 the comfort of her new husband's love had healed her. 
 
 " It's perfect nonsense," said the gentleman, who might 
 have been Polly's old flame once, but cared now for nobody 
 but his passionately-devoted wife, and he said it openly, in 
 Katherine 's hearing. " She can do him no good, and will 
 only make herself ill. It was most inconsiderate and selfish 
 of him to wish to disturb her, after all she has gone through 
 now that she has a peaceful life at last." 
 
 But he took his wife to the prison, and, because she 
 wished it, allowed her for a few minutes to see her step- 
 son privately. She went in trembling, came out weeping 
 bitterly, and was hustled away to the hospital, where Jim 
 was summoned to administer restoratives and to say if he 
 thought the precious baby would suffer from the mother 
 being so upset a question that shortly interested her more 
 closely than all the troubles of the outside world. 
 
 And Katherine, also, had but a few minutes that day in 
 which to see her lover, who, because he was her own, was 
 to her what George Wigram and the baby were to Agnes 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 249 
 
 her all in all. He had hardly a word to say to her, save 
 what had reference to his recent visitor. 
 
 " I believe her second husband is as great a tyrant as the 
 first," was his remark, when greetings had been exchanged. 
 
 "No," said Katherine; "anything but that. He seems 
 to live to please and to take care of her." 
 
 " He wouldn't let her stay with me when she wanted to," 
 said Forbes, gloomily. 
 
 " He was afraid she would make herself ill, dear." 
 
 " She looks beautifully well. I never saw her look so 
 strong." 
 
 " That's because she's happy. The baby is evidently a 
 great delight to her. It is a sweet little thing." 
 
 "Everybody seems happy," sighed Forbes. "There's 
 Nell Cunningham did I ever tell you about Nell Cun- 
 ningham?" 
 
 " I don't remember." 
 
 "Well, she's married, Agnes says. Le roi est mort ! It's 
 all the same as being dead, Katherine, as far as they are 
 concerned that's evident." 
 
 " Never mind them, my dearest. You are always alive to 
 me my king forever. And we, too, will be happy some 
 day." 
 
 " Ah, Katherine !" He wept. " What should I do with- 
 out you?" 
 
 " You will never have to do without me," she said cheer- 
 fully. And she asked no questions about Nell Cunning- 
 ham. And she did not reproach him, or anyone, for hav- 
 ing given a part of the precious time she might have spent 
 with him to an outsider one to whom he was of no account 
 comparatively. 
 
 After that no one went to see him save herself, for years. 
 Polly had long ago paid her only visit, and Hugh had 
 refrained from encroaching on the poor lovers' privileges, 
 contenting himself with occasional letters to his unfortu- 
 nate kinsman. Forbes dropped out of the minds, as out of 
 the life, of the many kind-hearted people to whom he had 
 once been so much. One woman only remained as a link 
 between him and the pleasant world that he was cut off 
 from ; but on that link he knew he could lean always, with 
 no fear of its breaking under him. There was a second, 
 as we know, but he was long ignorant of that fact. 
 
 On the great, longed-for, dreaded visiting days, the 
 shadow of which was visible on them for a week before- 
 hand, Katherine and Elvira often walked together, veiled 
 and silent, to the gaol gates ; but the elder always entered 
 
250 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 alone, and the younger never asked leave to accompany 
 her. Indeed, Elvira could not think of her hero in his 
 visible degradation without a shudder; she could, she 
 thought, as well have borne to look upon his corpse as to 
 see him in his convict garb behind the grating, with a war- 
 der at his side. But the intense, strained eagerness of 
 dumb inquiry that was apparent in her still demeanour 
 towards Katherine when the latter returned from the ordeal 
 was very touching. 
 
 With her face closely covered, and walking in a blind 
 sort of way, the poor woman would come hurrying out of 
 the gates, as one sees a mother coming from the cemetery 
 where she has been putting flowers on her child's grave, 
 and her young companion would " fall in" without a word 
 or a look, and trudge home like a shadow beside her. Then 
 Katherine would go to her room, and perhaps throw her- 
 self on her bed, or kneel beside it with her face buried in 
 her folded arms ; and Elvira would steal away, and swiftly 
 prepare a little tray with tea or wine and a tempting mor- 
 sel of food, and bring it to the prostrate woman, and silently 
 coax her to eat and drink. And then, all on a sudden, 
 Katherine 's chest would begin to heave hysterically and 
 her breath to come and go in long, hard gasps, and she 
 would have a wild fit of weeping for perhaps five minutes. 
 And then they would begin to talk, and Katherine would 
 tell her little confidante how HE looked, and how he was 
 keeping up, and all that she hoped and feared on his behalf; 
 and then Elvira would say, while her whole body trembled 
 with the effort to get it out, " And did he did he speak 
 about me?" 
 
 " No, darling," Katherine would reply. " You see, there 
 is so little time to speak of anything " 
 
 "Yes, yes, of course," Elvira would break in, with an 
 attempt at cheerful indifference that was truly heroic; and 
 she would immediately divert the course of conversation 
 from that point, and not return to it for three months more. 
 
 But there came a day the first day for a dozen years 
 when Katherine, having permission to see her lover, could 
 not avail herself of it. She was ill in bed, and the doctor 
 whom Jim had brought to see her peremptorily forbade 
 her to get out of it. He said it would be as much as her 
 life was worth to go to Pentridge under the circumstances, 
 and of course she knew it would not serve Forbes to throw 
 her life away which, moreover, she would not have been 
 allowed to do, had she wished to be so reckless. 
 
 At this time she was ill for the simple reason that she 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 251 
 
 was worn out the true cause of so many maladies, with 
 quite other names, that women sicken and die of. For 
 all her striving and cheese-paring, and though her busi- 
 ness had prospered as well-managed businesses always 
 do, her profits laid by did not amount to a hundred a year 
 for the time she had been working which was consider- 
 ably more than half the time she had allowed herself for 
 the task of making a fortune. She could not be niggardly 
 to the patients, who paid for the best and required it, and 
 she could not take money that she had not earned ; whilst, 
 on the other hand, no precaution could avoid occasional 
 bad debts, or the loss of a treasure like Wickham, or the 
 wastefulness of cooks and nurses who had not Wickham 's 
 interest in keeping expenses down. And, in spite of Elvi- 
 ra's devotion, and in spite of a new hospital built by Mrs. 
 Bellamy and let for a rent that paid but two per cent, on 
 the outlay, and in spite of that hospital being always full 
 and flourishing, Katherine failed to do much more than 
 make a living, and sickened with anxiety and disappoint- 
 ment and the incessant strain of trying to bring the impos- 
 sible within reach. 
 
 " I don't know what ails me !" she said to Jim one day, 
 when in the midst of a consultation on the case of a dying 
 patient she suddenly began to cry for no apparent cause. 
 
 " What ails you is that you're dead beat," said the little 
 doctor, taking her hand gently to feel her pulse. " Now, 
 Katherine, will you do what I've told you to do so often 
 go off to Sorrento with Elvira and half a dozen novels, and 
 try not to think of the hospital for a week?" 
 . " I can't afford it, Jim." 
 
 " Will you go as my guest for the sake of doing a gen- 
 erous action? It isn't much for a brother to ask, Kath- 
 erine." 
 
 " I can't, Jim. I am overwhelmed already by what I 
 owe you." 
 
 " That's cruel," he sighed. " Then will you make Mrs. 
 Bellamy happy by accepting a week's board and lodging 
 from her? It would simply turn her head with joy." 
 
 "Don't speak of it," she urged impatiently, drying her 
 eyes and pretending that she was all right again. " You 
 know I can't leave, with all these irons in the fire. I 
 should simply fidget and worry all day and all night, and 
 that wouldn't help, would it?" 
 
 So she wouldn't go to Sorrento for a week, and she would 
 continue to work beyond her strength, though warned by 
 a sore throat and trembling hands and other symptoms that 
 
252 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 she would have been the first to interpret had she seen them 
 in another person. And the consequence was that at the 
 week's end she was ill in bed with a nondescript fever that 
 might mean anything, and unable to keep tryst with her 
 lover when next visiting day came. 
 
 " What am I to do?" she said to Elvira, in an agony of 
 dismay. " I have never missed before. What will he think? 
 My poor boy ! How will he bear it after waiting for three 
 months?" 
 
 " Let me go," said Elvira, with an air of solemn valour, 
 "/can tell him everything." 
 
 " You, my darling! Oh, I wonder could you? Dr. Ham- 
 mond said something about going, but Elvira, dear, be- 
 tween you and me, I don't think Dr. Hammond cares about 
 him as we do." 
 
 "I know he doesn't," said Elvira, emphatically. "No- 
 body could. Don't let Dr. Hammond go, Katherine. Let 
 me." 
 
 " I will," said Katherine, " if you think you can bear it. 
 You must not break down and upset him, you know ; you 
 must help him to keep up. Tell him I am not very bad ; 
 it is only these doctors who keep me from him. He must 
 not be anxious. Tell him the time will soon be over now, 
 Elvira, and that we are going to have his home ready for 
 
 him But come to me the last thing, dearest, and I will 
 
 tell you what to say. And don't forget the new books for 
 the library." 
 
 Elvira came to her when it was time to go, dressed in 
 her best, with the greatest care; and Katherine's sick eyes 
 eagerly scanned the details of pink gingham and tan gloves 
 and neat straw hat, and rested on the delicate, dark face 
 that had changed so wonderfully. It struck her for the first 
 time that the girl had grown up and grown beautiful, and 
 she* said, with a maternal smile, " Child, he won't know 
 you." 
 
 " Oh, I hope he will !" breathed Elvira, with the colour in 
 her soft cheeks, that were once so thin and sallow, but now 
 bloomed like a sun-kissed peach. 
 
 " And you won't know him," pursued Katherine, sadly. 
 " He's not a bit like what he was on board the Huntingdon- 
 shire, Elvira don't expect it." 
 
 " Oh," the girl answered quickly, "he couldn't change so 
 that / wouldn't know him anyhow anywhere !" 
 
 And off she went, all her little body thrilling and shrink- 
 ing at the ordeal before her, but her soul exalted to the 
 skies. And when she came back she needed sal volatile to 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 253 
 
 get her over the shock, but went about thereafter in a state 
 of solemn joy that poor Katherine regarded as fair payment 
 for her own disappointment. 
 
 " Oh, I am so glad I went!" Elvira sighed intensely, as 
 soon as she could speak of her great experience. " Oh, 
 Katherine, I am so thankful to you! For it did comfort 
 him a little he had not forgotten me, after all." 
 
 " Darling, I am so glad," said Katherine from her heart. 
 
 On the next appointed day she went to the prison her- 
 self, as she had always done, leaving Elvira in the road 
 outside ; and it was a pleasure as well as a surprise to her 
 to see Forbes looking as if he missed somebody, and to 
 hear him say, as if he had at last found something to inter- 
 est his dulled mind: " Why didn't you bring Elvira with 
 you ? Why didn't you tell me about her before, Katherine?" 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 AND so the slow years passed, until only one was left. 
 
 Katherine was beginning to look old. Hard work, rather 
 than time, had worn the bloom from her clear skin, and 
 puckered it here and there where it used to curve like a 
 flower-petal ; and a long course of bed-making and patient- 
 lifting had given a little tired bend to the figure that in 
 youth was so upright and so full of grace. She had grown 
 thin, and perhaps a trifle angular ; and her brown hair, still 
 bright and plentiful, had white threads at the temples, 
 though not too many to count as yet. In the eyes of Dr. 
 Jim, who had never had any beauty of his own to boast of, 
 and grew better looking as the dignity of years increased, 
 she was only the lovelier for the scars of the battle that 
 she had fought so well ; but in the eyes of ordinary peo- 
 ple she had "gone off," and was an old maid to girls of 
 Elvira's age. 
 
 Beside her, Elvira, dark-eyed and slender, her early 
 sallowness changed to a warm brown and red, her broom- 
 stick form delicately expanded like a new-blown bud of 
 spring, represented another generation, and was frequently 
 taken for the daughter of the woman who made such a 
 good foil for her fresh youth. The poor prisoner, to whom 
 both were devoted, did not realise that his Katherine was 
 growing old until he saw her and her protegee together, 
 thrown, as a painter would say, into relief against the 
 whitewashed wall. How the girl-face bloomed, how the 
 tender girl-shape asserted the sovereign charm of its newly- 
 
254 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 perfect womanhood, on that cold and bare background! 
 His own youth came back to him at the sight of her so 
 strikingly in contrast with the ugliness of his life. 
 
 He was twenty years older than she, but he had not 
 grown old ; he had only grown dull and stupid. The books 
 that Katherine had given to the prison library on purpose 
 that he might read them for the benefit of his intellectual 
 health, and all that she had otherwise done for him, had 
 kept him up to a level that he could not have attained for 
 a day without her help ; but the best of men must deterio- 
 rate in long captivity, and he was not the best. The finer 
 part of him languished and atrophied in the blighting 
 prison air, in spite of all that Katherine could do, until at 
 forty-five he didn't care very much for anything outside 
 of his physical experience though his education and good 
 conduct had removed him* for years from contact with the 
 manual labourers of his division during working hours ; and 
 it was not his fault. Nevertheless, he had not aged much, 
 and latterly his apathetic mind had allowed his body to 
 get the benefit of what is perhaps the best prison fare in 
 the world, and to grow comfortably stout. That he would 
 live to see his time out was the sure and certain hope of the 
 three friends who counted the hours till his release. 
 
 The friends were reduced to three since the death of 
 Wickham (for it must be honestly admitted that Jim Ham- 
 mond was not of the number), and of these three, one was 
 to have the desire of her heart frustrated. Mrs. Bellamy 
 lived on, drinking more or less excessively all the time, 
 till she was sixty-nine, without anything happening to her ; 
 and she naturally saw no reason why she shouldn't live to 
 seventy. But she had a very little accident merely slipped 
 down a few stairs, and grazed her shin on one of them; 
 and that tiny wound, giving an opportunity to bad blood, 
 put an end to her as effectually as if she had broken her 
 neck, though Jim and Katherine did all they could to save 
 her. 
 
 The latter had been dining with her on a New Year's 
 Eve the eve of the year that Forbes was to be released 
 when the mishap occurred. They had sat together in the 
 gorgeous gilt and satin drawing-room until twelve o'clock, 
 after the long banquet in the no less gorgeous dining-room, 
 where the sentimental occasion had been celebrated in 
 Mrs. Bellamy's own way. When the clock struck the mid- 
 night hour the old lady had had as much champagne, on 
 the top of private whiskey, as she could comfortably do 
 with; but she insisted on opening another bottle in order to 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 255 
 
 drink to the new year and the good luck of everybody, 
 and especially of those two dears whose long affliction was 
 drawing to a close. 
 
 " May the new year see you united to the man of your 
 'art, and all your troubles over, my precious, and a home 
 and children, as is what you ought to ha' had all along, 
 round your knees, and the blessin' o' God on a good 
 woman for good she is, doctor, and I don't care who says 
 she isn't to ha' stuck to a poor chap through thick and 
 thin, when his own flesh and blood forsook him and never 
 thinking of herself, that might ha' had a husband any day 
 aye, the best in the land, which isn't good enough for 
 her instead of slaving her dear soul to skin and bone ! 
 The blessin' o' God on your faithful heart, my darlin' child 
 for a child you've been to me, though I'm only a common 
 old woman, and not fit for you to wipe your boots on but 
 you sha'n't repent it old Martha'll see that you get your 
 reward! The blessin' o* God " 
 
 But here Mrs. Bellamy broke down and wept on Kath- 
 erine's neck, while Jim quietly sneaked the champagne 
 bottle into a corner. 
 
 They said, " The same to you," and dried her tears, and 
 told her it was time for her to go to bed, and that Hester 
 would let them out and shut the house up. " Good-night, 
 my dear old woman," said Katherine, kissing her; "and 
 don't come a step further. Good-night, and a happy new 
 year to you and to all of us !" 
 
 Mrs. Bellamy, cheered and lively again, insisted on 
 accompanying her guests to the front door the state 
 drawing-room being on the floor above it. " A happy new 
 year !" she echoed. " And happy it'll be, please God, before 
 it's done! Ah, think o' this time next year! If we don't 
 have a spree then my name ain't Martha Bellamy!" 
 
 And at that moment she slipped on the stairs, not being 
 able to see her way very clearly, and fell to the bottom 
 before Jim or Katherine could catch her. 
 
 Jim picked her up and put her on a hall chair, where she 
 sat and shook with laughter at the ridiculous figure she 
 must have cut, with her heliotrope satin ballooning around 
 her and her fat legs in the air. She declared she was not 
 hurt, in answer to Jim's inquiries, but presently admitted 
 that a leg felt sore. 
 
 "Let's look at it," said Jim; and a vast stocking was 
 turned down, and disclosed a little bruise, with the skin 
 broken, between the instep and the knee. Katherine 
 whipped out a pocket-case, and Jim laid a snip of lint on 
 
256 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 the tiny wound, and strapped plaster over it ; then they put 
 her into Hester's hands, and walked home to the hospital, 
 congratulating themselves that the dear old woman had 
 got off so well. 
 
 " She might have hurt herself seriously," said Kath- 
 erine. 
 
 " She might indeed," said Jim. " She's too old and heavy 
 for exploits of that kind." 
 
 However, they discovered presently that Mrs. Bellamy's 
 injury was quite serious enough. The infinitesimal wound, 
 instead of healing in a day, grew daily larger and deeper 
 and uglier, until it was so big a sore that its small begin- 
 nings were forgotten. Suppuration gangrene amputa- 
 tion death ; these were the consequences of a little stum- 
 ble and a trifling bruise in the case of an old person who 
 had been blood-poisoning herself steadily for more than 
 half a lifetime. 
 
 She died at the close of the first month of the new year 
 from which she had expected so much. And when she was 
 gone Katherine missed her and mourned for her as if she 
 had been the most admirable of her sex. As she helped to 
 dress the poor body for the grave she thought of her first 
 acquaintance with it on board the Huntingdonshire so many 
 years ago, and wondered that she should have grown to 
 love what then she shuddered at in such disgust. It did 
 not occur to her that her own influence had done much to 
 raise the good-hearted creature to the level at which she 
 became worthy of such love. 
 
 All the hungry relatives flocked to the death-bed and the 
 funeral, and to hear the will read. Katherine stayed in 
 her own house, and went on with her work, but Jim watched 
 the proceedings with his quiet eye. And when he came 
 to the hospital in the evening, after all was done, he first 
 went his rounds of inspection as if nothing had happened, 
 and then sat down in the matron's room and broke to her 
 the news that she was a rich woman. 
 
 " There are some considerable legacies something to me, 
 something to Elvira, something to those people who used 
 to make her drunk ; and the rest is yours, Katherine, to do 
 what you like with. It amounts roughly to about ; 1 50, ooo. " 
 
 She stared at him, in a moment's silence, and then ejac- 
 ulated, " Nonsense !" 
 
 " Quite true. And didn't you know that it was coming? 
 I was as sure of it as I was that she would die when her leg 
 began to go wrong." 
 
 " Oh, I never thought of it seriously. And I never be- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 257 
 
 lieved that she had so much. I thought she was spending 
 everything." 
 
 " I knew she wasn't ; she was careful in her way, poor old 
 soul. I knew she had a great lot. And she has been 
 throwing it at you all along, in the most open manner." 
 
 Katherine mused in a dazed way, and asked what the 
 relations thought of it. Jim said they were ready to tear 
 her (Katherine) limb from limb. 
 
 " But they were not her real relations, and never did her 
 anything but harm. You needn't mind them" he said. 
 
 "I don't," promptly answered Katherine, who could dis- 
 like very heartily when she had reason to do so, and hated 
 the relations above all people. " I am very glad they are 
 disappointed." 
 
 Elvira came into the room, carrying a little supper-tray, 
 and looked eagerly at her protectress. The latter looked 
 back at her, and drew a long breath. " Elvira," she said, 
 " can you understand it? The doctor says that I have been 
 left ; 1 5 0,000." 
 
 Elvira's countenance was a study, and so were her ac- 
 tions. Like a rushing wind she swept across the room, and, 
 kneeling, clasped Katherine 's waist convulsively a strange 
 thing for her to do in the doctor's presence he regarding 
 her with cold surprise and disapproval, not trying to 
 understand the cause of so indecorous a burst of joy over 
 the result of Mrs. Bellamy's death, that had taken place 
 but yesterday. Katherine understood, however, and 
 thrilled visibly in response to the dumb eloquence of the 
 girl's now streaming eyes. 
 
 " Katherine ! Oh, Katherine ! Now now ?" 
 
 "Yes, darling, yes," whispered Katherine, in a shaking 
 voice ; and she raised Elvira and tried to hush her excite- 
 ment. " We will have a talk presently when we are by 
 ourselves. Go away now, while the doctor tells me 
 about it." 
 
 The doctor felt that it was he who should go, and not 
 Elvira, and took his leave abruptly. 
 
 "I did not know," he remarked, "that she thought so 
 much of money." 
 
 " Who?" inquired Katherine, wondering. 
 
 " Elvira. But I suppose she's only like other girls." 
 
 " Oh, very much like other girls !" retorted Katherine, 
 with a mellow laugh. 
 
 Suddenly he realised what money meant to these women, 
 and he said no more ; declined a not too cordial invitation 
 to supper, let himself out, and went home to his lonely 
 
 17 
 
258 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 house in the next street. For nearly eighteen years he had 
 been Katherine's providence his unceasing care had been 
 given and accepted as a thing of course, like the sun and 
 rain and for a long time he too had been counting the 
 hours, though not to wish them gone. Now he felt that 
 he had pretty nearly had his day, such as it was that, 
 before the time, his occupation was going from him and 
 he had an unwonted sense of disgust with life. Almost 
 he was tempted to envy Mrs. Bellamy for the first time, 
 because she had done with it. 
 
 " I must do something," he said to himself, as he put the 
 latch-key in his door, " to keep myself from spoiling. I 
 think when I have seen her settled and comfortable I will 
 take a trip and see how they are getting on at home." 
 
 At his home, by the way, there was neither father nor 
 mother now ; they had been put to sleep with Neil under 
 the church wall. Tom and Esther, with a large number 
 of sons and daughters, occupied the old Norfolk house. 
 Mrs. Bill Thwaites lived in London, not very well off, for 
 her barrister husband was rather lazy and unlucky; and 
 she, too, had given Jim nephews and nieces whom he had 
 never seen. Carry had made a good county-family mar- 
 riage, and, by last advices, had a daughter preparing to be 
 presented at Court. There was no strong tie now to draw 
 him back, but it was necessary to find some interest to 
 keep him from stagnation when the main interest was 
 withdrawn, and nothing better occurred to him. 
 
 " Just for a little while, "he told himself, " until I can set- 
 tle down and feel used to it. Then I must live for my 
 work. Thank God, a man always has his work !" 
 
 In a short time Mrs. Bellamy's legatee was put in posses- 
 sion of her fortune, and immediately she and Elvira set to 
 work to spend it with both hands not for themselves, but 
 for Forbes, of course. A new matron was established in the 
 hospital Jim had to go his rounds with a strange woman 
 in the institution that he had made for Katherine while 
 the latter roamed the country, with her young companion, 
 in search of a house suitable to be the first resting-place of 
 her beloved when he should return, dazzled, to the world. 
 
 This house was the base of her great schemes, and it was 
 a hard matter to find the exactly right one. 
 
 " It must not be far away," she said, " for he must have no 
 public journey to begin with we must be able to drive to 
 it in a closed carriage ; and yet it must be very peaceful 
 and retired, shut away from people and noise. He must 
 have quiet until he can gather himself together, and get 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 259 
 
 some knowledge of affairs, and get used to living as a gen- 
 tleman. And, besides, it will be our honeymoon, Elvira ! 
 Oh, child, do I look very old? Tell me." 
 
 Elvira, in the perfection of her beauty at six-and-twenty, 
 looked at the fading face with a sense of remorse, as if it 
 were her fault that it did not bloom like her own, and de- 
 clared fondly that, to its last day, it would be the loveliest 
 in the world. Then she cried on Katherine 's neck, and 
 said she must go away before the wedding that no third 
 person should intrude upon such a honeymoon as that. 
 
 " Nonsense," Katherine protested, with a tender laugh. 
 " We have done with conventionalities this many a day, 
 Elvira, as you very well know. And you are not a third 
 person, my darling; you are incorporated with us. \ou 
 shall be our daughter, and stay with us always, until you 
 go for a honeymoon of your own. Do you remember, 
 when you were a little thing on board ship, telling him 
 how you wished he and I were your father and mother? 
 Well, you will have your wish at last." 
 
 Elvira said no more, and they continued their hunt for 
 the quiet house, which they eventually found on Brighton 
 Beach a charming bungalow of the old times, hidden like 
 a bird's nest in a large and bosky garden, with no outlook 
 except upon the sea. 
 
 " The very thing," said Katherine, the moment she saw 
 it. " It might have been made on purpose for us. He 
 shall stay here till his poor mind gets well, and lie feels 
 able to do something. Then I will take the whole passen- 
 ger accommodation of some old-fashioned sailing ship, and 
 fit it up beautifully, and we will go to England go all by 
 ourselves, and at leisure, with perhaps Hester to wait on 
 us. At home, where all his associations are happy, he 
 will begin to live again. And a voyage such a voyage as 
 I would contrive for him, all rest and books and the beauty 
 of the sea is the thing to strengthen him for it. I remem- 
 ber he used to love the sea." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 ON the afternoon of the day preceding Forbes 's release 
 Katherine went to the Exhibition then the throbbing 
 heart of city life to compose her soul with the music of 
 the Centennial Orchestra. She drove from Brighton in 
 her own carriage, that a pair of unusually fine horses with 
 a tendency to eat their heads off might have work to keep 
 
260 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 them steady for their next journey; and any one accus- 
 tomed to see her in the dress of her struggling years might 
 have failed to recognise her in her new elegance. Long 
 ago she had discarded the few woman vanities that she had 
 ever had, but all at once a passion to look nice, and partic- 
 ularly to look young, took possession of her, and she was 
 ready to spend as much thought and money on gowns and 
 bonnets, to the furtherance of that end, as any society belle 
 in her giddy 'teens. For any one of the past seventeen 
 years her clothes had not cost the value of the costume in 
 which she set forth on her expedition, to do what was the 
 equivalent in her case of going to church though it was 
 only a simple-looking black dress, and a little black bon- 
 net with a yellow bow in it. 
 
 They played Beethoven's symphony in A, and she sat in 
 a corner and took no heed to it merely breathed it like a 
 perfumed atmosphere, while rapt in her unconscious devo- 
 tions. Then they played Wagner's " Tristan and Isolde," 
 and she shut her eyes, and trembled, and her breast heaved 
 with unborn sobs of pain, as if Forbes, who was about to 
 live anew, had died, and it was her own heart that cried 
 over him in that impassioned language. After the Wagner 
 number she preferred to hear no more. She touched 
 away a stealthy tear with the hem of her handkerchief 
 and glided to the door. As she passed out under the dome 
 she met Jim coming in ; she had been too busy to think of 
 him for some time past, and was glad of the accident that 
 threw him in her way on this last day that she would be 
 free to attend to him. 
 
 " What, Katherine alone?" he exclaimed, noticing that 
 Elvira was not with her, as usual. 
 
 " Yes," she replied, with her moist eyes shining. " Alone 
 for the last time, Jim." 
 
 " Ah," said Jim; and walked beside her silently. 
 
 " What were you going to do?" she inquired, pausing by 
 the bronze St. George. 
 
 " Nothing in particular. What were you?" 
 
 " To go home. Will you drive out with me, and dine 
 with us to-night, Jim for the last time?" 
 
 " Is it to be the last time? Am I never to have another 
 chance of dining with you after to-night?" 
 
 " Oh, I did not mean that, "she laughed gently ; " I meant 
 for the last time in the old way as we have been used to." 
 
 " Yes, I will, Katherine. I have been coming twenty 
 times to ask for admittance, but was afraid of being 
 de trop" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 261 
 
 " You afraid of being de trop^ ? What nonsense !" 
 
 They walked out of the windy aisles into the windier 
 vestibule, and round the path, where the dust was blow- 
 ing, to the turnstiles and the gate, where stood the smart 
 landau and glittering horses that old Mrs. Bellamy's money 
 had bought. The grey-haired coachman on the box was the 
 young man who had driven Forbes home from the Ander- 
 sons' on the morning when the selectors' dogs worried the 
 sheep the morning of the day of the tragedy that had had 
 such dire results. 
 
 " Don't you think," said Jim, as he surveyed the impos- 
 ing turn-out, " that the contrast will be too strong just at 
 first?" 
 
 "No, I don't," she answered, seating herself. "I have 
 thought the matter out, and decided to make it as strong 
 as possible to lift him at once right into his new world, 
 where there shall be nothing to remind him of the old one. 
 It will seem to him like a bad dream gone with the light of 
 the morning the nightmare of a long fever, after one's 
 senses come back. Ah, Jim, to think of him as we used 
 to know him, and that he has not had a bed to lie on for 
 eighteen years! Well, he shall lie softly for the rest of 
 his life, at any rate." 
 
 Jim said nothing, and they bowled along the road in a 
 mood of silence, induced by physical repose, that lasted 
 more or less until they entered Katherine's tree-sheltered 
 domain. 
 
 It was guarded by a lodge, in which dwelt an ex-patient 
 and humble friend of hers who knew all the domestic cir- 
 cumstances, and was prepared to secure the privacy of the 
 family with the vigilance of a Pentridge gaoler; and within 
 this outpost the green curtain of foliage, in the freshness 
 of its October beauty, surrounded the pretty house with a 
 screen impenetrable to prying eyes. Only the sea lay 
 before the front windows, wrinkled and shining, its little 
 wavelets running up the sands that bordered lawns and 
 flower beds ; and it was a bit of the sea quite out of the 
 track of ships and picnic parties. "The very place," as 
 Katherine said, daily. 
 
 Elvira stood on the door-step, in a framework of wistaria 
 blossom, and Jim quite started when he looked at her out 
 of the carriage window. He had never supposed her to be 
 so extremely pretty as she appeared in the new luxury of 
 apparel that Katherine had provided, out of her maternal 
 love and her desire that everything in Forbes's new world 
 should be as beautiful as possible. The deer-like head and 
 
262 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 delicate, dark skin simply glowed above the amber draperies 
 like a flower in ripe corn. White was Elvira's proper col- 
 our, but it was also the colour of the walls that had glared 
 in his sick eyes night and day during the hideous years 
 that were to be remembered no more, and therefore Kath- 
 erine would not allow it anywhere, save in sheets and 
 table-cloths. So the girl bloomed in all the pretty hues 
 that fashion and good taste approved of, and that Kath- 
 erine felt she was herself too old to wear. The result was 
 brilliant to an extent undreamed of by anybody who had 
 seen Elvira in the Huntingdonshire days. 
 
 She greeted Jim with no pretence of cordiality, and drew 
 Katherine out of the carriage into her young arms with a 
 caressing fervour of honest welcome. They all went into 
 the house, where Jim saw signs and tokens of the expected 
 guest on every hand. 
 
 It was a rambling cottage house, mainly of weatherboard 
 and shingle, and its arrangements were full of comfort, 
 rather than of beauty, in the then popular sense of that 
 term. Katherine had had no education in art muslins and 
 Japanese screens; she had made no study of tones in col- 
 our and values in Oriental bric-a-brac ; and, of course, poor 
 P'orbeswas more benighted than she. Her natural instinct 
 of taste voided any approach to real vulgarity, as distin- 
 guished from the conventional article, which made posi- 
 tive tints contraband at the time ; no gorgeous plushes and 
 satins caused the cultured eye to ache, but no dull terra- 
 cotta or sage-greens and blues gave the soft effects to which 
 it was accustomed. The fashions of their youth were 
 revived for the home of the bride and bridegroom, whose 
 beginning in life had been so long deferred ; all was solid, 
 simple, and genuine, rich in large capabilities and the ruddy 
 hues of brown wood and leather, and the glow of a pervad- 
 ing crimson that made the house look as if it were set with 
 carbuncles when it was lit up at night. 
 
 Into one of those red-curtained, red-carpeted rooms went 
 Jim at the heels of his hostesses, and was conducted to an 
 arm-chair beside a little wood fire that looked cheerful in 
 the chilly decline of the spring day. There was another 
 arm-chair on the other side of the hearth, which he could 
 not but stare at after he sat down, as if he saw a ghost in it. 
 It was an enormous piece of furniture, with stuffings a foot 
 thick, and hidden springs all over it the most luxurious- 
 looking chair that he had ever seen. At its side a solid 
 table bore a tobacco and cigar box ; some shelves below 
 were filled with books mostly novels and a rack on the 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 263 
 
 wall displayed a dozen miscellaneous pipes. All the walls 
 besides were filled with pictures, and every picture had a 
 subject that was intended to feed the starved eyes and 
 nourish the soul of the returning exile. An engraving of 
 Leighton's " Wedded" hung over the mantelpiece, and Jim 
 looked at the beautiful woman the man did not seem to 
 be half good enough for her in silent meditation. Elvira 
 left the room to get tea for Katherine, who sat in a low 
 chair, drawing off her, gloves and looking around her wist- 
 fully. 
 
 " When is the wedding to be?" Jim abruptly inquired. 
 
 " The wedding?" she echoed, flushing all over. " I don't 
 quite know, Jim." 
 
 " Hasn't he made any suggestions?" 
 
 " Not yet. How could he? I don't wish him to be both- 
 ered about that, or anything, until until he has had time 
 to take breath a little." 
 
 " But it is understood, I suppose?" 
 
 " Of course." She rose to arrange a little table for the 
 tea, and fluttered like a bashful girl under the watching 
 eyes that she seemed to shrink from meeting. " I suppose," 
 she continued, " you think it is odd for him to come into 
 this house to live, before the conventions are complied 
 with. But, oh, Jim, what have we to do with the conven- 
 tions he and I? It would be too absurd to give them a 
 moment's thought, as we are situated." 
 
 "It would," he said. "I only wanted to know when it 
 was likely to be that's all." 
 
 " I will tell you as soon as I know myself." 
 
 Elvira, accompanied by Mrs. Bellamy's Hester, brought 
 in the tea, which she dispensed with the air of the daugh- 
 ter of the house, while Katherine rested. Jim rarely paid 
 much regard to Elvira, all his soul being absorbed in the 
 contemplation of her companion ; but to-day he noticed, 
 not her beauty only, but a certain brilliant intensity of life 
 that seemed to animate her more than usual. The restless 
 lightness of her step, the poise of her head, the shining of 
 her eyes, all betokened inward exhilaration, which diffused 
 a kind of radiance around her. He quenched it all in a 
 moment by asking abruptly whether she was going to 
 " stay on." He did not mean to be brutal, but the effect 
 of the question was if a candle had been blown out. 
 
 " Of course she is going to stay on," said Katherine, with 
 warmth, putting out her arms to the girl with a maternal 
 gesture. " What should I do without my daughter, who is 
 my right hand?" 
 
264 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " I thought, perhaps, that now " 
 
 Elvira broke in hurriedly, laying a slender, almond-tinted 
 hand over Katherine's mouth. " You are quite right, Dr. 
 Hammond. I ought to go now, and I mean to go, as soon 
 as she is settled and comfortable. I have told her so again 
 and again, and let her persuade me out of it; but I won't 
 be persuaded again. My intention is, if you will let me, 
 to go back to the nursing at the hospital." She spoke in a 
 strenuous way, as if the resolution was a desperate one. 
 
 " I will make you matron, if you like," he said, promptly. 
 She was qualified for the post by the training that Kath- 
 erine had given her, and he did feel that it would be to the 
 latter 's advantage not to have so beautiful a young woman 
 always under her husband's nose. He could not be sure 
 that even a life sentence would cause a leopard to change 
 his spots. 
 
 Katherine was downright angry. " You will do nothing 
 of the kind," she said; " and you will oblige me very much 
 by not mentioning the subject again, Jim. I am Elvira's 
 guardian, and I shall not allow her to go away from me 
 until she goes to be married ; she shall not knock about 
 the world alone while she has a mother to take care of her. 
 Besides, I want her. She is going to keep house for me, so 
 as to leave me free to devote myself to to other things. 
 We shall both want her. He thinks almost as much of her 
 as I do." 
 
 Jim said no more, and Elvira, seeming strangely agitated 
 and depressed, took up the tea-tray and disappeared with 
 it ; and he saw her no more till dinner-time. 
 
 No one dressed for dinner, which was a homely meal of 
 a joint and pudding, but with certain little " fixings" that 
 betokened an admirable cook. "Whom have you got?" 
 asked Jim. 
 
 " His name is Alphonse Giraud," said Katherine, smiling 
 and blushing in an apologetic way. " I give him four 
 pounds a week, in consideration of the house not being so 
 aristocratic as those he has been used to. But," she added, 
 with a little straightening of the shoulders, " it's worth it. 
 He can do better than this and will, after to-day." 
 
 " It seems to me that this is good enough for anything," 
 said Jim. 
 
 He would have liked to say that he disapproved of these 
 preparations for the elaborate pampering of a man who 
 wanted his moral fibres toughening (which was to so great 
 an extent a business of the body) , but, understanding that 
 he was not expected to interfere, refrained, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 265 
 
 Some exqtiisite coffee followed dessert, and then Jim said 
 he must return to his work, much as he desired to stay 
 longer. 
 
 Katherine went with him to the door, and out upon the 
 verandah, where the wistaria hung in pale mauve fringes 
 from the eaves, and the budding banksia in green cur- 
 tains from post to post now only shadows in the starry 
 night ; and they stood there for some minutes, talking and 
 looking upon the sea. It was dim and calm, but dimpling 
 all over like shaking quicksilver; and clear through the 
 airy stillness came the sound of each little wave upon the 
 beach the measured, liquid plash, and the delicate hiss as 
 of champagne newly poured into the glass. 
 
 " Come down," said Jim, suddenly. " It is like the 
 nights when we used to hunt for otters, and set for eels, on 
 the Broads at home the nights when you and I used to 
 watch the moon rise behind the reeds, Katherine the 
 harvest moon, that was so red do you remember?" 
 
 "Ah, those days!" she ejaculated. "It is like looking 
 back upon some former state of existence in some other 
 world !" 
 
 But she remembered well enough. His suggestion, and 
 the look of the placid, dusky water, brought it all to mind, 
 as if she had been there but yesterday. She saw the red 
 disc shining up, with the black reeds silhouetted on it ; she 
 heard the barking cry of the otter, hunting the fat bream 
 all the familiar noises of the night in that lonely land the 
 rustlings of the reed-birds, the flopping roll of the big fish 
 in the " runs" hard by the sheltered nests, the mouse-like 
 squeak of erratic bats, the boom and buzz of belated bee- 
 tles. " Ah, those days," she sighed, " those days when we 
 were young!" 
 
 They sauntered down a broad path to a fence that divided 
 the garden from the beach, and Jim opened a gate in- 
 vitingly. 
 
 "Just a few minutes," he pleaded, " for old times' sake." 
 
 She went out with him upon the strip of sand, and they 
 paced it a little way, where the tide had smoothed it. It 
 was the last hour of long years of familiar intercourse a 
 fact of which they were pathetically conscious; and the 
 solemnity of the sea and the night enhanced the impres- 
 siveness of the situation as nothing else could have 
 done. 
 
 " I shall not come again," said Jim, "unless you send for 
 me. But if it should happen that you ever want anything, 
 Katherine that you should have any trouble one never 
 
266 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 can tell you will let me know, so that I can help you, 
 won't you?" 
 
 " I will, Jim, I will ; it would be only natural. You 
 have done nothing but help me all my life." 
 
 " Thank you, Katherine." 
 
 " I am afraid I have taken it, as one takes one's daily 
 bread, without remembering to be grateful for it at any 
 rate, not grateful enough," she said, touching his arm with 
 a cruelly kind hand. 
 
 " Don't talk of gratitude," he answered quickly, and laid 
 his hand on hers for a moment. " If you feel that it has 
 been help, that is enough for me." 
 
 " I feel that it has been too much, Jim a waste of your 
 own life, which has been spent in trying to make mine 
 comfortable." 
 
 " My life was yours; it is all yours not only the part 
 that is gone, but all that is to come, be it long or short." 
 
 " Ah, Jim ! You should make some better use of it." 
 
 " I can't, Katherine. I wouldn't, if I could. Oh, I know 
 it seems now as if you wouldn't need me any more. But 
 still you may; one never can tell." 
 
 She was dumb after that. Perhaps for the first time she 
 fully realised how matters stood, and she was not the 
 woman to mock a man in his case with offers to be a sister 
 to him, or suggestions that other women would suit him 
 better than she. As soon as she could speak she began to 
 talk about the hospital, and insensibly guided him towards 
 the gate and the house. 
 
 " I think I will say good-night here, "said Jim, " and walk 
 along the sands." He had been moved out of his long habit 
 of restraint, and wanted solitude to pull himself together. 
 
 " Will you?" she responded, hesitating. " It will be a 
 mile out of your way." 
 
 He only held out his hand. They were alone in the world 
 for the moment, between the garden bushes and the sea. 
 
 " Good-night, Kathy it was your father used to call you 
 Kathy, in those old days. Good-night, my dear. And may 
 you " 
 
 He could not get further, being choked by a lump in his 
 throat this quiet, unemotional little man, who had been 
 able to love a woman for more than twenty years without 
 showing it ; he bent his head over her hand, pressing it to 
 his mouth reverently, and she felt in the sweep of his eye- 
 lashes the first tear she had ever known him shed. 
 
 It all rushed over her in that last moment his faithful 
 love, his superhuman patience, his unselfish devotion, that 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 267 
 
 demanded no reward save that she should be spared from 
 pain ; and she impulsively flung her arm round his bent 
 neck. 
 
 " Good-night, Jim my good, true Jim !" she cried. " You 
 are the best man that ever walked this earth !" 
 
 It was only the second time in her life that she had kissed 
 him, and the moment their lips touched she knew .that she 
 had tried him too far. She had not expected it from Jim 
 the patient bearer of her burdens, who had never rebelled 
 before ; but, after all, he was made of flesh and blood, like 
 other men. 
 
 " Forgive me," he whispered, when he let her go. " It is 
 for the last time, Kathy." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 AND next day Forbes Alexander was made a free man 
 once more. 
 
 The officials of the gaol looked at him, as at a marvellous 
 curiosity, when he saluted them for the last time, walking 
 out into the world with that noble-looking lady at his side. 
 No. of the D division was tailored to perfection, with 
 collar and cuffs that shone like fine china, and a black pearl 
 in his scarf-pin, and a gold watch in his waistcoat pocket ; 
 and they almost gasped at the transformation, never having 
 seen so great a " swell" (in his position) before. But Kath- 
 erine, noting everything without looking, saw that he felt 
 awkward and uncomfortable in his gentlemanly clothes 
 that he had lost the art of wearing them as he used to do, 
 though she believed it would come back in a few days. 
 
 At the ponderous gate stood the carriage ; and the coach- 
 man touched his hat, and then turned his head away when 
 he saw his old master stumbling forward like a blind man. 
 Katherine had no footman no servants (not even Monsieur 
 Giraud, to whom all had been explained) who were not the 
 sympathising sharers of her peculiar domestic solicitudes 
 and with her own hands pushed Forbes into his seat, 
 pulled the door to, and tucked a fur rug over his knees, as 
 if prison life had made him sensitive to the little chill of a 
 dull October day. Mechanically he pushed the rug away, 
 and took off his smart brown boxer, which matched the tint 
 of his elegant overcoat. Katherine put her head out of the 
 window to cry " Home !" and drew the blinds over the win- 
 dows with a shaking hand. 
 
268 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Eighteen years ago they had had their last kiss. Had he 
 even forgotten how to kiss, in eighteen years? She was 
 trembling beside him, with her nervous fingers clasped over 
 his, that were so hard and stiff; it was the moment for 
 which she had been yearning all the time, and on the result 
 of which she had counted as certainly as on his liberation. 
 Had not he been yearning for it too? Or was he too dazed 
 to think of it? Or too cowed by the habit of doing nothing 
 without leave to dare so far even with her? He did not 
 kiss her ; he stared from side to side with a sort of shrinking 
 . elation, and said he couldn't believe it that he was afraid 
 he should wake up presently and find it all a dream. 
 
 " It is no dream," returned Katherine, whose tremblings 
 quickly ceased. " The price is all paid, my dear, and we 
 can begin the world again. Try not to think of the prison 
 any more; it is done with now." 
 
 " It is in my bones," he said, shuddering. " I'm afraid I 
 shall show it in everything I do, and disgrace you, Kath- 
 erine." 
 
 " How could that disgrace me? But you won't show it. 
 We will blot it all out from this day. Remember the old 
 times the ball at the Hammonds' the Huntingdonshire, 
 and the teas in your cabin and that Murray journey, Forbes 
 ah, me! But we will have some more journe}^, even 
 lovelier than that. And all you did was to forget for a 
 second when you had no time to think and that was my 
 doing. You have paid for it over and over ; you can hold 
 up your head now you and I together." 
 
 " A head like this?" pointing to his roughly-barbered poll. 
 
 It was a very different head from what it used to be, and 
 the dreary laugh .had a shallow, cackling sound, lacking the 
 confident sweetness and dignity' of the old gay note. She 
 lifted her hand compassionately to stroke his bristly hair, 
 and the hand dropped and rested on his shoulder. 
 
 " Forbes?" she quivered out. 
 
 He looked at her inquiringly. 
 
 " Haven't you a kiss for me, after all these years?" 
 
 " I'm not fit to kiss you," he answered, but proceeded to 
 do it, in what felt like a dreadfully strange, shy, middle- 
 aged way. " And as for thanking you for all you've done 
 for me why, that's impossible." 
 
 " I should hope it is," she breathed out quickly. 
 
 Then he looked round him again, and made remarks 
 upon the carriage, and seemed to occupy his mind with 
 rather apprehensive conjectures as to his immediate fate. 
 " What are you going to do with me?" he asked her, shrink- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 269 
 
 ing from the idea of a great house, in which he shouldn't 
 know how to behave, and " swell " servants, whose stares 
 he would not have the courage to encounter. 
 
 "Wait and see," she answered, smiling; and she added, 
 with a little forced laugh, " I might ask, what are you 
 going to do with meF 
 
 He seemed to wrestle with this question, moving about 
 on his seat ; then he replied, in a burst that was something 
 like the fervour of old days : " Whatever you wish, Kath- 
 erine. I am yours I owe you everything. All that is left 
 of me is at your disposal." 
 
 She took his hard hand, and held it on her knee, strok- 
 ing it with her own, which was toil-worn too. " My only 
 wish," she said, " is to see you happy, after all your years 
 of misery. We needn't mind how we needn't make plans 
 yet. You must rest first." 
 
 But she could not help thinking of their tete-a-tete in the 
 Lloyd-Prices' garden, and again in Joe Anderson's sum- 
 mer-house, just before the long parting, and asking herself 
 whether this was so different because they had outgrown 
 their youth, or because the terrible prison had broken him? 
 Ah me ! What a lover he used to be ! 
 
 At his request she presently drew up the blinds, that he 
 might gaze stealthily from his corner and from under his 
 hat-brim at the world from which he had been so long 
 absent ; and he became completely occupied by the changes 
 that had taken place in it, and by Katherine's historical 
 commentary thereon. We all know what Melbourne did 
 in the way of growing from 1870 to 1888, and he could not 
 tell where he was half the time. 
 
 At last Katherine said, " We are home," and the carriage 
 turned into the green Brighton garden. The gate was 
 open, but no lodge-keeper was in sight; and when they 
 drew up before the house the front door stood wide, and 
 nobody peeped and pried to see the strange guest enter. 
 Katherine jumped from the carriage first, and, turning, 
 held out her arms. " Come, my darling," she cried, in ten- 
 der passion, " come in, and rest from all your troubles 
 with me !" And she helped him down, and into the house, 
 as if he had been a cripple ; he leaning on her, and trem- 
 bling, hardly daring to look about him, -lest he should see 
 eyes somewhere. The smell of flowers new-blown lilac 
 and laurel blossoms, and all kinds of growing things was 
 in the sea-fresh air, and seemed to make him reel with its 
 associations, like the fumes of wine. 
 
 She piloted him into the warm red sitting-room, and the 
 
270 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 wonderful arm-chair. Here he sat for a moment, staring, 
 trying to take it all in; then he burst into weak tears, 
 wiping his eyes with the sleeve of his smart coat. 
 
 " I can't seem to believe in it!" he sobbed. 
 
 " You will soon," Katherine cheerfully responded, in the 
 tone she would use to hysterical patients. " You want 
 something to eat; then you'll be all right." 
 
 She slipped out of the room, and returned quickly with 
 a tray in her arms. On the tray Alphonse had arranged 
 hot dishes, and coffee calculated to make a duke's mouth 
 water (she did not think it wise to produce wine at pres- 
 ent) ; and she set these on the already prepared table, and 
 drew up two chairs. 
 
 "Come," she said; "we'll have lunch together. Then 
 you'll feel a new man." 
 
 The aroma that ascended to his nostrils when she took 
 off the silver covers revived him quickly; his eyes glis- 
 tened like those of a famished creature. And how he ate! 
 She piled his plate with indescribable boneless birds and 
 transfigured fish, with asparagus heads as thick as his 
 thumb, and curly salads that melted in his mouth ; and he 
 cleared them off in a manner that made her tremble for 
 the consequences, and wish she had restricted him at his 
 first meal to plainer fare. He caught her eye as he was 
 shovelling up an ambrosial pudding with a tablespoon, and 
 laughed shamefacedly. 
 
 " I know I am making a beast of myself," he said ; " but I 
 can't help it. I never thought that earthly food could be 
 so so absolutely divine ! There's no other word for it." 
 
 She laughed in response, and said she didn't care how 
 he ate so long as he didn't make himself ill; it would 
 never do to kill him with a French cook, after he had been 
 kept alive so long on skilly. 
 
 When he could eat no more, he rose and stretched him- 
 self, and sighed eloquently ; and she pushed him back into 
 the big chair, which he would not presume to occupy vol- 
 untarily. In five minutes she had carried out everything 
 from the table, and brought in wood for the fire, so that 
 nothing might disturb them for the rest of the after- 
 noon. 
 
 " Do you think you have forgotten the taste of a pipe?" 
 she said, taking an assortment from the rack and spread- 
 ing them before him. 
 
 He told her "No"; the D division was allowed a daily 
 smoke; and he fell upon the tobacco-jar as he had fallen 
 upon Alphonse 's dishes. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 271 
 
 " You think of everything," he said, looking at her face 
 with the strong light on it, and at the grey threads in her 
 hair. " You are an angel, Katherine." 
 
 " Not a bit of it," she returned, lighting a match, and 
 watching him draw and puff greedily. Neither one nor 
 the other was led into sentimentalism by his remark. 
 " Now have a quiet smoke," she went on, seating herself in 
 a low chair near him, " and don't talk more than you feel 
 inclined. We have all the rest of our lives to talk in, now. 
 I'll get some work" she reached for her basket, still full 
 of surgical appliances in various stages of manufacture 
 " and you can just dream and doze for awhile, and accustom 
 yourself to the feeling that you have nothing to do but to 
 please yourself. By-and-bye, when you are rested, and if 
 you feel inclined, we can have a little stroll along the shore, 
 and talk about things then." 
 
 "Yes, "said Forbes. "But where is Elvira? She isn't 
 gone away, is she?" 
 
 " No. She is here, and longing to see you. But we 
 thought you would rather be alone for a little first." 
 
 " I don't mind her. She is used to my cropped head. It 
 seems strange for her not to come and welcome me my 
 first day." 
 
 " I will call her," said Katherine, and got up to do so. 
 
 Elvira came fluttering in, flushed and beautiful; and 
 Forbes put down his pipe, and rose (to Katherine's extreme 
 gratification), showing that he had not altogether lost his 
 old self. They met and held each other's hands in an im- 
 pressive silence, and the mistress of the house thought it a 
 favourable moment to slip away on a necessary errand to 
 Hester. 
 
 When she returned, Forbes and Elvira had gone out upon 
 the verandah, and sat side by side on two basket-chairs. 
 Forbes was smoking, but talking between his whiffs; 
 through the open window she could see him and hear him, 
 and he was more like his old self than he had yet been. 
 It was a pleasure to watch him, herself unseen ; and she 
 would not interrupt the tete-a-tete that was making him for- 
 get his past. She dropped into a chair by her work-basket, 
 and began to sew, with one eye on the dear figure, and her 
 ears drinking in every tone of his voice. 
 
 " I had not realised how the years must have changed 
 you," he was saying. " Why, it was like St. Peter, when 
 the angel appeared to him ! After you were gone, I had 
 that kind of mist in my eyes like when you come out of the 
 sunshine into your cell into a dark room. I used to try 
 
27* NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 to recall you in the night, after I was shut in, and it was 
 too early to sleep " 
 
 "Don't talk of that," interrupted the girl, in a voice of 
 pain. " Don't let us ever mention that time, now that it is 
 over." 
 
 " But there was one thing in which you hadn't changed," 
 he went on. " You were always my little friend, Elvira. 
 You always believed in me." 
 
 " Yes," Elvira said, with an indrawn breath. 
 
 " Do you remember how you used to come and sit in my 
 cabin? So shy you were, with hardly a word to say! But 
 I always knew you liked to be with me. How the sea 
 smells! It's beautiful! And it so reminds me of those 
 days! I couldn't think what it was when we drove in this 
 morning, but something in the air made me think of you 
 and the Huntingdonshire. And, after all, you did not come 
 to meet me !" 
 
 " Because it was right that Katherine should have you to 
 herself," answered Elvira. " It was her time not mine." 
 
 Katherine was pleased to see her lover and her protegee 
 so much at home together congratulating herself more 
 than ever on having repudiated Jim's brutal suggestion that 
 Elvira should be turned out of her home to be the matron 
 of his hospital but she did not quite like to hear herself 
 confidentially discussed between them. She rose, with her 
 sewing in her hand, and sauntered through the open win- 
 dow, and, as there were three basket-chairs outside, she 
 took possession of the empty one. 
 
 " You don't feel it chilly?" she inquired pleasantly. 
 
 Elvira said she didn't, and Forbes, lighting his pipe 
 afresh, said it was only too delightful to breathe open air 
 again the air of liberty and the sea. Then a long silence 
 held them all, until Elvira, as in duty bound, rose softly to 
 slip away. 
 
 " Don't go," said Forbes. 
 
 " Don't go, dear," repeated Katherine. 
 
 But Elvira murmured something about tea, and disap- 
 peared. 
 
 " She is so terribly afraid of being in our way," remarked 
 Katherine, when the girl was gone. 
 
 " She was always like that," returned Forbes. " Even as 
 a little thing.' 
 
 Katherine 's memory of her as a little thing was that she 
 was very often and seriously in the way, when lovers re- 
 quired to be left alone together ; but she did not dispute the 
 other's statement. And he permitted himself by degrees 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 273 
 
 to lean back in his chair, smoked steadily and stared at the 
 sea, and left off talking*. His companion, so anxious to 
 gently coax him back to life, as life was before prison 
 shame had blighted it, kept silence when he did, softly 
 stitching, as in a calm domestic atmosphere that had never 
 been disturbed. Presently she saw tobacco ashes falling 
 on the brand-new trousers, and, looking up, discovered that 
 his pipe was dropping after them. She drew it from his 
 loose fingers, without his knowing it, and he slept heavily 
 for hours. 
 
 Dinner was countermanded, and a light tea substituted ; 
 after which Elvira went to bed with a headache, and Kath- 
 erine took her lover for a walk. It was not such a fine 
 night as last night, and she was not quite as happy as she 
 had expected to be, for Forbes was not the old Forbes yet, 
 and she could not get poor lonely Jim out of her head ; 
 but the darkness was clear and fresh, and in its shelter the 
 broken man held up his head a little. He asked a thou- 
 sand questions about Elvira, the hospital, Jim, his own 
 family, and the affairs of the world, as he paced the shore 
 with his old sweetheart on his arm ; and she talked her- 
 self hoarse in explaining things. 
 
 Very late they re-entered the house, and she led him to 
 his sleeping-chamber, where the luxurious bed yawned to 
 receive him when he had washed off the last of the prison 
 taint in the bath that steamed invitingly in an inner room. 
 
 " Good-night, my love," she said to him at the door. 
 " Sleep well !" 
 
 " I shall find it hard to sleep in a civilised bed at first," 
 he answered. " It will be strange to feel the feel of linen 
 sheets again." 
 
 " They are not linen sheets they are Dr. Jaeger's san- 
 itary woollen ones; but, oh" laughing "I don't suppose 
 you know what they are ! Try them ; I think you will find 
 them comfortable." 
 
 She had even thought of that that linen sheets might 
 feel cold and unkindly after eighteen years of prison 
 blankets ! 
 
 Before retiring to her own room, with a second and 
 warmer kiss upon her lips, and his stammering words of 
 gratitude in her ears, she went to Elvira's, as her habit 
 was. To her surprise she found the girl still dressed ; she 
 had just withdrawn from the window, which she was shut- 
 ting to. 
 
 " My dear child, what are you doing?" the elder woman 
 cried. " Why are you not in bed, resting your bad head?" 
 18 
 
274 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "I have been cooling it in the night air," said Elvira, 
 beginning to draw hairpins out. " I have been watching 
 you and him walking up and down on the sands. No ; I 
 couldn't see you; I could only fancy that I did." 
 
 Suddenly she began to cry hysterically, and her emotion 
 became doubly violent when Katherine took her in her 
 arms, and begged her in the tenderest way to explain what 
 was the matter with her. 
 
 " Oh Katherine, I can't bear to see him hanging his head 
 like that as if he hadn't even a right to eat his food he 
 that used to go about amongst people like a prince !" 
 
 That seemed to be all the reason she could give, and 
 Katherine thought it quite adequate. When tears were 
 dried, and good-nights in progress, Elvira whispered tim- 
 idly " When is it to be?" 
 
 " When is what to be?" queried Katherine, who knew 
 quite well what she meant. 
 
 " The wedding," breathed Elvira. 
 
 " I don't know" with a touch of impatience. " Nothing 
 has been arranged yet. Oh, he must have time to get 
 breath and pull himself together ! I suppose it would be 
 very improper for us to be as we are now if we were ordi- 
 nary society people; but we are out of the groove, my 
 dear, and we are old folks, and and what do we care for 
 empty appearances? It is nobody's business but our own." 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 GRADUALLY he pulled himself together, and became more 
 and more what he used to be. 
 
 He got over his dislike to being looked at by a servant, 
 had talks with the coachman in the stable-yard about 
 the old times ere shame was thought of, and took pleasure 
 in being called " Sir" by Hester, who was a staid person 
 that had gone through heavy trials of her own. He began 
 to shave carefully, and to put patent preparations on his 
 hair and on his hands ; and he took an interest in seeing 
 how other men were dressed, while being driven here and 
 there in Katherine 's carriage, himself guarded from obser- 
 vation by closed windows and a sloping hat-brim. He 
 flattered Monsieur Giraud with an immense appetite, and 
 he smoked continually ; also it made him very happy, ap- 
 parently, to sit out of doors in a basket-chair while Elvira 
 read the papers to him. Every day he became more and 
 more alive ; every day he recovered a little of the old self 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 275 
 
 that had been so long lost ; every day Katherine wondered 
 that a certain glaring circumstance did not seem to strike 
 him. 
 
 The first indication of an awakening in this respect 
 occurred when he had been some weeks with her, " wallow- 
 ing," as he expressed it, in physical luxury which, while it 
 healed him, intoxicated him like a delicious opiate. She 
 found him looking serious and how she had longed to see 
 him looking serious, as conscious of his soul rather than 
 his body ! one morning when they happened to be alone 
 together, Elvira having been sent on an errand to the hos- 
 pital, involving a kind note to Jim by way of reminding him 
 that he was not forgotten. 
 
 Forbes was in his basket-chair under the trees of the 
 peaceful garden, from which all the hurly-burly of the town 
 at Cup time of an Exhibition year was as wholly shut out 
 as the horrors of the plague from Boccaccio's pagan para- 
 dise ; and he was smoking his inevitable pipe in a brown 
 study. Katherine brought out her equally inevitable work- 
 basket long years of toil had made idleness irksome to 
 her and took a chair by his side, glad to have her frotigJe 
 out of the way, and the opportunity for private conversa- 
 tion, which had somehow become rather difficult to obtain 
 of late. They sat in silence for some minutes, and then 
 Forbes said abruptly, " Katherine, are you still in the same 
 mind?" 
 
 She blushed all over, old as she was, and her heart began 
 to shake. 
 
 " Is that a necessary question?" she returned, in a low 
 voice. 
 
 " Well, you see what I am. And I see what you are an 
 angel in woman's flesh too good for a king. It's mon- 
 strous that you should have no better fate than to be tied 
 to a wretch disgraced and ruined as I am." 
 
 " Leave me to be the judge of that," she said. " You are 
 neither disgraced nor ruined in my eyes." And her eyes 
 looked their sweet endorsement of the words. They were 
 beautiful eyes still, but a little faded and hollowed from 
 years of night-watching at sick-beds. 
 
 "And I not only am nothing, but I have nothing," he 
 went on, staring at the sea rather than at her (since his 
 incarceration he had seemed unable to look straight at 
 anybody). " I ought at this moment to be stone-breaking 
 on the road for my living." 
 
 " You know very well that our dear old woman left her 
 money to us both," said Katherine quietly, not displeased 
 
276 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 by his scruples ; " only it was more convenient at the 
 time to put all the management into my hands. Even if it 
 were not so, it doesn't hurt you to take things from me, 
 I hope." 
 
 " I have done nothing but take from you I that ought to 
 have been the one to give." 
 
 " Well if we must have a debtor and creditor account 
 it was through me that all your troubles came, and it is 
 through you that I have had whatever has made life worth 
 living." 
 
 He did look at her then for a moment, and, impulsively 
 stretching out his hand, took hers and kissed it. The action 
 was full of the old times, and made her feel like a young 
 girl again. She drew his hand back and rubbed it softly 
 against her cheek, which gesture should have resulted in 
 an arm around her waist but did not. He dropped back 
 into his middle-aged, pipe-puffing quietude, and said, with 
 a sort of sigh, " You are too good for this world, Katherine." 
 
 " Never mind about the world," she replied. " I am not 
 too good for you." 
 
 " Great Heaven !" he exclaimed. " If you only knew !" 
 
 " I know you better than you know yourself," she said, 
 resuming her work. " You are still in the shadow of that 
 black cloud which distorts everything. I know what you 
 were, and what you will be again, when the cloud lifts." 
 
 " And you are ready to take me clouds and all?" 
 
 " One would think we were beginning all over again, to 
 hear you put such a question ! Since when have we been 
 divorced?" 
 
 "Oh, I know!" 
 
 He fell silent again, looking away from her, but feeling 
 in the back of his head that she was looking at him with a 
 vague anxiety and reproach. Suddenly he turned, and 
 said, with an air of decision, " Well, you must settle it." 
 
 " Settle what, dear?" she asked. 
 
 " When it is to be, and all that. We must put an end to 
 this anomalous position that we are in now I should have 
 thought of it at first. I am a selfish brute, Katherine, and 
 not fit for a saint like you. But if you are still willing to 
 have me, let's get it over, and and settle down. And, 
 Katherine, such as I am, and to the best of my power, 
 I'll try " 
 
 " Do you think I doubt it?" she exclaimed, interrupting 
 him. " My darling, we don't want lovers' vows and pro- 
 testations at this time of day." 
 
 " No, of course. Well, will you make the arrangements?" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 277 
 
 " If you wish. You would like to have it done here?" 
 "It doesn't matter; whichever way is the quietest and 
 the least trouble. I'll leave that to you as I do everything 
 else. And and I suppose Elvira would like to go to the 
 hospital for a little while, or to stay with somebody?" 
 " Oh, poor child, we needn't turn her out, need we?" 
 " Or we might go somewhere by ourselves?" 
 " Would you like us to go somewhere by ourselves?" said 
 Katherine, with an angelic look. " Then we will we will ! 
 And it shall be such a wedding journey as no young bride 
 and bridegroom ever had !" 
 
 During many subsequent days she left him in Elvira's 
 charge while she made preparations for it ; and she would 
 not tell him what these preparations were. They took a 
 great deal of time, and they cost a great deal of money, 
 and they involved many difficulties in dealing with which 
 the co-operation of a good man of business would have 
 been a great assistance. But, though she felt the want of 
 Jim at every turn, she abstained from calling that faithful 
 ally to her side. Alone she carried out the bold scheme 
 that was to be the realisation of a beautiful dream that had 
 haunted her imagination for years. 
 
 She chartered a ship nothing less than a genuine ocean 
 sailer, that was accustomed to spend its life in voyaging 
 round and round the globe for a three-months' cruise to 
 nowhere in particular, thus to make a world for herself and 
 her mate apart, in the unassailable liberty of sky and sea. 
 The ship was an old tub, to look at ; she had been carrying 
 miscellaneous cargo for thirty years, and no passengers to 
 paint and decorate for; but official experts testified that 
 the fabric was stout and seaworthy given which, its home- 
 liness of aspect was a distinct advantage. When Katherine 
 first saw the Mary Johnson she was lying at Williamstown, 
 next door to a brand-new Orient liner ; and her captain 
 a charming, weather-beaten sailor man of the rough-dia- 
 mond order seemed to think the circumstance most 
 unfavourable to a just appreciation of the merits of his 
 craft. But he was quite mistaken. 
 
 An impulse of curiosity, and the spirit of general investi- 
 gation kept active by her uncertainty as to future move- 
 ments, led Katherine to ascend the gangway of the floating 
 palace at the end of the pier, and to inspect its internal 
 splendours of upholstery and luxury of domestic arrange- 
 ment. It was sailing morning, and every part was seething 
 with many-coloured life; and so it would seethe in the 
 weeks to come, undeterred by surrounding solemnities, 
 
278 NOT ALL IN VAIN, 
 
 with its pianos going, and its electric lights ringing it 
 round and round, like a monster hotel an inpsiring pros- 
 pect to the fresh young voyager athirst for experience and 
 adventure, but not to the worn woman who had so long 
 craved for rest. 
 
 She descended from the surging deck to the pier, walked 
 a little way under the shadow of the great hull, past a line 
 of open port-holes through which swarthy faces peered at 
 her, and, reaching the Mary Johnson, felt herself at once 
 in another world. Oh, how refreshing! Sitting in the 
 captain's chair under the break of the little poop (balanced 
 by a little "t'gal'n't fo'c'stle" at the other end), with her 
 back to the mail steamer and all its bustle, what visions of 
 blissful peace uprose before her! The little deck between 
 the stout squat bulwarks, with its lumbering old-fashioned 
 furniture, all sound and clean and " faithful," though so far 
 behind the times it was beautiful to think of it lying 
 aslant on the racing seas, under the wind-filled sails, and 
 she and Forbes basking in their long chairs, night or day 
 just whenever it pleased them while he drank the pure 
 breath of life and grew young and happy once more. They 
 loved the sea, both of them, and were not seasick subjects; 
 the episode of the Huntingdonshire was the great romance 
 of their lives (of hers, at any rate) ; and nothing that she 
 could imagine promised such solace and healing for what 
 they had suffered as this scheme, which had been forming 
 itself ever since she inherited Mrs. Bellamy's money. Of 
 course she never thought of wave-swept decks and dirty 
 weather, and the chance of the honeymoon coming to an 
 untimely end at the bottom of the sea ; we never do take 
 such chances into account when making plans for happi- 
 ness. She pictured days of blue sky and a sailing wind, and 
 nights full of stars and moonlight, and an unbroken peace 
 for three sweet months that should make up for the dis- 
 tressful struggle of their parted years. Not even Elvira 
 was to be taken on board. No; for these three months 
 Elvira should be comfortably provided for in the Brighton 
 house Forbes should have his wish and after that she 
 should return to the bosom of her family, and never more 
 be allowed to feel de trop. 
 
 No royal yacht was ever fitted up more carefully, regard- 
 less of cost, than was the Mary Johnson for her cruise. No 
 mail steamer of them all could beat her in the matter of 
 passenger accommodation when the carpenters and uphol- 
 sterers had done their work. Things were plain, indeed, 
 as required by a woman of taste under the circumstances, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 279 
 
 but they represented an amount of solid comfort to the 
 square inch that was never produced by the mere genius 
 of trading enterprise. All the cabin aft was fitted up for 
 herself and Forbes, Hester and Alphonse having special 
 berths provided for them, and the ship's officers taking care 
 of themselves nobody quite knew where. Such swinging 
 beds, and cunning luxury of chairs and sofas, and elabora- 
 tion of well-filled lockers, were never seen before by the 
 curious idlers of the pier, who kept clandestine watch upon 
 their construction. The pantry and the French cook's 
 stores were supplied on the same complete and lavish scale, 
 and every hole and corner was packed with books selected 
 with the utmost thought and trouble that body and mind 
 together, deprived so long, should want for nothing they 
 were remotely likely to desire nothing that might help to 
 restore them to the habits and standards of the old days. 
 And, above and beyond these things, the great nourishment 
 of all on which she relied for his redemption and rejuvena- 
 tion, was the free wind and the lonely sea the withdrawal 
 from the tainted atmosphere of the world of dry land, full 
 of sordid strife and pain and toil, to the infinite calm soli- 
 tudes that seemed the dwelling-place of God. How, across 
 the gulf of toilsome years, the thought of the old voyage 
 uplifted her, even now ! Memories of the buoyant morn- 
 ings, and the wide, still nights, and the majestic storms that 
 gave such dignity to the men who fought them, and to the 
 grand old ship that was the handiwork of men, had been 
 a refreshment to her soul many a time and oft, like beau- 
 tiful pictures on the wall of a room one lives in. And, 
 when he found himself in this sanctuary of nature, alone 
 with her, she knew how it would be he would feel absolved 
 from his sins, and consoled for his sufferings, and baptised 
 again into a new life. 
 
 All was ready to sail in a few days, and they were to be 
 married on the morning of their embarkation until when 
 Forbes was to see nothing of the preparations made for 
 him, which he had seemed content to leave wholly in her 
 hands. She had been spending many hours of a roasting 
 midsummer day in the city and on board the Mary John- 
 son, superintending some last arrangements, and, feeling 
 very tired, and knowing it to be impossible to reach home 
 before the appointed dinner hour, she had telegraphed to 
 Elvira, "Dine v/ithout me, "and waited to return till the 
 cool of the evening. The captain, who had come on board 
 to see what he could do for her, provided tea and scones 
 and a plate of strawberries, and she made her little meal 
 
280 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 on deck, and watched the lights upon the water in great 
 peace. 
 
 At the fall of dusk later than she had meant to be (and 
 she missed a train by a quarter of a minute, and had to 
 wait half an hour for the next) she set out on her home- 
 ward journey, which was rather a long one. By the time 
 she reached Melbourne it was dark night; people were 
 trooping to the theatres. By the time she got out of the 
 train at Brighton it was soft moonlight, growing clearer 
 every moment. Then she took a cab, which set her down 
 at the gate of her domain, where she stopped for some 
 minutes to talk to the lodge-keeper, her ex-patient, who 
 was not very well. And so she did not get home until 
 close upon bed-time. 
 
 She trailed into the house, with her soft step, weary, and 
 thankful to be back there again. The day had been so hot, 
 and the night was so still and beautiful, that all the doors 
 and windows stood open, and but few lights were shining 
 to attract winged insects in. She went at once to the unil- 
 luminated drawing-room, and was passing through to the 
 verandah, where she felt sure of finding her family, when 
 a strange sound arrested her. She listened, and heard that 
 it was Elvira sobbing. She looked standing just within 
 the open window and saw, silhouetted against the now 
 bright moonlight, the form of the girl intertwined with the 
 form of a man. Forbes, sitting in his basket-chair, was 
 clasping Elvira in his arms. 
 
 " We must never let her know," Elvira was saying between 
 her panting breaths ; " never let her dream for a moment 
 that this has happened after all she has done for us !" 
 
 "No," Forbes acquiesced, with a groaning sigh, "we 
 must never let her know, of course we must do our duty, 
 however hard we cannot help ourselves, Elvira ! She has 
 sacrificed everything for me and now she is old " 
 
 Katherine turned as if the word had struck her, and flit- 
 ted away before she could hear any more, and her heart 
 seemed to have turned to stone. Gliding through the shad- 
 owy passages to her room, she met Hester, and said to her 
 quietly : " Tell Mr. Alexander and Miss Brodie, if they in- 
 quire for me, that I am gone to bed, very tired, and don't 
 wish to be disturbed" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 THIS was the unexpected ending of Katherine's love 
 affair the downfall of the edifice within which she had 
 dwelt in supposed security until it had become as much a 
 part of her as its shell is a part of the snail. And, seeing 
 how long it had lasted, and how closely it was incorporated 
 with every interest of her life, it was surprising how rapidly 
 it went to pieces after the blow fell. Forbes might call her 
 a saint, too good for this world, but she had as much hu- 
 man nature in her as he ; and if he had wanted to break 
 troth in letter as well as in spirit, and at the same time to 
 preserve her from heartbreak, he could not have done it 
 better indeed, he could not have done it otherwise. 
 If she had lost him in any other way she would never 
 have got over it; but as the case stood she had not 
 had him which was a very different thing. Her first 
 sensation, on reaching her room, and fiercely turning the 
 key in the door, was one of deep and soul-shaking anger, 
 as became a woman with the proper feelings of her sex. 
 She lit the candles on the dressing-table, and sat down 
 before the glass, and looked at herself steadily with hard 
 eyes. Yes, it was quite true that she was not as young as 
 she had been once ; but, then, neither was he ! And what 
 were a few grey hairs, and a little faded colour, in such a 
 record as theirs? She clapped her hand over her eyes, and 
 her breast heaved stormily, under a sense of intolerable 
 outrage. 
 
 "Even Neil," she said to herself, "even Neil my poor 
 Neil, who died for me ! would have loved me the same, 
 whether old or young." (He might not have done anything 
 of the kind, but she was firmly convinced of it.) " And as 
 for Jim if I were in cap and spectacles, if I were toothless 
 and decrepid and walking with a stick, it would make no 
 difference to Jim." 
 
 Then she began to walk up and down the room, with her 
 head up and her hands behind her, and every step she took 
 trampled something out of being that had been alive and 
 strong for nearly twenty years. Let not the critical reader 
 object that this could not be, in the case of a woman of 
 Katherine's make and temper, who had loved so long and 
 well ; it is true that such a woman loves for ever, against 
 all softs and kinds of discouragement except that which 
 has just been described. Under this particular circum- 
 
282 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 stance, the most self-abnegating of her sex must leave off 
 doing it, or despise herself. Katherine looked back over 
 the years of her faithful service, and saw that her lover had 
 never been her lover, as she had imagined him ; this was 
 to draw away the corner-stone on which her strong house 
 had been built. And, with the foundations rocking, the 
 storms beat upon that house storms of resentment for the 
 indignity of being thrust aside because she was old, after 
 spending her vouth and all she had for him ; and its doom, 
 as I humbly submit, was inevitable. 
 
 The young beauty who had superseded her tapped at the 
 door while she was dumbly raging to and fro, and had a 
 greeting that she was not at all accustomed to. 
 
 " What do you want?" 
 
 " It's me," said Elvira, in an explanatory tone. 
 
 " What do you want?" repeated Katherine ; and she stood 
 in the middle of the room, and looked at the door, much 
 as she had looked at Neil in the old days poor Neil, who 
 had really loved her, and therefore would have stuck to her, 
 whether old or young ! 
 
 " I only want to say good-night to you, dear, and to see if 
 I can get you anything." 
 
 ' Nothing, thank you. I had my tea on board." 
 
 ' Mayn't I come in for a minute?" 
 
 ' Not to-night. I'm tired. I'm just going to bed." 
 
 ' Are you very tired?" 
 
 1 Naturally. I have been slaving in the heat all day." 
 
 ' I am so sorry. Is is anything the matter beyond 
 that?" 
 
 The tone of this question caused Katherine to make an 
 effort for civility and self-command. " No, my dear, no ; 
 I'm a little overdone and worried, that's all. I shall be all 
 right in the morning. Good-night." 
 
 " Good-night, dear," said Elvira, lingeringly. And she 
 trailed off, without making any further appeal for admit- 
 tance, though she had not gone to bed without kissing her 
 " mother" for years. 
 
 " It is her guilty conscience," thought Katherine. 
 
 Poor Katherine! She was a woman first, and a noble 
 heroine afterwards, and at that moment she hated Elvira 
 with a whole-hearted intensity that proved her not to be 
 too good for this sinful world. The thought of how she 
 (Katherine) had been driving Forbes to marry her when he 
 didn't want to, and how she had blindly smiled at the per- 
 fidy going on under her nose, and ignorantly connived at it, 
 was a mortification that had to be avenged upon the other 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 283 
 
 woman in the case, irrespective of her deserts. Katherine 
 might be old, indeed, but age had not broken the spirit 
 which Neil could not tame. Oh, poor Neil! How he 
 haunted her now! She had done nothing for him far 
 worse than nothing and he had been content to die for a 
 kiss and a kind word ! 
 
 As for Forbes, he walked about nearly all night, in the 
 garden and along the beach, like an unquiet spirit. As 
 she was equally restless, in spite of the day's fatigues, she 
 rose again and again, and went to the window for the 
 refreshment of the sea-cooled air ; and she saw his prowling 
 shadow in the moonlight, and the red spark of his pipe, till 
 the small hours. She watched him with unpitying eyes 
 for the first time for eighteen years ; that, too, was natural. 
 Had everything gone as she had appointed, she would never 
 have thought of what he owed her never have allowed that 
 he owed her anything ; but now, every time she caught a 
 glimpse of him, she dumbly upbraided him with his ingrat- 
 itude. 
 
 " After all I have done for you ! After all these years !" 
 
 At last, and as by an accident, she fell asleep, and when 
 she awoke it was the grey dawn. Lying still for awhile, 
 she thought over what had happened, in the sober daylight 
 spirit, and found that she did not feel a bit better. In fact, 
 she acknowledged to herself that her mood was one of 
 downright wickedness. 
 
 " I cannot meet them," she said to herself, " until I have 
 had a little more time to cool down, and decide what line 
 to take. If I see them now I shall forget my dignity, and 
 say what I should be sorry for afterwards. I shall make a 
 breach and that would never do. For I shall have to give 
 them some of my money they must have something to live 
 on, poor things and if I hurt their feelings they will turn 
 proud and refuse to take it. I'll go away before breakfast, 
 and not come back till dinner; I'll give them another whole 
 day to themselves, to make love in," she resolved ungener- 
 ously, taking no account of their self-reproachful unhap- 
 piness. " I'll go and see what they are doing at the hos- 
 pital. I'll go and have a talk with Jim." She smiled a 
 bitter little smile. " Thank Heaven, I am not too old for 
 Jim." 
 
 So she called Hester to bring her tea, and instructed that 
 faithful handmaid to tell Mr. Alexander and Miss Brodie, 
 when they got up, that she was obliged to go away before 
 breakfast, but that she would return to dinner, if possible. 
 " And that I hope they'll amuse themselves, Hester." 
 
284 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Then she dressed quickly, in great dread of being inter- 
 cepted by Elvira, and safely escaped from the house half an 
 hour before breakfast-time. As her eyes fell upon the 
 twinkling morning sea she thought of the Mary Johnson, 
 and the wedding journey, and all the preparations of yester- 
 day. The shock of realising how utterly life had changed 
 in four-and-twenty hours was staggering enough, but the 
 horror of the thought that it might not have changed (until 
 too late) was enough to make her blood cold. 
 
 " They were never going to let me know they were going 
 to hoodwink the old woman," she thought, with that bitter- 
 ness which had sprung up unawares from the recesses of 
 the sweetest nature that ever woman had; and for this 
 magnanimity on their part she hated them, as if it were the 
 worst of ill-usage. 
 
 The Mary Johnson now was a thing to laugh at and to 
 blush for ; she felt her cheeks burn at the recollection of her 
 little cabins and her great dreams. " But I know what I 
 will do," she said, determinedly; " I will make them marry 
 at once I will make them I will not have them with me 
 any longer and they shall sail in the Mary Johnson together 
 he and she instead of he and I. It will be all the same." 
 She thought of them in the midst of that luxury that she 
 had prepared, and how happy they would be, and how they 
 would forget all about her except to pity her for being an 
 old maid and " out of it" and then it was her heart that 
 burned, and not her face. 
 
 When she reached the hospital she found the work of 
 the day in full swing, as was bound to be the case in such 
 a well-regulated establishment. The night nurse had 
 washed the patients, and given them their breakfasts, and 
 the day nurses were taking their temperatures and making 
 their beds, sweeping and polishing the neat wards and all 
 that was therein, preparing for the doctor's visit. The ex- 
 matron laid aside her bonnet and gloves, tied an apron over 
 her pretty cambric dress, and set to work to help them, as 
 if she had never been away. The reigning lady superin- 
 tendent chanced to be having a holiday, but had she been 
 there she would have made no objection. She had been 
 trained by Katherine, and looked up to her still ; indeed, 
 there was no one in the house who did not rejoice when she 
 returned to it even if she came empty-handed, and not 
 loaded with fruit and flowers and new magazines, as was 
 usually the case. 
 
 The putting on of the apron was the putting on of the 
 habit of the old life that had been briefly interrupted that 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 285 
 
 life of hard work, perhaps the hardest known in any regu- 
 lar profession, with no eight-hour limit to either days or 
 nights ; and it had a soothing and homelike feel. She had 
 said to Elvira again and again, since she had enjoyed the 
 luxury and leisure of wealth, that she would not like to 
 return to that grinding drudgery again ; but now it seemed 
 to her that to return to it would be to return to peace nay, 
 to happiness, as far as happiness was possible. 
 
 She spoke to the patients, some of whom she knew, 
 studying their appearances and the charts over their beds 
 to see what they ailed, and how they were going on ; she 
 inspected all the appliances in use, to see that they were 
 in order ; she laid out dressings for Jim where they were 
 required in short, she flung herself into the old routine 
 with that impersonal conscientiousness which distinguishes 
 the responsible nurse on duty, and in so doing felt firm 
 ground under her feet amidst the quicksands that had threat- 
 ened to engulf her. On one of the nurses informing her, 
 quite casually, that the matron, who often wanted a holi- 
 day, was engaged to be married, Katherine made up her 
 mind how to adjust herself to the present condition of 
 affairs. 
 
 Jim, who knew all about the Mary Johnson and her sail- 
 ing date, could scarcely believe his eyes. He arrived on 
 duty at his usual hour, with his black bag in his hand, look- 
 ing quite business-like, but fagged and haggard, as if he 
 had been up all night. And he began his work silently and 
 very quietly, making no remark beyond what was strictly 
 necessary. But when, in the course of his rounds, he came 
 to the room in which Katherine was ministering, in the 
 professional apron, his surprise transformed him. He had 
 never called her by her Christian name in the presence of 
 a patient before, but he did now. 
 
 " Katherine ! Where in the name of goodness did you 
 spring from?" 
 
 " Good-morning, doctor. I sprang from Brighton. I 
 wanted to see how you were all getting on, and I thought 
 it best to start early, before the heat. I am glad to see that 
 Mrs. Caton is much improved since I was here last." 
 
 Jim turned his attention to the patient indicated, and, 
 her proper nurse advancing, Katherine withdrew. She 
 went to the matron's sitting-room, where she was always 
 at home, and surprised herself by feeling a need for break- 
 fast. In a general way she was surprised to find herself 
 bearing the shock of ruin that had befallen her with so much 
 courage and calmness, and wondered why it was. There 
 
286 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 were several reasons for it that she did not see clearly. In 
 the first place, she was a strong and sensible and self-re- 
 specting woman ; in the second, one can stand a single big 
 blow far better than a protracted course of little ones ; her 
 nerves had not been wrought upon by preliminary doubts 
 and apprehensions. Then, in her heart of hearts, she had 
 long divined that Forbes was not the Forbes of her young 
 love and dreams, though she had not allowed herself to 
 acknowledge it ; so that disillusion had not really come all 
 at once. And then, somewhere, at the back of everything, 
 and also unacknowledged, was the sense that she was not 
 altogether alone in the world, after all ; that, though Forbes 
 might despise her because she was old, she had not lost her 
 charms for everybody. Perhaps this last thought was the 
 most supporting. 
 
 She found a maid, who responded to a request for tea and 
 bread and butter with smiling alacrity. Anything the house 
 could do for one so beloved (and so rich) it always did in 
 this spirit, giving her of its best with both hands ; and in a 
 twinkling the table was laid with a clean cloth and all the 
 delicacies at command. She was making the tea when the 
 doctor appeared, having done_ his business for the present ; 
 and she called him in. 
 
 " Aren't you hungry, Jim?'* 
 
 " No, Katherine ; it isn't time to be hungry yet. It's not 
 eleven o'clock." 
 
 " Ah, I suppose you have had a good breakfast. I 
 haven't." 
 
 " Is this meal for you? Then I'll join you, hungry or not 
 just for the pleasure of making believe that the old times 
 are back again." 
 
 He sat down, and she gave him a cup of tea, and he cut 
 some bread and a slice of ham for her. All the time he 
 was watching her, though not with his eyes, and trying to 
 account for her coming in this way, with apparently no 
 shadow of the imminent event about her. He had not ex- 
 pected to see her again she had asked him, but he had 
 begged to be spared an ordeal that he hardly felt himself 
 equal to and had been trying to reconcile himself to doing 
 without her for the rest of his life. The cost of the strug- 
 gle was so evident in his appearance that she could not help 
 remarking it. 
 
 " You don't look well, Jim. What ails you?" 
 
 "Nothing, "he answered, "that I know of except that 
 I'm getting old." 
 
 " Oh," she rejoined, with a peculiar smile, " men don't 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 287 
 
 grow old only women. You are quite young, Jim like 
 Forbes ; it is I who am old -passfa out of the running 
 on the shelf, as people say." 
 
 He just looked at her across the table, and ejaculated 
 " You !" At which her heart rose and her eyes brightened. 
 
 " Am I not?" she cried, in a reckless way. " Look at my 
 grey hairs look at my crow's feet compare my face with 
 Elvira's, for instance ! A man of forty a man of fifty of 
 sixty, even is to all intents and purposes in his prime; 
 but a woman of ^ forty, with her hair turning grey, is hope- 
 lessly old and done for an old maid, who makes herself 
 ridiculous if she thinks of getting married because, you 
 know, a man only marries her out of pity or gratitude, and 
 not because he can possibly admire her." 
 
 Then she laughed rather hysterically, and began to feel 
 that she was losing the command of herself of which she 
 had been so proud. 
 
 " As you know you are talking nonsense, when you say 
 such things to me" said Jim, " I needn't trouble to contra- 
 dict you. How are you getting on? Have another bit of 
 chicken?" 
 
 He was outwardly quiet, but his pulses were hammering. 
 He knew now that something had happened, but did not 
 dare to let himself guess what. 
 
 She recovered herself, and went on with her breakfast, 
 which was soon finished after this. An anxious embarrass- 
 ment held them silent until the maid had been in to clear 
 the table, and they were again alone,- with the prospect of 
 half an hour the utmost time Jim could afford to give 
 himself at this period of the day of privacy that was not 
 likely to be disturbed. For a little while Katherine walked 
 up and down the room, with her hands behind her, restless, 
 as she never was accustomed to be ; and Jim stood on the 
 hearth-rug, watching her, vainly trying to fix her ^aming 
 eyes. When he could bear it no longer he put out his hand 
 to arrest her as she was passing, and said : " Something is 
 the matter, Katherine. Tell me what it is straight out. 
 Don't keep me in suspense when you know how much it 
 means to me." 
 
 " Oh, but it must not mean anything to you, Jim under- 
 stand that," she hastily answered him, blushing deeply. 
 " At least, it only means that you that I " 
 
 " Well?" he demanded, breathlessly. 
 
 " Jim, Kate Reilly is going you will want a new matron. 
 Will you take me back?" 
 
 " What !" he cried. " You don't mean it, Katherine !" He 
 
288 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 caught her hands in his excitement, hardly knowing what 
 he did ; but she snatched them away. 
 
 " Not that, Jim I told you, not that ! If I am too old for 
 him oh, don't look at me so ! I only thought, if we could 
 go back to the old times the old times, as we used to 
 be I thought I would just ask you, as Kate Reilly was 
 going." 
 
 " Ask me !" he broke in. " Good Lord ! to think of you 
 asking asking me when my very soul has been dying in 
 me for a sight of you " 
 
 " Jim, don't say those things to me not now." 
 
 " Not now," he echoed, making an effort to calm himself. 
 " No, not now not yet. But come back, my come back 
 home, Kathy my God, I can't help it " 
 
 Two or three strong sobs shook him, the sound of which 
 made her go white ; and all at once, and for the first time 
 in her long acquaintance with him, he seemed one with his 
 dead brother. Only Jim did not embrace her against her 
 will ; he laid head and arms on the mantelpiece, with his 
 back turned, that he might not be tempted. But it was the 
 same heart-shaking passion that had made Neil in his undis- 
 ciplined strength so dreadful to her which transformed the 
 quiet man, and revealed him as she had not hitherto known 
 him, despite all their years of intimacy. It was like the 
 outbreaking of volcanic fires from a grass-grown hill. She 
 had not suspected him of such virile intensities; more than 
 that, she had not suspected in herself the power to glow as 
 she did under the t shock of the sudden revelation for all 
 her pallor and her quaking heart. 
 
 " I didn't mean I you you are assuming things," she 
 stammered, with a flutter in her voice. " You don't under- 
 stand, Jim. You are assuming more than you have any 
 right to do." 
 
 He turned round and looked at her. His eyes, that had 
 seemed so tired of life, were shining with tears, but he was 
 quite elaborately self-possessed. " I am assuming," he said, 
 " that you have broken your engagement." 
 
 " Yes. At least, no, not yet. But I am going to break 
 it as soon as I return." 
 
 " I knew it must be that. I won't ask you why. I think 
 I know why. You have discovered something?" 
 
 She tightened her lips. " I suppose anybody else would 
 have discovered it months years ago. I suppose even 
 you could see it?" 
 
 " I had no means of seeing, but I conjectured." He looked 
 at her again, and could not keep the yearning passion that 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 289 
 
 filled him out of his eyes. " You won't let it break your 
 heart, Kathy?" 
 
 " No, Jim, I won't." But she caught her breath in a mo- 
 mentary sob. " I hope I do know better than that at my 
 age ! So old as I am ! Oh, it is all right ! It is quite nat- 
 ural. I don't blame anybody. I'll I'll just come home 
 again, as you say " 
 
 " To those who love you as you deserve who love you 
 with every fibre of soul and body to whom you are always 
 young the loveliest woman ! a thousand times dearer for 
 your splendid fidelity, though it was to another man ' 
 
 " Jim, I ask you ! Am I not humiliated enough?" 
 
 " Am I humiliating you? Could I? Kathy, you and I 
 after all we have gone through we needn't think such 
 things of each other two faithful people, who have both 
 been true and stedfast through thick and thin. But I 
 won't say any more, if you think it is humiliating you. Of 
 course, I know it is shocking bad taste horrible, from the 
 conventional point of view like dancing on a new-made 
 grave ; but I can't pretend just for a sentiment of propri- 
 ety after keeping it back for twenty years. Twenty ! 
 thirty would be nearer the mark." 
 
 She could not check him, except by distressed, entreating 
 eyes. 
 
 " Very well very well ! I am not asking anything, 
 Kathy, only telling you; and I needn't tell you, for you 
 know you have known all along. As you say, I mustn't 
 assume too much I mustn't hope to have heaven all at 
 once if I ever have it! There I've done. I must go 
 now. Good-bye for a little while. It won't be long, 
 Kathy, before you come home? Don't be afraid I won't 
 worry you." 
 
 " Jim, if I come back you must promise " 
 
 "Yes yes, I will. I'll promise J;o do whatever you bid 
 me, Kathy." 
 
 He took up his black bag with a shaking hand, and went, 
 for he could not at the moment trust himself to fulfil that 
 undertaking. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIL 
 
 JIM came back to the hospital in the afternoon, with two 
 other doctors, to perform some operations. He asked for 
 Miss Knowles, and was told that she had left the house. 
 Then he steadied head and hand for his work, as the good 
 doctor does, whatever his private agitations the good doc- 
 
290 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 tor and the good ship captain, who, in their conception of 
 duty, of their responsibilities as guardians of human life, 
 do more to justify our faith in the inherent nobility of man 
 than, perhaps, any other class of persons, male or female. 
 Elvira arrived while he was in the midst of his surgical 
 fancy-work, all his powers of mind and body concentrated 
 on his " case" for the time being. She, too, wanted to know 
 where Katherine was, and her lovely face wore an anxious 
 expression. They told her that Miss Knowles had spent 
 the morning with the patients, but had now, they supposed, 
 returned to Brighton. Thither Elvira repaired in hot haste, 
 arriving five minutes before dinner-time, and found the 
 mistress of the house still absent. 
 
 What Katherine did upon leaving the hospital was to go 
 to the owners of the Mary Johnson, and readjust her con- 
 tract with those gentlemen. She told them that unfore- 
 seen circumstances had occurred which made it unlikely 
 that she would be able to sail quite so soon as she had in- 
 tended ; and they agreed, upon certain terms, to use the 
 vessel for a small trading enterprise, and replace it at her 
 disposal in a month or six weeks' time. Having thus par- 
 tially relieved herself, she went to Williamstown, to inter- 
 view her captain, who had become her friend during the 
 process of making those peculiar arrangements in which 
 the captain's assistance had been required. She did not 
 find him on board, where she had intended to take her 
 evening meal, as on the previous day, feeling still that she 
 would rather do anything than be obliged to converse with 
 Forbes and Elvira at present ; and when she left the pier 
 she asked herself where she should go for the refreshment 
 that she needed after her fatigues. It was a comparatively 
 cool afternoon (for which reason Jim had decided to per- 
 form four, operations instead of two), but she was sticky 
 with heat,' and parched and smudged with Melbourne sum- 
 mer dust " dying," as we say, for a cup of tea. For many 
 years a cup of tea and a few slices of bread and butter had 
 sufficed for the meal that was now an extensive dinner, and 
 that simple fare was all that she required in lieu of Al- 
 phonse's dishes. 
 
 " I will go back to the hospital," she decided, looking at 
 her watch. " I will have a bath, and a quiet cup of tea in 
 my own old room." -And she set off on her long journey 
 thither with an alacrity that was surprising, all things con- 
 sidered. 
 
 No properly-constituted heroine of a novel would have 
 dreamt of doing such a thing, seeing what had happened in 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 291 
 
 the morning, and that Jim was certain to return early for 
 his evening round, on account of one at least of his opera- 
 tions. In her surpassing virtuousness she would have 
 ignored the very existence of love and lovers in the world 
 for twelve calendar months from the date of a disappoint- 
 ment such as Katherine had undergone. But the natural 
 woman is not made that way, and Katherine was just a 
 natural woman, and neither better nor worse. Wherefore 
 it did comfort her to feel that she was " not too old for 
 Jim" that she had a choice of houses to live in, and did 
 not need to starve in the street, an object of contemptuous 
 pity to those who had abandoned her. As the dog of nurs- 
 ery fable retained his appetite for bones after the cupboard 
 was bare, so, when deprived of the honour and sympathy 
 on which, or the semblance of which, she had so long sub- 
 sisted, she still craved that nourishment which is the 
 woman's bread of life. " Though they despise me for an old 
 maid, I am still young, and even good-looking to some peo- 
 ple," was a reflection that answered all the purposes of 
 religious consolation at this time ; and it was for the pleas- 
 ure of being thus regarded as a crowned queen, standing 
 first, above all others, grey hairs notwithstanding that she 
 went to the hospital to get her tea. 
 
 Nevertheless, she carefully abstained from analysing 
 motives, and had no idea of allowing Jim to be sentimental. 
 
 " I hope he will not be there," she said to herself, and 
 really imagined that she meant it ; " or, if he is, I trust he 
 will behave himself. It's not like Jim to be so so ridicu- 
 lous as he was this morning." She blushed as she thought 
 how very ridiculous he had been. 
 
 But a buggy was standing at the hospital gate when she 
 arrived there. One of the consulting doctors had gone, 
 but the other remained, and of course Jim was with him. 
 The windows of the operating-room flared with gaslight. 
 
 " What can make them so late?" she wondered, with pro- 
 fessional concern. " I hope nothing has gone wrong." 
 
 She entered the house quietly, and, while passing along 
 a passage to a bathroom, heard the doctors go downstairs, 
 and heard the waiting buggy rattle off. So she ordered tea 
 of the first person she encountered, washed and brushed at 
 leisure, and sauntered to the matron's sitting-room, pre- 
 tending to feel that she had had a fortunate escape. 
 
 But Jim was in the matron's sitting-room, packing instru- 
 ment-cases into a bag. He wore a calm and business-like 
 air for he had not gone through his twenty years' proba- 
 tion for nothing evincing no surprise when his sweetheart 
 
29 2 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 entered. She, however, started like a bashful girl on see- 
 ing him. 
 
 " You here !" she exclaimed. " I thought you had gone 
 long ago. What is keeping you so late?" 
 
 V* I've done four this afternoon, and one of them our great 
 case," he answered. "Nearly a stone weight, Katherine, 
 after it was removed" he went into technical details " and 
 I believe she will live, after all. I'd give a thousand pounds 
 to save her. There has never been a recovery yet in this 
 country it would be the making of me, as well as of her." 
 
 This subject, naturally, removed them at once from the 
 region of their personal embarrassments. Katherine was 
 at ease immediately. 
 
 " Who's nursing?' she inquired. 
 
 Jim told her. 
 
 " She's all right," said the ex-matron, " as long as she's 
 on duty. But when she goes off at nine, there's no one so 
 competent to take her place. Jim, you must let me sit up 
 to-night. We must pull that case through, if human means 
 can do it, and the neglect of a moment might undo all." 
 
 Jim's eyes glowed. " But the fatigue, Kathy " 
 
 " Nonsense ! 1 can do as I always did. I can sleep to- 
 morrow." 
 
 " And Elvira can you leave her unchaperoned her and 
 him?" 
 
 " Oh, Elvira !" laughed Katherine, who still felt a little 
 cruel. " She must manage with Hester. I'll send them a 
 message to say I am detained here on a matter of life and 
 death. They won't fret. And I must get some clothes. 
 I'll tell them you want me, Jim for you do want me, don't 
 you?" 
 
 He only smiled, and she sat down to write a note to 
 Hester. 
 
 While she wrote a maid brought in the materials for her 
 tea; and this young person, when she went out, carried 
 away the note, and instructions to despatch it by trusty 
 messenger to Brighton. Jim remained standing by the 
 fireless hearth, with his hands behind him. 
 
 " Kathy, I'm tired," he said, when the door was closed. 
 " It's been anxious work, and I daren't leave just yet. Let 
 me have a cup of tea with you may I?" 
 
 " Surely," she answered, and she wheeled a second chair 
 to the table. He sat down, and they began their meal with 
 a mutual sense of familiar comfort that each was conscious 
 of in the other, though they were careful not to express it 
 more openly than *hey could help. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 293- 
 
 " When did you hear from home last?" Katherine inquired, 
 in a light, conversational tone, as she poured out the tea. 
 
 " I don't know it's so long ago," said Jim. " One drops 
 out, somehow, in twenty years. One's place gets filled 
 up." 
 
 " Yes," said she. " I suppose we are both pretty well for- 
 gotten by this time." 
 
 " It's only natural," said Jim. " And I don't know that it 
 signifies much. We've been forgetting them, too." 
 
 " Yes. But I should like to see the old place again 
 shouldn't you? That picture of Fahey's in the Victorian 
 Loan have you looked at it much? It draws me every 
 time I go to the Exhibition. It's our own old wherry, and 
 the very sunset that we have seen on the Broad a thousand 
 times. Do you remember " 
 
 " I know what you are going to say do I remember that 
 night when we sat there when we frightened the poor old 
 aunts by staying out so late? Don't I !" He paused to take 
 a fresh grasp of his good resolutions. " What a lovely night 
 it was ! Fahey has just caught the look of that golden haze 
 on the water. I hope the place won't be so overrun with 
 painters and tourists that we sha'n't know it when we go 
 back again." 
 
 "Do you think of going back again ever?" 
 
 " I had meant to go in a few months. I was beginning to 
 take steps for disposing of my practice." 
 
 She was silent for a few minutes, and then asked him if 
 he would have another cup. 
 
 " No, thank you, Kathy." He persisted in calling her by 
 this new name. " I think, if you'll excuse me, I'll go up 
 and have a look at our patient. Then, if she is all right, I 
 must run away for an hour." 
 
 " I will go with you, and you can tell Nurse Rose that I 
 am going to share the case with her. You can instruct us 
 together." 
 
 They went upstairs, found the patient fairly strong and 
 apparently comfortable, and Katherine was installed as her 
 night attendant. Jim then rushed home, where other pa- 
 tients awaited him ; and Katherine, receiving her bag of 
 clothes, and an anxious note from Elvira which latter she 
 scarcely took the trouble to read made preparations for 
 her vigil. 
 
 By half-past nine the whole house was quiet, Nurse Rose 
 getting to bed after more than fifteen hours' work, and her 
 substitute sitting in her chair in the little private room 
 which had been allotted to the most desperate of the sur- 
 
J?94 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 gical cases. The poor woman, who, like so many, so ter- 
 rible a proportion, of her sex, had found her womanhood a 
 painful and fatal burden and not from default of nature, 
 either lay still and dozed, in the bliss of partial uncon- 
 sciousness ; and the nurse, while she watched her, thought 
 her own thoughts, in a peace that seemed strange, even to 
 herself, when she remembered that it was hardly four-and- 
 twenty hours since her whole scheme of life had been shat- 
 tered at a blow. 
 
 " Work is the physic for sorrow," she thought. " If I had 
 not been able to come back to the hospital, what should I 
 have done?" 
 
 Jim came at 8 o'clock, and again at 10, and went through 
 the wards each time, inspecting all the more serious cases. 
 At midnight he returned once more, being too anxious 
 about his chief case, he said, to remain long away from her 
 at present. 
 
 " She is all right," Katherine whispered. " And you ought 
 to sleep, Jim, while you can. You can't take your rest in 
 the day, like us. Go and lie down somewhere, and I will 
 call you if you are needed." 
 
 But he said he was quite fresh, and he looked so not 
 haggard and fagged, as he was at the beginning of the day, 
 but alert and serene, as if he had slept since breaKfast-time. 
 He sat down by the bed at Katherine 's side. 
 
 " I want to be here when she wakes," he said. " It's an 
 awfully critical thing, Kathy." 
 
 "Of course it is," she assented; and added presently, 
 after a long look at the patient, " Try not to hope too much, 
 Jim." 
 
 " I don't think I ever hoped so much for anything as to 
 succeed here where so many have failed I mean for any- 
 thing apart from you, Kathy." 
 
 " Well, this isn't apart from me. I am as anxious as you 
 are." 
 
 "It's her best chance now having you. Will you stay 
 till she's through? Can you?" 
 
 " Certainly." She was only too glad of the excuse to 
 stay. 
 
 " You and I together we'll do it, if it is to be done. 
 There's no sign of fever yet. I little thought I should see 
 you sitting here again, with your apron on my right 
 hand as if you had never been away." 
 
 " No. It's well we can't foresee what's going to happen." 
 She yawned a little. 
 
 " Are you tired, Kathy? Will you have a cup of coffee?" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 295 
 
 " No, thanks. I've had one. And I'm not tired a bit. I 
 wish you'd go and rest, Jim." 
 
 " I'll rest when I see her a little further on. Kathy, when 
 you come back, you must not work as you used to do, but 
 just be the lady superintendent, and overlook them all. 
 There's no need for you to wear yourself out any more 
 indeed, I should not allow it." 
 
 " You not allow it? Well, I like that !" She laughed in a 
 whisper a laugh that delighted him. 
 
 " Kathy, what do you say to turning the Brighton house 
 into a convalescent home making it an offshoot of this, 
 with Hester for matron?" 
 
 " Oh," said Katherine, colouring," it's too early for those 
 plans yet." 
 
 " Yes yes, of course. Sufficient for the day. I forget 
 that it is only a day since yesterday. It seems like a year." 
 
 So they talked through the night, and tended their pa- 
 tient, who, for some hours, fairly satisfied their hopes. 
 But suddenly, towards three in the morning, she awoke to 
 moan and sigh ; and her nose shrank, and her eyes went in, 
 and her breath lagged heavily, and she grew colder and 
 colder, and greyer and greyer; and Jim's face, that had 
 looked so surprisingly young just now, aged all at once, as 
 he struggled in vain to restore warmth and strength. 
 
 " Ah, Kathy, "he groaned, as he set the little feeding-cup, 
 with the last dose in it, on the bedside table, " I've failed, 
 after all !" 
 
 He had failed. Before 4 o'clock the woman was dead 
 happily for her, doubtless, though he did not think so and 
 for the moment he was overwhelmed with the bitterness of 
 his disappointment, in spite of his long experience of such 
 mishaps. He stood looking at the poor body, which repre- 
 sented such beautiful work, all done for nothing, and could 
 hardly trust himself to speak. 
 
 " You have only failed to do the impossible^" said Kath- 
 erine, gently; " that's all." 
 
 " I don't think it was impossible, "he replied, clearing his 
 throat. " Another man might have done it." 
 
 " No," she rejoined, promptly. " Not if you couldn't." 
 
 " What !" he exclaimed, brightening. " Have you such a 
 good opinion of me, Kathy?" 
 
 " Don't I know you better than anybody what you can 
 do? Haven't I seen your work every day for all these 
 years?' 
 
 " And you think I did all I ought to have done?" 
 
 " I am sure of it." 
 
296 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "Then I don't care." 
 
 But she saw very plainly that he cared deeply, and she 
 was full of compassion for him. Never before had his life- 
 long discouragements seemed so pathetic in her eyes the 
 reason for which is obvious to the discerning reader, though 
 it did not occur to herself and she felt a " call" to admin- 
 ister comfort generously. 
 
 " Come down to my room to Kate's room," she said, 
 when they had observed the little formalities of the institu- 
 tion in connection with their patient's death. And, having 
 followed her light step along the dim stairs and passages, 
 he found himself gently pushed into an arm-chair, and 
 Katherine pressing a glass of wine upon him wine of the 
 best, for it was provided for convalescing patients with 
 an air of authority that struck him as absurd. 
 
 " You waiting upon mef he cried. " This is indeed revers- 
 ing the order of things." 
 
 "It is," she agreed. "But there's no reason why I 
 shouldn't have my turn. Drink this, Jim. You have had 
 a dreadful day, and you are worn out, though you pretend 
 you are not. Have a biscuit with it. And then go home, 
 and get a good sleep before you have to begin your rounds 
 again." 
 
 " I don't want to go anywhere while I can be with you, 
 Kathy." 
 
 " But you can't be with me. I am going to bed, too. We 
 must not scandalise the house after all these years, and at 
 our time of life ! D^ink this, like a good boy, and then go 
 and rest while you can." 
 
 He looked up at her as she bent over him, took the glass 
 from her hand, and took the hand after it, holding her 
 down. She had lighted the gas on entering the room, and 
 they could see the new tenderness in each other's eyes. 
 
 "Kathy, "he said, shaking the wine over his fingers, "I 
 want to drink a health a toast no, I don't mean that ex- 
 actly. Kathy, she's dead, but we are alive, you and I we 
 have had a long trial, both of us Kathy, we needn't stand 
 on ceremony, need we? We have been in the presence of 
 death we know what's real and what isn't we needn't 
 pretend with each other, you and I we needn't settle any- 
 thing I can wait, dear I can do anything you wish. But, 
 you know? There was no chance for me before I always 
 saw that and I never troubled you, did I? I was never 
 worthy, I know and I am not now 
 
 She interrupted him there, dropping her disengaged 
 hand upon his shoulder, " Not worthy !" she ejaculated, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 297 
 
 " You not worthy ! I should like to know who was ever 
 worthy in this world, if you are not! There isn't one of us 
 fit to be named in the same breath. But for you I should 
 be I should have there would be nothing nothing " 
 
 Speech failed, and pride indeed, all sense of decency 
 deserted her. It was practically years ago since she had 
 broken with Forbes, and Jim and she were in the presence 
 of death, which made such a difference in the aspect of 
 everything. Moreover, they were both unnerved and ex- 
 cited, affected by the tragic silence and solitude about 
 them, the strangeness of their joint isolation in a painful 
 world. Not meaning to do it she did it instinctively she 
 sank upon her knees on a footstool beside him, and yielded to 
 his arms, that opened and closed around her in an embrace 
 that certainly had nothing middle-aged about it. 
 
 " Oh, Kathy ! Kathy !" he almost groaned in his passion. 
 " Kiss me, Kathy ! My Kathy ! Kiss me !" 
 
 She hid her face in his breast, while he pressed his lips 
 to her hair and her neck. " I can't I mustn't! What he 
 has cast off, Jim oh, it is I that am not worthy!" she 
 sobbed. 
 
 " Kathy, we have both suffered we have both been true 
 and faithful we have only each other now Kathy, put up 
 your mouth ! One of us may die before we can be together 
 again, before you can give me another chance ; and I have 
 starved for so long! Well, not if it goes against you, 
 dear." 
 
 He made an effort to control himself. 
 
 But the suggestion that death might step in between him 
 and her, now that he was all she had in the world, flashed 
 a light into her soul that dispelled all conventional misgiv- 
 ings. If they were to part eternally, as they might do 
 to-night, and must do in a few years 
 
 She threw up her arms impulsively, clasping his bent 
 neck, and lifted her face, closing her eyes that she might 
 not see the look in his ; and he kissed her in the throbbing 
 silence as she had never been kissed before as poor Neil 
 might have kissed her when she was young, had she given 
 him leave. 
 
 " Now go, Jim; go home to bed," she whispered, trem- 
 blingly, when she could prevail on him to release her. 
 " No, not any more, Jim. You must go now." 
 
 " Yes, I'll go now, Kathy. My Kathy ! Mine, after all !" 
 
 " Not yet, dear. Some day, perhaps." 
 
 "I know I understand. I am satisfied. Only I can't 
 bear to leave you, after this, Five minutes, Kathy?" 
 
298 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " No, Jim, no. Come, we must both go and rest. And 
 and try to forget what a pair of idiots we have been." 
 
 " I'll forget that when the time comes for forgetting all 
 things. Not before." 
 
 " Oh, don't talk so ! That's the second time ! Take care 
 of yourself. You are not half taking care of yourself, these 
 days." 
 
 " That's because I haven't had you to live for." 
 
 " Go and get a good sleep, and come back rested, to 
 please me." 
 
 " Shall you be here when I come back?" 
 
 "I expect so." 
 
 " Then I'll go. Come and let me out; let me keep you to 
 the last moment." 
 
 She went with him to the door and to the gate. The 
 hospital was a large place now, and had a considerable gar- 
 den around it. He kissed her again as they stood under 
 the trees together, in the cool pallor of the dawn. 
 
 "It is morning," he said, looking up. "A new day, 
 Kathy. A new day for you and me." 
 
 "And only one day since yesterday, Jim!" 
 
 " A thousand years," he rejoined. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 WHEN they met again, some half-dozen hours later, a 
 daylight sobriety possessed them, particularly Katherine. 
 The doctor, despite his professional misfortune, was cer- 
 tainly in good spirits, which was a somewhat remarkable 
 circumstance, referred by the nurses to its just cause. 
 
 " It's because Miss Knowles is in the house again," they 
 said to one another. " He has never been the same man 
 since she left." 
 
 Owing mainly to Katherine's discretion, they said no 
 more than this. 
 
 " No, Jim," she urged, when, after several attempts, he 
 inveigled her into the matron's room and shut the door be- 
 hind them. " No, Jim, this won't do. Have you no regard 
 for my character? No, you are not to kiss me any more." 
 
 " Only one, Kathy just to assure myself that I didn't 
 dream things last night." 
 
 " But you did we both did. We were upset, and didn't 
 know what we were doing. I am shocked when I think of 
 it. Jim, I will not allow it. Oh, you are as bad as 
 Neil -" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 299 
 
 He was, In his new strength and boldness he kissed 
 her, in spite of her protestations. But he knew that her 
 soul allowed him, if her body did not. For a moment she 
 resisted ; then her hands went up to his shoulders, and she 
 kissed him back again. 
 
 " Oh, my friend of friends !" she breathed. " Oh, my true, 
 true friend !" 
 
 But there was more than friendship in her tone ; it was 
 the passion of youth, that had been starved so long, which 
 responded to his the warm woman nature that had not 
 lost its vital perfection. 
 
 " Your mate, Kathy ; your true mate," he answered, feel- 
 ing his brain reel a little with such a fulness of bliss, as 
 with the fumes of wine too strong for him. "And you 
 never knew it ! I always knew it. But you know now." 
 
 In short, he lost his head for the moment, and she had 
 great difficulty in calming him. 
 
 " I see how it is," she said. "I have no longer the slight- 
 est influence over you. I must go home at once, and tell 
 the servants to say I am engaged when you come to call on 
 me." 
 
 " Kathy, how can you go home now?" 
 
 "My dear boy, how can I stay here now? Indeed," 
 throwing up her hands with a gesture of despair, " I am in 
 the most desperate position. I don't see how I can properly 
 do either." 
 
 "Let us sit down and talk about it." 
 
 He put her in a chair, and pulled himself together. 
 
 "Now, Kathy," he said, "we must really make up oul 
 minds what is best to be done. This is a serious crisis." 
 
 "Indeed, I don't want you to tell me that! We have got 
 things into such a simply dreadful mess that I don't know 
 how to set about righting them. It would be too mean to 
 lay it all on them." 
 
 "It would." 
 
 "I can't help it that you will consider that last night 
 that I that we " 
 
 "That we are now engaged to each other? No, you 
 can't." 
 
 "And it is impossible for me to allow things to take place 
 behind people's backs that I can't own to before their faces. 
 We could neither of us allow it. We should be miserable 
 if we were so deceitful." 
 
 "I quite agree with you. Give me your hand, Kathy; 
 I'm not happy if I can't feel you as well as see you." 
 
 He sat on a low chair nearly fronting her a slender, gen- 
 
300 NOT ALL IN VAIN.. 
 
 tlemanly figure, surmounted by a thin, rather hollow-eyed, 
 firm-lipped, thoughtful face, into which she looked shyly, 
 with wondering recognition of its newly-acquired power 
 over her. Taking her hand from her knee he kissed the 
 upturned palm, and laid his forehead into it. " Isn't it odd 
 that you have never worn an engagement ring, Kathy? I 
 have often noticed it, when I hadn't the cheek to mention 
 such things." 
 
 " You've got cheek enough now, at any rate. I can't 
 think what's come to you, Jim !" 
 
 " You have come to me, Kathy." 
 
 "If I had foreseen well, it's no use talking about that, 
 now the mischief is done. Jim, I thought you were going 
 to help me to decide on something. This isn't helping me." 
 
 " Go on, love. I am listening." 
 
 "If I go home now and indeed I must go home it can't 
 be put off indefinitely, and I may as well go and get it over 
 if I go to them and say, and tell them what has happened, 
 I shall simply cover myself with disgrace." 
 
 ' ' Well, what does that matter that sort of disgrace? Who 
 cares?" He lifted his head out of her hand, and looked at 
 her with a quiet confidence that was infinitely supporting. 
 "In my opinion, Kathy, that's the only thing we can do. 
 Let them know let everybody know, for the matter of that, 
 seeing that it's the fact, and facts must be honestly ad- 
 mitted by honest folks that you and I have found out that 
 we belong to each other, and not to anybody else. That you 
 have found it out, that is to say; / never had to find it 
 out." 
 
 ' ' I am to tell them that, when I left the house engaged, 
 on the eve of oh, Jim ! I wonder if the thought will always 
 be in your mind that I only took you because he cast me 
 off." 
 
 " My dear, what will always be in my mind is the thought 
 that you loved me all the time and didn't know it." 
 
 " But you can't think that, you know." 
 
 "You don't know what I can't think, and what I can. I 
 believe I know more about it, after all, than you do. But 
 never mind that; that's a detail. The question is, have you 
 the courage to own up? Of course you can tell them what 
 you discovered beforehand. That will stop anybody from 
 reproaching you." 
 
 "I would rather not take advantage of that, Jim." 
 
 " So would I, dear. We'd better leave out all reference 
 to them in the matter. We are responsible; we don't want 
 excuses; I don't, at any rate. I'll go with you, if you like, 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 3 O1 
 
 I'd be rather glad of an opportunity to say a few things that 
 I've had on my mind lately " 
 
 " I won't give you that opportunity," she broke in. "I can 
 do it best by myself." 
 
 "Very well. So it's done. And, Kathy, dear, it's such 
 a bad business, conventionally regarded, that it's no use 
 trying to mend it. It's no use trying to save appearances. 
 Let us throw everything to the winds everything while 
 we are about it. You are so fond of alluding to our time 
 of life, as if we were only fit for an almshouse. We are as 
 young as anybody at the present moment every bit as 
 young but we haven't such an unlimited prospect as we 
 had, say, twenty years ago. Is it worth while to waste any 
 more of our lives, when we've wasted such a lot? But no, 
 I won't call it wasted we did the only thing we could do, 
 both of us. But still, it's late to be making a new begin- 
 ning, and it isn't as if it was really only two days it has 
 been years that you might have been with me. You don't 
 think of that when you complain of indecent haste. Haste ! 
 when I've thought of nothing else for the best part of a 
 lifetime. You owe me something for all those years at 
 any rate, you owe me that, not to sacrifice me for nothing 
 any more ; don't you, Kathy?" 
 
 He leaned towards her more and more, drawing her by 
 the hand he held, until he got her again into his arms, and 
 overwhelmed her with the uprising passion that so reminded 
 her of Neil. His daylight sobriety had quite deserted him, 
 for the second time that morning, and Katherine said again, 
 in real desperation, that this sort of thing would never, 
 never do. She pushed him off, yielded to his embrace im- 
 pulsively, and pushed him off again, crying : " Oh, Jim, do 
 let me breathe ! Do let me have time to think ! Let me 
 get free first, in the name of common decency. Let me go 
 home and tell them. Then then " 
 
 " All right, Kathy." He released her quickly, and spoke 
 in a quiet tone, for he saw that she was on the verge of 
 hysterical tears ; his professional sense informed him that 
 the shock of these new experiences was telling upon her, 
 as it was bound to do sooner or later. " All right, dear. I 
 will wait till then. Forgive me for pressing you. I'm for- 
 getting that it isn't such an old story to you as it is to me. 
 Kathy, tell me, did you get any sleep last night?" 
 
 " Not a wink," she replied, smiling. " How could I?" 
 
 "Nor did I. Have you had any breakfast?" 
 
 "A cup of tea. That was all I wanted." 
 
 He rose and rang the bell, which in itself was an excellent 
 
302 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 stimulant to slack nerves, and he ordered some lunch for 
 Miss Knowles bottled stout and a sandwich against 
 which she vehemently protested. 
 
 "I can't drink porter in this weather, Jim. I couldn't 
 eat a mouthful." 
 
 "Try," he said. "You are "all shaking with exhaustion. 
 And good heavens! it's 12 o'clock. I shall have to go. 
 Take it before I go, Kathy, to please me." 
 
 "If you say I am to have it, I suppose I must." 
 
 * ' Exactly. I am glad you understand the situation so well. " 
 
 The porter was cool, and foamed over the top of the 
 glass, and the sandwiches were nice, and he fed her with 
 them, tenderly but firmly, as if dosing a patient, until she 
 had had a respectable meal, and confessed herself feeling 
 surprisingly the better for it. Then he bade her go and lie 
 down and have a long sleep. " And when I come back this 
 afternoon we can finish our talk, Kathy." 
 
 This time she did not obey him. When he was gone she 
 made up her mind to go too. Her lunch had invigorated 
 her, sleep still seemed an impossibility, and she determined 
 that she would not be kissed by Jim again until she was a 
 free woman. To avoid this danger no time was to be lost ; 
 and, though it was the hottest period of the day, she set off 
 on her painful errand to Brighton, resolved to perform it 
 forthwith and thoroughly, almost as soon as his back was 
 turned. " It will be nice to be able to tell him I have got 
 it over," she said to herself. " And I shall not feel quite 
 such an unprincipled wretch as I do now." 
 
 She took the train into town, and had scarcely done so 
 when she was passed by another train, on the dummy of 
 which she saw Elvira sitting Elvira, going to the hospital 
 again to look for her lost "mother." The girl sat in the 
 sunshine, lovely as a newly-opened rose in her pale pink 
 gown and diaphanous white hat, with an air of pensive 
 abstraction in her pose and a far-away look in her beautiful 
 eyes, that should have touched the maternal heart, and 
 would have done at any previous time. But Katherine was 
 not touched now, nor did she dream of getting down to in- 
 tercept Elvira and relieve the child's evident anxiety. She 
 said to herself, " What a lucky escape !" drawing back into 
 a corner, so that Elvira might not see her; and, as they 
 passed out of sight on their several ways, congratulated 
 herself on having to face, in the first instance, " but one of 
 them at a time." 
 
 Forbes was smoking in the garden. He loved to be out 
 of doors in all weathers, and smoked so incessantly that she 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 303 
 
 was glad to have him there, though willing to let him puff 
 his tobacco wherever he pleased. She arrived at home 
 with a bad headache, the result of travelling in the sun 
 after taking porter, instead of sleeping upon it, as Jim had 
 prescribed; and she first went to bathe and change her 
 dress, to explain to Hester that she had been detained by a 
 bad case at the hospital, and to drink a cup of tea. Then, 
 in dread of Elvira's untimely return, she took her courage 
 in both hands, and went into the garden. 
 
 Forbes, dozing in the cool shade of a clump of cedars, 
 woke up when he heard her step ; and she saw his bright 
 look grow dull or she thought she did when he recog- 
 nised her. It was evident to her that he had expected to 
 see Elvira, and was disappointed. This braced her for her 
 task. 
 
 " Oh, it's you !" he exclaimed. " What on earth have you 
 been after all this time? Elvira and Hester have been 
 making such a fuss you'd have thought the house was on 
 fire." 
 
 He hadn't been making a fuss, apparently, though it was 
 the first time that Katherine had left him since his libera- 
 tion ; and, now that she had returned, it did not occur to 
 him to make any demonstrations of welcome. Truly thank- 
 ful was she that it did not, but the circumstance helped to 
 harden her, all the same. 
 
 " There was no need for any fuss," she said, coolly, seat- 
 ing herself in the chair that she supposed Elvira had been 
 occupying all the morning. " They knew where I was. I 
 sent two messages to tell them. We had a bad case, and 
 they wanted me to help." 
 
 " Not all the time. Yesterday Elvira went to the hospi- 
 tal to look for you, and you were not there. She came 
 home perfectly exhausted with the heat, and couldn't touch 
 her dinner. She didn't get your note till late in the 
 evening." 
 
 " Oh, that was before. I had gone then to see the Mary 
 Johnson people. I went, Forbes, to tell them that we 
 would not sail next week." 
 
 " Not sail next week? Why?" 
 
 " Because I have changed my mind about it about 
 everything." 
 
 He stared at her, open-mouthed, and his face reddened. 
 She looked away towards the sea, setting her teeth. 
 
 " What why I don't understand," he stammered. It 
 was his guilty conscience, she thought, that made him 
 stammer. 
 
3<H NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "Well, I may as well say it plainly," she returned, in a 
 hard voice. " I don't want to marry you, Forbes, and you 
 don't want to marry me, and and" she stammered in her 
 turn " and things are at an end between us. I am too old ; 
 it was all so long ago. We have both changed without 
 knowing it; we shall be happier apart with others ' 
 
 She could not go on, and he was too shame-stricken to 
 speak. He thought he knew why she had so suddenly taken 
 this startling turn all in a moment, at the eleventh hour, 
 as it were and he did not know how to act. He believed 
 she had discovered his secret, and was charging him with 
 his base deeds. Great, therefore, was his surprise when, 
 clearing her throat and making an evident effort, she pro- 
 ceeded to announce that she was going to marry Jim Ham- 
 mond. " I am going to marry Jim Hammond, if I marry 
 anybody," she said. It was easier to blurt it out in that 
 way than to beat about the bush. 
 
 He jumped as if he had been shot, and seemed dazed for 
 a moment. Then he sat up, swelling with his wrongs, bold 
 and proud in his righteous indignation. 
 
 " What r he cried. " You you going to jilt me for an- 
 other man, after all these years; after all we have gone 
 through after all your professions of undying constancy ! 
 I don't believe it, Katherine. You are playing a joke on 
 me." 
 
 " I never was more serious in my life," she said. 
 
 " Well !" he ejaculated, with sarcastic emphasis. " Well !" 
 He seemed to bristle with wrath, and was altogether far 
 more moved than she had expected him to be. " There are 
 women I knew there were women creatures who don't 
 deserve the name of woman who can do such things 
 drop an old lover and take a new one on in the same 
 breath, as if it were no more than changing a pair of 
 gloves ; but I never thought you were one of them, Kath- 
 erine. And after all these years, after all we have gone 
 through together !" 
 
 Katherine smiled an odd little smile, but said noth- 
 ing. 
 
 " However, I suppose it's what I ought to have expected 
 to happen long ago," he went on. "I always knew that 
 fellow stood in my path. And he's had every advantage, 
 while I've been shut up out of the way; and he's well with 
 the world, and I'm only a poor convict. Oh, I suppose it's 
 natural ! But I think you might have known your own 
 mind a little earlier, Katherine." 
 
 "I wish I had," she said, quietly. She still refrained 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. . 305 
 
 from throwing Elvira in his face, though she felt she would 
 have been justified in doing so. 
 
 As he poured forth his reproaches for her perfidy and 
 light-mindedness, growing more and more indignant as he 
 gradually realised the enormity of her crime, Elvira came 
 home. Passing through the garden, she saw Katherine sit- 
 ting there, uttered an exclamation of joy, and ran to greet 
 her. 
 
 Katherine put up a hand to ward off the imminent kiss, 
 to Elvira's evident consternation. Forbes boldly called 
 her to his side. 
 
 " Come here, Elvira. I suppose she may as well hear 
 the news, Katherine? Elvira, Katherine has thrown me 
 over. She finds she doesn't care for me any longer." 
 
 The girl stood transfixed, overwhelmed with horror and 
 anguish. Katherine was never so heartless in her life as 
 when she coldly smiled at the spectacle of the child's dis- 
 tress. Elvira's hands went up to her face, as if she were 
 ashamed to look upon the light of day, and with a wild sob 
 she turned and ran into the house. 
 
 "She can't believe it," remarked Forbes, grimly. "No 
 wonder." 
 
 On the whole, Katherine felt that she would rather have 
 to do with the girl than with the man just now, and she got 
 up to follow her protegee. She found Elvira in her bed- 
 room, her hat on the floor, her head buried in a sofa cush- 
 ion, weeping as if her heart would break. 
 
 " What's the matter?" Katherine irritably demanded, sit- 
 ting down on the sofa. " What's all this fuss about?" 
 
 Elvira wept on, more bitterly than before. 
 
 "Come, don't be a stupid baby, ' exclaimed Katherine, 
 shaking her. " Tell me what you are crying for." 
 
 Then Elvira transferred her head from the sofa cushion 
 to Katherine 's knee. 
 
 " Oh, I know why you are angry with me ! I know why 
 you speak to me like that," she wailed. " Oh, Katherine, 
 it is my fault ! I am a wicked, wicked girl ! It is I who 
 have parted you ! But, oh, I did try not ! I did try so 
 hard !" 
 
 " I don't know what you are talking about," said Kather- 
 ine, mendaciously. " I can't see what you have to do with 
 the matter. I am parting with Forbes because I prefer to 
 marry Dr. Hammond, who loves me best." 
 
 " To marry Dr. Hammond ! To marry- ^another man /" 
 Elvira, like Forbes, could not believe her ears. Her utter 
 consternation was ludicrous. " You mean to say you are 
 
 20 
 
306 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 going to desert him, because of Dr. Hammond you, Kath- 
 erine?" 
 
 " If you like to put it so yes." 
 
 When Elvira had mastered the astounding and outrage- 
 ous fact she dried her tears, shut her lips tightly, and re- 
 tired, within herself, with an air which plainly said that she 
 would never put faith in living woman again. 
 
 No dinner was eaten that night. Forbes said he didn't 
 want any ; Katherine said her head ached too badly for her 
 to come to table ; Elvira was nowhere to be found. Mon- 
 sieur Giraud said it wasn't worth while to take trouble for 
 such people, and repaired to the theatre. 
 
 In the dusk of the evening the mistress of the house 
 thought it her duty to try to gather her family together. 
 Washed, brushed, and clothed in a pretty tea-gown, she 
 entered the drawing-room, hoping to be able to restore out- 
 ward appearances before the household went to bed, if she 
 could do no more. 
 
 The drawing-room was lighted with all its lamps, but it 
 was empty. Hester came forward to offer her mistress tea. 
 
 ' No, thanks, Hester. Where is Mr. Alexander?" 
 
 1 1 think he is walking on the beach, ma'am." 
 
 ' Where is Miss Brodie?" 
 
 ' I think she's walking with Mr. Alexander, ma'am." 
 
 ' Oh, that's right. Then I can be quiet for a little 
 while. Put out all the lamps but one, Hester. The light 
 makes my headache worse." 
 
 She wanted the lamps put out because she wanted to cry, 
 and one can never cry comfortably except in the dark. 
 When Hester had extinguished them and gone away, the 
 weary woman lay down upon a sofa, and turned her face to 
 the wall. She was just beginning to weep, for weariness 
 and loneliness, when the door opened, and Jim, with a 
 quick look round, crossed the room in three strides, and 
 dropped on his knees beside her. 
 
 " I couldn't help it, Kathy," he murmured, bending over 
 her as she lay. " Was I wrong to come? Or did you want 
 me, dear?" 
 
 She turned and stretched out her arms, and drew him to 
 her, and held him close. 
 
 "Oh, Jim," she answered from her heart, "I did want 
 you !" 
 
 ' ' I thought so ; I judged by myself ; and so I came. You 
 have been crying, Kathy. What for?" 
 
 "For you, Jim. Ok, Jim, I am not an old woman to you, 
 am I?" 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 37 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 IT was no later than the next morning, when Katherine 
 was walking round her garden, with basket and scissors, 
 cutting flowers for the house a little duty which she per- 
 ceived was being neglected that she came upon Forbes 
 and Elvira in a rustic arbour, sitting upon one seat, in much 
 the same attitude as they had presented three nights ago. 
 They jumped apart with amazing celerity when her shadow 
 fell upon them, and she drew back in great embarrassment 
 and said, " I beg your pardon," as intruders under such 
 circumstances stupidly do. But the next moment it struck 
 them all that the sooner this phase of the situation was mu- 
 tually admitted the better ; and Katherine stood still, and 
 the other two put on a bold, defensive air. 
 
 "Elvira says Elvira is willing I have only her left 
 now she offers to stand by me, Katherine, to try to fill 
 your place, to comfort me, like the faithful woman that she 
 is," said Forbes, confused, but blustering. "I suppose you 
 don't object, now that you have cast me off yourself." 
 
 "Not only do I not object," said Katherine, "but I am 
 very, very glad more glad than I can say. I know she has 
 loved you dearly since she was a child, and I have seen I 
 have thought for some time that she was better suited to 
 you than I." 
 
 " Oh, as for that " Forbes wished to imply that it 
 
 was all very well to make this lame excuse for her own un- 
 faithfulness, but it was difficult to express himself in words. 
 She quite understood him, however. 
 
 "He is good enough for me," Elvira said, with ineffable 
 dignity. "If he will only let me be his servant I shall feel 
 it an honour. I ask for nothing better than to work for him 
 and take care of him as long as he lives." 
 
 She put her hand in his. 
 
 Forbes held it awkwardly, and broke into a foolish laugh. 
 
 "You see, Katherine, I am still of some little account in 
 the world, though you don't think so." He added, after a 
 pause, during which Katherine showed that she was above 
 noticing so poor a sneer, " I can't help taking what I can 
 get, now that I've got so little." 
 
 Her thoughts went back to the dreadful day of Neil's 
 death, when this same Forbes, noble and chivalrous, re- 
 fused to take advantage of a woman's sacrificing devotion. 
 She saw him again as he was then, at that best moment of 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 his life, so true a man and lover and gentleman ; and she 
 looked at the heavy figure and dulled face before her con- 
 trasting them again with Jim's spare and virile body and 
 keen earnestness of expression, betokening the finely tem- 
 pered brain and her heart bled for the pitiful change. 
 Then she said to herself, " Am not I the cause?" and was 
 thankful that he was going to take his consolation, at what- 
 ever cost to the one who gave it. Elvira might raise him 
 yet Elvira could do it, for she still idealised him in her 
 young imagination, clothing him in the charms of his at- 
 tractive youth and the dignity of his misfortunes; and 
 Katherine did not regard Elvira as too good to be sacrificed, 
 under all the circumstances. 
 
 She went on cutting her flowers, and took them into the 
 house, and arranged them about the rooms. She was one 
 of those housewifely creatures who must have things in 
 order about them, and the flowers had to be " done," under 
 whatever tragic conditions of family life. Forbes and El- 
 vira retreated to the beach, when their painful ordeal of 
 confession was over, and talked under the wild ti-tree 
 bushes until the luncheon bell recalled them. 
 
 At lunch the little party made an effort to assume that 
 all was as usual, avoiding delicate subjects; and the meal 
 was got through decently, if not comfortably. Then 
 Forbes and his pipe retired to the shade of the cedars, 
 Elvira followed him being repelled from companionship 
 with Katherine, and the lady of the house went to lie 
 down, inadvertently fell asleep, and slept soundly for the 
 greater part of the afternoon. 
 
 Waking between 4 and 5, to find Hester and a tea-tray at 
 her bedside, Katherine 's first thought was for Jim, whom 
 she had not seen all day. 
 
 " If I don't go to the hospital, "she said to herself, " I shall 
 be having him come here again, as he did last night. And 
 I really can't stand having things all mixed up together in 
 that way. I will go at once I might catch him before he 
 leaves ; he dines at all sorts of unearthly hours often not 
 at all, I expect. He can have tea with me that is what 
 he likes. There is no need to tell them I'm going, or when 
 I shall be back. They won't make a fuss, as if the house 
 was on fire, if I don't appear at dinner. They will be 
 pleased to have a whole evening to themselves. And Jim 
 will bring me home. How odd it feels to have a man to 
 take care of one, instead of taking care of a man one's self. 
 But Jim has always taken care of me my faithful Jim !" 
 
 These were her thoughts as she flew about her room, like 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 309 
 
 an eager girl, hurrying to dress and get to the hospital be- 
 fore Jim should leave, if possible. It was unworthy of her, 
 perhaps unworthy of the heroine of a novel, certainly 
 but the fact was that she wanted to see him quite as much 
 as he could be wanting to see her. 
 
 It was evening when she reached her destination, but he 
 had not gone home. To go home was to miss a chance of 
 meeting her, and therefore he had almost lived at the hos- 
 pital, where he chanced to have some critical cases to justify 
 his continued presence in the nurses' eyes. Kate Reilly 
 was happily still absent on her holiday (Jim had surrepti- 
 tiously extended her leave) ; and the ex-matron took pos- 
 session of her room, and sat down to make the tea at the 
 little round table, with a charming air of being in her own 
 place that enchanted her grateful guest. 
 
 ' ' Oh, Kathy, how delicious of you ! And when are you 
 coming altogether, to make tea for me every day?" 
 
 "I don't know. It's too soon to talk of that. One lump 
 or two, Jim?" 
 
 "As if you didn't know as well as I that I don't take any. 
 It is not too soon, Katherine. You can't possibly go on 
 living in the house with those two, now that the true facts 
 of the case are known." 
 
 " It is for them to take steps, not me." 
 
 "Somebody must take steps. The present situation is 
 impossible. We have got them openly engaged, thank 
 God for that ! Now we must get them married and out of 
 our road." 
 
 "Jim, how brutal you are!" 
 
 "Let's be brutal. We have been far too transcendentally 
 angelic for a long time. By your leave, I shall pay a call 
 upon Mr. Forbes Alexander, and ask him his intentions." 
 
 "No, Jim. Not by my leave, certainly. Have patience 
 till they've had time to realise what has happened, poor 
 things. If I know them at all, they won't trouble us long. 
 It must be far more uncomfortable for them to be under my 
 roof than it is for me to have them. And Elvira must be 
 cared for properly ; she is the daughter of the house, so to 
 speak ; it is her home ; she, at any rate, must not be turned 
 out before the time." 
 
 " Elvira has money," said Jim, still frankly brutal. 
 
 " I am truly thankful that she has. The difficulty now is 
 how to persuade them to take some more. He cannot live 
 on her income, and have the comforts he ought to have." 
 
 " It would be far better for him not to have so many com- 
 forts better for them both," said Jim. 
 
310 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " No, no ! I could not be happy to keep it all. My dear 
 old woman meant it for him as well as for me." 
 
 " If she had lived till a few days ago she wouldn't have 
 meant him to get a penny. I am quite convinced of that. 
 But do what you like, my dear. You know you needn't 
 keep any of it for me." 
 
 Forbes "took steps" almost immediately, according to 
 her anticipations. On a Sunday morning, when she was 
 sitting in a long chair in a shady corner of her verandah, 
 Elvira having gone to church, he came from the garden to 
 join her, his pipe in his mouth and an air of purpose about 
 him that she was glad to see. She had been glancing 
 through some new magazines, reading desultorily and 
 thinking her own thoughts all the time; and she raised 
 her eyes at the first sign of his approach, surprising a 
 strange expression in his. She was not aware that she 
 looked a great deal younger than usual in a white gown 
 that she had put on, for the first time that summer, as an 
 appropriate garment for January weather. She did not 
 know that the atmosphere of youth, which Jim's passion 
 had revived, was like a new bloom upon her faded face. 
 She did not allow for that immutable law of nature which 
 makes a thing lost so much more desirable than a thing 
 possessed in safety ; and when she saw how her old lover 
 regarded her she wondered what it meant. It really 
 meant that he was realising her value and attractiveness 
 as he had not done for years past. She sat against a 
 lovely curtain of white mandevillea and the large-flowered 
 purple clematis ; the embowered shadows softened the out- 
 lines of her nobly-planned figure and the complexion of 
 her high-bred face. On her breast she wore a bunch of 
 jessamine our Christmas flower a little touch that added 
 to the suggestion of girlishness which was the charm that 
 struck him most. 
 
 "Katherine, I want to speak to you," he said gloomily. 
 
 "Sit down," she replied, making room for him beside 
 her. "No, don't put away your pipe. I don't mind it, and 
 it's good for the creepers. What is it, P'orbes?" 
 
 "I can't stay here now, Katherine, sponging upon you," 
 he burst out. 
 
 She smiled with pleasure that he had recognised this, at 
 last; she took it for an indication that his old manliness 
 was asserting itself. 
 
 "As for sponging upon me," she said, "I have told you a 
 hundred times that the poor old woman's fortune was left 
 to both of us. Half of all I have belongs to you, and you 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 311 
 
 must let me have it transferred properly. I was waiting 
 for an opportunity to speak to you about it." 
 
 "I won't have your money," he declared, with unex- 
 pected vehemence, "if I can't have you." 
 
 "Oh, that's nonsense." 
 
 "It isn't nonsense. I have no right to it. If I had I'd 
 take it fast enough. It won't be pleasant to be a pauper, 
 in addition to all my other disadvantages, dependent upon 
 Elvira for every crust of bread." 
 
 "Well, you are not that at any rate," said Katherine, 
 with a quick-wittedness that she could not be too thankful 
 for afterwards, when she found that he really would not 
 owe anything more to her generosity (her "charity," he 
 called it), if he knew it. "You have enough of your own, 
 legally, to buy your crusts with. What you left behind 
 when you had to leave Wandaroo I got Jock to realise for 
 you ; and we put it to my account, and I have kept it apart, 
 accumulating at compound interest, so that now it must 
 amount to some thousands I don't know how many." 
 
 "You don't mean it!" he cried, joyfully. 
 
 She perjured herself unblushingly, and said she did. 
 
 "And why, in Heaven's name, didn't you tell me be- 
 fore?" he demanded, inclined to be angry with her feeling 
 always glad of an excuse to be angry with her, as was 
 natural to a man who had not treated her well. "You 
 must have known what a difference it would make." 
 
 "What was the use of telling you? You couldn't have 
 used it." 
 
 "I can use it now, however. You may transfer that as 
 soon as you like if you're sure it's there if you are not 
 bamboozling me." 
 
 "It is there," she said. "And I'll go and see about trans- 
 ferring it to-morrow. It must be ten or twelve thousand 
 by this time." 
 
 "It can't be," he broke in. "I left next to nothing." 
 
 "Well, perhaps not quite so much as that but a good 
 deal, I know. I was very lucky in my investments." 
 
 "You are a wonderful woman," he said, when it occurred 
 to him to thank her. "No one else could have nursed it 
 like that. No one else would have thought of looking after 
 my interests the interests of a poor wretch with a life sen- 
 tence, worse than dead to every one belonging to him. And 
 yet and yet you couldn't keep true to me, Katharine!" 
 
 "We'll say no more about that, Forbes. Tell me what 
 you think of doing." 
 
 "God knows," he muttered, gloomily. "Get out of this 
 
312 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 house, to begin with. Excuse me, Katherine, but you 
 can't think how you have burdened me with all this" he 
 waved his stumpy fingers vaguely " loading me with ben- 
 efactions, and then turning round and kicking me out " 
 
 "Oh, come, be reasonable be just to me," she inter- 
 posed. "Have I kicked you out?" 
 
 "You want me to go, I know. And, Lord knows, you 
 don't want it more than I do. I can't stand seeing you 
 every day; seeing that doctor fellow dangling after you, 
 tinder my very nose; it's enough to drive a fellow mad." 
 
 "But you have Elvira," suggested Katherine, with a mo- 
 mentary feminine impulse to retaliate. 
 
 "Poor little girl! Yes, if I hadn't her I don't know 
 where I'd be. You don't begrudge me that little comfort, 
 do you?" 
 
 " I don't indeed. And I hope it's a very big one." 
 
 "Well, it is. She's a beautiful creature, and might 
 marry a prince." 
 
 "She is a dear, dear girl, and will make you the best 
 wife in the world." 
 
 "It's Hobson's choice, as far as I am concerned. How- 
 ever, she has chosen to throw in her lot with mine, and I 
 mean to do my duty by her. Poor little soul ! she feels as 
 like a fish out of water as I do, now; it's not the same for 
 her as it used to be ; you are too taken up -to notice her, 
 and she feels it. So that I really think we'd better both 
 go away together, Katherine." He coloured and stam- 
 mered, and cleared his throat. "In short, I have been 
 talking it over with her, and we think it will be best for 
 everybody most convenient for you if we get married 
 soon, and have done with it. She thought we could live 
 on her little income, but now I can keep my wife, like other 
 men. I can't think why you never told me about that 
 money before. What hours of worry you would have 
 spared us !" 
 
 " I hope you won't think I am kicking you out if I say 
 that I think it's the best thing you can do," said Katherine, 
 gently, intensely relieved by the proposal. ' ' Not quite im- 
 mediately, Forbes, not for a few weeks ; I shall want to fit 
 Elvira out, and make the proper preparations. She is my 
 daughter, you know." 
 
 "You have done enough for her, as well as for me," said 
 he. "She doesn't wish to be any further burden to you." 
 
 1 ' It would be a great burden to me if she went away from 
 me in that spirit, or you, either." 
 
 "Well, she might stay for two or three weeks; it's kind 
 

 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 313 
 
 of you to wish it with all you have to think of on your 
 own account. You can talk to her about it. She's awfully 
 fond of you still, Katherine." 
 
 "I should hope so. I don't know that I have given her 
 any cause not to be." 
 
 He kept a meaning silence. Then he went on with his 
 plans, finding it easier to discuss them now than it had 
 been five minutes earlier. "As for me, I think I'll take a 
 little trip. Don't you think I might? Don't you think I 
 am strong enough to run alone?" He laughed the giggling, 
 shallow laugh that she hated to hear a sound that had the 
 degradation of the prison in it. "If you'll settle about that 
 money, and draw some for me, I think I'll start to-morrow 
 or next day, and see how I manage to find my way about 
 by myself. I should like to see the old places Wandaroo, 
 and that part; how the country looks, after all this time. 
 No one will recognise me that's one comfort." 
 
 Katherine rejoiced in this project, for her own sake, but 
 doubly so for his. "Nothing could do you more good," 
 she said, heartily, "if you feel able for it. You know this 
 is as much your home as mine, and that you needn't go 
 unless you wish, and that you can come back any moment, 
 if you find you don't like being away by yourself; but try 
 it try it, anyhow; find your own feet a place of your 
 own in the world again. Go and exercise yourself, while 
 I am getting Elvira ready." 
 
 "How long will it take you to get her ready?" 
 
 "That depends. It need not take longer than you like. 
 Do you i?:dnd telling me what you think of doing after you 
 are married?" 
 
 "We thought of going to some other country, right away 
 from this. We thought of the islands Fiji, perhaps, or 
 Honolulu. Nothing definitely settled. Of course it makes 
 a difference, my having some money of my own. I might 
 take to cattle ranching in America. I think I should like 
 that." 
 
 "Forbes," said Katherine, "I want you and Elvira to ac- 
 cept a wedding present from me, as a token that we part 
 friends." 
 
 "What sort of wedding present?" he inquired, in a suspi- 
 cious tone. 
 
 ' ' The Mary Johnson for three months, for six, for as long 
 as you like, to do what you please with. There she lies, 
 all ready. I don't want her, and it's a pity to waste her, 
 don't you think? She could take you to Honolulu to 
 America wherever you wanted to go. The sea and the 
 
314 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 quiet would do you good, and it would give you time to 
 settle your future plans without hurry." 
 
 The mention of the Mary Johnson naturally revived his 
 painful curiosity to know the cause of her sudden ''unfaith- 
 fulness," as he termed it. Why did she go to that extrava- 
 gant trouble? Why did she pretend that her whole heart 
 was in it, when all the time etc., etc. He declared that 
 he could not take the loan of the Mary Johnson after all that 
 had happened. It was very good of her to propose it, but 
 he really couldn't. 
 
 "Will you," urged Katherine, "if Elvira wishes it?" 
 
 After much persuasion she got him to say that he would; 
 and she at once turned to the subject of his immediate 
 journey his first excursion into the world on his own ac- 
 count telling him about the new railways that had re- 
 placed the bush coaches of his young days, and explaining 
 as best she could where his money was and how it could be 
 v made available. They were chatting in the most comfort- 
 able, friendly manner when Elvira, returning from church, 
 with a face of almost tragic seriousness, joined them. This 
 young lady made no difficulty whatever about accepting 
 the Mary Johnson for a few months as a wedding gift, when 
 the matter was laid before her. She did not appear to re- 
 gard the offer as a favour, and never even said thank you 
 for it. 
 
 "I didn't know whether you intended to let him have it 
 still," she said; "but, of course, he ought to have it. It 
 was got ready on purpose for him." 
 
 "It was," said Katherine, drily. "And I'm glad you 
 don't let foolish scruples stand in the way of your using it. 
 I am sure he will enjoy a sea voyage, and that it will do 
 him more good than anything." 
 
 "I only think of his good," said Elvira. "For myself, it 
 doesn't matter whether I am on sea or land." 
 
 Finding her so reasonable and manageable in this affair, 
 Katherine ventured to make another effort to further enrich 
 them both from her own overflowing store before she parted 
 from them. Here, again, Elvira met her readily. 
 
 "I will take it, if he will let me take it," she said, "be- 
 cause I know it was meant for him that it is morally his 
 already that Mrs. Bellamy intended him to share and 
 share with you. You have held his portion in trust, hith- 
 erto; now I will hold it, if he won't. You may be quite 
 sure that I shall only use it for his benefit, not for any pur- 
 poses of my own." 
 
 "Oh," said Katherine, "that is how you look at it. I 
 

 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 315 
 
 am very glad, because I am precisely of your opinion." 
 Still she felt that she would have liked to box Elvira's ears. 
 
 How the girl had changed! And what "cheek," as Jim 
 called it, now took the place of her old sweet humble- 
 mindedness. She had the air of a lioness with a wounded 
 cub, defending it from the hunters. Forbes had been basely 
 humiliated and abandoned that was evidently her view, 
 as it was his, their own litle delinquencies weighing noth- 
 ing against the enormity of Katherine's crime; and the girl 
 desired to make it as evident as possible that she had con- 
 stituted herself his ally and protector, and even his avenger 
 in a mild way. 
 
 ' ' The blackness of my sin consists, not in having left them 
 free to make their own arrangements, but in having taken 
 up with you," said Katherine to Jim, next day. "But if I 
 hadn't done that, where, I should like to know, would they 
 have been now? In the deepest depths of remorse and woe. 
 They little realise what they owe me. It will be more to 
 them, in the way of lasting comfort, than the half of my 
 fortune." 
 
 Jim made use of strong language, which was not his 
 wont. In fact, he called Elvira a little beast. And he said 
 it would not be with his permission that she would be en- 
 dowed in the manner proposed. It would make no differ- 
 ence to him personally, one way or the other, but he 
 objected to see money for the good use of which Katherine 
 was responsible, and which certainly had never been in- 
 tended for such a purpose, devoted to the further demoral- 
 isation of an already degraded man. 
 
 However, when it came to the point, Forbes refused to 
 allow his wife to take half her fortune from Katherine, or 
 a penny of it. He had that much remaining of his younger 
 and worthier self. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 "WELL, I never, never should have believed it of Kather- 
 ine ! If anybody had told me she could do such a thing 
 
 Forbes uttered this broken ejaculation once more, after 
 uttering it fifty times, to his young bride, as he leaned over 
 the bulwark of the Mary Johnson, which was being cast off 
 from the pier. He and Elvira had been married a few 
 hours previously, and were now setting forth on their 
 honeymoon journey, just as Katherine had determined that 
 they should except that they were without Hester and 
 
3i6 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 Alphonse. The latter they would not consent to take, and 
 the former would not go, under the circumstances ; Hester 
 desired to remain with her own mistress, Alphonse de- 
 parted to the higher sphere of a club kitchen, and two 
 ordinary servants took their places on board. The wedding 
 had been a pretty little festival, in a quiet way, and the 
 ship, with bouquets of autumn leaves and flowers, and 
 baskets of peaches and early grapes, on its cabin shelves 
 and tables, was a bridal dwelling for a prince. To the last 
 Katherine had done all that money and woman's ingenuity 
 could do to surround her old lover with comfort and beauty, 
 the materials of such happiness as he now seemed capable 
 of. And it was still for him that she did all, and not for 
 the beautiful young woman, towards whom she struggled 
 in vain to feel tenderly, as of yore. 
 
 Elvira was looking more beautiful than ever, with the 
 background of a drawn white muslin hat for her richly- 
 tinted face, but she was not looking as radiantly happy as 
 a bride should be. The precious ointment of her bliss had 
 more than one big fly in it, and the worst of them was pain- 
 fully prominent at that moment. Her husband's eyes were 
 fixed on Katherine, sadly and sternly indeed, but as if no 
 other figure in the world had any interest for him. 
 
 Katherine was standing on the pier at Dr. Hammond's 
 side, and it was wonderful how distinguished she looked 
 and how young! She had taken to dress with great elegance 
 of late (though it had not seemed to avail her much, as far 
 as Forbes was concerned, till now), and wore on this occa- 
 sion a delicate white gown, which threw up her figure as 
 sharply as if she had been a marble statue, against the 
 dingy woodwork and the glowing blue sky. She held up 
 her head, under her big parasol, with an ineffable air of 
 pride, and her physical shapeliness and dignity had never 
 been more striking. 
 
 The bridegroom looked at her with eyes that took in all 
 this unusual charm now that she was going wholly out of 
 his life, his eyes were unusually keen to perceive it and 
 then gazed sombrely at the man by her side. Jim, who 
 used to be insignificant and shy, seemed to have grown 
 several inches taller; he was offensively self-possessed 
 and amiable, and the look of good breeding that had 
 always characterised his otherwise plain person was some- 
 how much more obvious than it used to be. Forbes sighed 
 furiously though it was his wedding day and said to El- 
 vira (who, beautiful as she was, had no blood to speak of, 
 and was intellectually commonplace), " Well, I should 
 

 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 317 
 
 never have believed it of Katherine Katherine, of all peo- 
 ple ! From the day that I first saw her, getting on for 
 twenty years ago, she has been to me the very incarnation 
 of constancy. Whom is one ever to trust in this world?" 
 
 "I think I am almost sure that she knew," suggested 
 Elvira, in justice to the good angel of her life, for whom 
 her affection was unchanged. " Every now and then she 
 has seemed to hint at that." 
 
 "Nonsense," he interrupted, in quite a rough tone. 
 
 * ' That night when she came home and went to bed, and 
 would not say good-night she changed to us from that 
 night. I think she must have come into the drawing-room 
 when we didn't know it her step is so light and soft and 
 overheard us talking. I hope she didn't, but I have had a 
 sort of feeling all along that she did." 
 
 "Nothing of the sort," insisted Forbes. "She'd been 
 with Hammond at the hospital." 
 
 "Not that day, dear." 
 
 "She had. She was always there, morning, noon and 
 night." 
 
 "She was fitting up the ship at that time, when she was 
 away so much." 
 
 "And of course she had him to help her. She never 
 could do anything without him." 
 
 "She really had not, Forbes." 
 
 "What do you know about it?" he retorted irritably. 
 "She had long ceased to take us into her confidence." 
 
 "Because she wanted the Mary Johnson to be a surprise." 
 
 "Fiddlesticks! You're a child, Elvira. You don't know 
 the dodges women are up to when they take to playing a 
 double game. Do you mean to tell me that she a woman 
 like her fell in love with that fellow, was proposed to, and 
 accepted him, all in five minutes?" 
 
 Elvira was silenced. 
 
 "Say she did overhear us that night," the bridegroom 
 proceeded, darkly. "Say she threw me over in conse- 
 quence. I couldn't blame her for that. It would have 
 been only natural she would have been perfectly justified. 
 But you know that isn't the question." He glowered at 
 Jim, whose figure was growing smaller and smaller as the 
 Mary Johnson drew further and further out. "It's the 
 treachery I feel" his voice shook " pretending that I was 
 everything, while all the time she had given her love to 
 him. It's the utter heartlessness like marrying another 
 man before your husband is buried. I knew there were 
 women who did such things " he implied that iniquities of 
 
318 NOT ALL XV FAIN. 
 
 that description were impossible to men "I came across a 
 few in my young days ; but I never dreamt that Katherine 
 was one of them. I did think that she, of all people in the 
 world " 
 
 And, to Elvira's secret consternation, he took out his 
 handkerchief and loudly blew his nose. 
 
 The handkerchief was waved at intervals, in response to 
 fluttering signals from the pier, and then exchanged for a 
 glass that Elvira fetched from the cabin wall. 
 
 "I wonder if she put on that white frock so that we might 
 see her as long as possible," said the bridegroom (but he 
 did not allow the bride to look, keeping the glass screwed 
 to his own straining eye). " I never saw her in anything 
 that became her so well. She doesn't look five years older 
 than she did that Christmas in England, when she danced 
 at the Hammonds' ball ; she had white on then, and there 
 wasn't a woman to come near her. Why hasn't she worn 
 white oftener? She didn't do herself justice in those dull 
 colours and with such a figure as she has ! I remember 
 how those old Norfolk squires raved about her figure that 
 night that happy night ! Ah, little we thought He 
 blew his nose protractedly once more, and gave the glass 
 to Elvira. "Don't mind me for a little while, dear; I shall 
 be all right presently. But I can't help feeling it after 
 nearly twenty years after trusting her as I did !" 
 
 And he plunged into the cabin with a headlong haste 
 that made observing seamen wink at one another and ex- 
 claim, "What, already?" leaving Elvira to stare at the 
 vanishing shore, from which the white speck that was 
 Katherine 's gown had faded out, through tears of her own 
 that were never to be quite wiped away. 
 
 Katherine and Jim watched from the pier in silence, 
 until the labourious tug cast off, and the Mary Johnson stood 
 away upon her course, and Elvira's white hat and Forbes' 
 pathetic face were no longer discernible by the naked eye. 
 Then Katherine drew a long breath through lips that 
 looked a little white. 
 
 "Well," she said, "I flatter myself that I have managed 
 that business rather well. He has gone away with the 
 fixed belief that /flung him into Elvira's arms." 
 
 " I don't think there was any need to carry generosity so 
 far," said Jim. " Not that it matters now. Nothing mat- 
 ters now. Kathy, I'm thankful to God it's over!" 
 
 "Yes, it's over," she assented dreamily, and turned and 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 3 X 9 
 
 walked back between the rails and trucks to the pier sta- 
 tion. Jim did not feel unhappy, because he knew her heart 
 was labouring with unshed tears "bleeding," as we de- 
 scribe it, from the wrench which had finally torn her from 
 the object of so many years' devotion. He let her alone 
 while she struggled for composure, looking away when she 
 slipped her handkerchief under her veil, and affecting not 
 to hear her little coughings and clearings of the throat. 
 And she quickly recovered herself, realising the blessed- 
 ness of freedom after the trying weeks that had bound her 
 to her troublesome charges and kept her so much away 
 from Jim. 
 
 " What shall we do now?" she ejaculated involuntarily, as 
 they sat down to wait for a train. 
 
 " What we will do now," said Jim, glancing at his watch, 
 " is go and get married, without further loss of time." 
 
 She pretended that he was joking, but, knowing well that 
 he was not, blushed furiously. 
 
 " You don't mean this very minute, I suppose?" 
 
 "In seven minutes," he replied, with an inexorable air. 
 " The train will be in in seven minutes. We can reach 
 town, and have the thing over well, before 6 o'clock. I 
 thought we'd run out to Brighton, and dine at your house, 
 if you don't mind; and you can tell Hester, and she will 
 pack up the little you want, and you can order the carriage 
 for about 8. That would take us to a little place I've got 
 ready never mind where in about an hour." 
 
 " But, my dear boy " 
 
 " I \know what you are going to say that you haven't 
 made' any preparations. Nevermind I have." 
 
 " Without consulting me?" 
 
 " I didn't consult you while those two" nodding sea- 
 wards " were around, for I thought you had enough to 
 think of, and also that it would be more comfortable for 
 you, if they asked you questions, not to have anything to 
 tell them. Of course, you know that if you don't like to 
 do it if you don't like what I have done you have only 
 to say so." 
 
 She passed this opportunity, which both knew was 
 offered for the mere form of the thing, and he went on to 
 explain his arrangements. 
 
 " There's a fellow taking my work for a week. Two 
 days have gone, while I have been putting him in the way 
 of it, and seeing to a lot of things; we have five from 
 now. Five days isn't much I could not get the sort of 
 man I wanted for longer than that just now but it is a 
 
320 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 beginning ; and we can crowd a lot of happiness into five 
 days, if we give ourselves to it. My God, I should think 
 so! At the end of that time, Kathy, you shall take the 
 reins you shall say where we will live and what we will 
 do. I have my own ideas, but I shall leave everything in 
 your hands after these five days." 
 
 " What are your ideas?" she asked, for she had to say 
 something. 
 
 " Never mind, Kathy. We can discuss them to-morrow. 
 Sufficient unto the day. This day is all we can afford to 
 think of, as long as it lasts. It is our wedding day." 
 
 " I don't realise it, Jim." 
 
 " You don't object to realise it, dear? Say so honestly, 
 if you do." 
 
 She could not say so honestly, and he knew she would 
 not say it for mere conventional reasons. They were such 
 essentially sincere people, and they had gone through so 
 much life had been so stripped of shams for both of them 
 that they were out of the habit of making social pretences ; 
 and real objections to his proposal did not exist. His out- 
 stretched hand questioned her, after a minute of silence, 
 and her own laid in it answered him, and all was settled 
 without further talk. 
 
 "I have made an appointment for half-past 4," he said, 
 as the train ran into the empty station, and they took their 
 seats vis-a-vis in an empty carriage. " And I have a paper 
 in my pocket." He drew it out, and spread it on her 
 knee. " Tell me if I have filled up your part of it cor- 
 rectly." 
 
 She glanced at what he had written down for the clergy- 
 man's information, as to her place of residence, her age, 
 her profession, her condition, her birthplace, her father 
 and mother, and so on ; but she really only saw one item. 
 She pushed the sheet back to him with an actually blushing 
 face. " Oh, Jim," she cried, " do you, do you realise what 
 an old, old woman it is that you want to marry?" 
 
 " Do you realise what a very, very foolish question it is 
 that you are asking me?" he retorted, with a light laugh. 
 " Is it all right?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, it's all right worse luck!" 
 
 He took from his waistcoat pocket a wisp of silver paper, 
 and rolled four wedding rings into her lap. 
 
 " They are not all for you," he said. *' But I was not 
 quite sure of the size. Put them on, that I may see which 
 fits you best." 
 
 She drew off her glove, and held out her trembling hand. 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 321 
 
 " Great, rough, leg o' mutton fist!" she exclaimed, dispar- 
 agingly. 
 
 " Very," said Jim, laying her palm on his, and stroking 
 the long, strong, nervous fingers. " Yet I wouldn't change 
 it for the lily-whitest number five. What that hand has 
 done of noble work!" He bent down and kissed it. 
 
 Between them they selected the best-fitting ring, and 
 Jim returned it to his waistcoat pocket, bestowing the 
 others in his coat. Then a casual passenger entered their 
 carriage, and shortly afterwards they arrived in town. 
 Katherine walked up the long Williamstown platform, and 
 round to the street (through that conglomeration of sheds 
 called Spencer Street Station, which will be a thing of the 
 past when this story comes to be read), without even ask- 
 ing where she was being taken to. 
 
 " We will patronise the humble tram," said Jim, " though 
 it is our wedding day. We don't want any show of form 
 and ceremony, do we?" 
 
 " I don't suppose they did," said Katherine, answering 
 his allusion to the function of the morning, which had obvi- 
 ously tried his patience at the time. " But I wanted to pay 
 them respect, as people say 
 
 " When they put plenty of black plumes on the hearse. 
 Oh, I did not mind. I was only wearying to get it over, so 
 that I might have my turn. All the time we were discuss- 
 ing that grand banquet I was thinking how you and I would 
 make our wedding feast of the scraps." 
 
 " Indeed, you shall not have the scraps," declared Kathr 
 erine, turning sharply on her heel. And she marched 
 back to the telegraph office, and dashed off a message to 
 Hester, transmitting a peremptory order to Alphonse. Jim 
 looked over her shoulder while she wrote it, smiling and 
 protesting, telling her that tea and bread and butter would 
 satisfy his wants. 
 
 " I suppose this is just by way of paying me respect? 
 Because, you know, neither of us will have any appetite, 
 and then Alphonse will be offended." 
 
 " I don't care. You shall not have the scraps." 
 
 He understood, and laughingly consented to the despatch 
 of the telegram. " But you have not told them the hour, 
 Kathy?" 
 
 " You have not told me, Jim." 
 
 " Say seven." 
 
 She said seven. And they returned to the street, and 
 took the humble tram, and were conveyed to a distant and 
 sequestered church, where a doctor friend of the bride- 
 21 
 
322 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 groom's and two of the bride's old nurses received them. 
 It was half-past four precisely, and a nice old parson was 
 in the vestry, ready to put them through the forms which 
 their morning's experience had already made them ac- 
 quainted with. Katherine solemnly and sincerely declared 
 that she was a spinster, and above the age of twenty-one 
 years, and that she had no knowledge of any just impedi- 
 ment or lawful objection, by reason of any kindred, re- 
 lationship, or alliance, or any former marriage, or the want 
 of consent of parents or guardians, or any other lawful 
 cause whatever, to her being married to James Hammond ; 
 and she was married to him accordingly still not fully 
 realising the tremendous circumstance and all was over 
 before the clock struck five. 
 
 " You will want a little time to talk to Hester before din- 
 ner," he said, when, the best man having quietly with- 
 drawn with the nurses in a cab, the bride and bridegroom 
 stepped into the street. " We had better make our way 
 home, hadn't we? Do you feel all right, Kathy? You look 
 horribly pale." 
 
 " I feel pale," she answered, with a trembling laugh. 
 " So would you, if you were in my place." 
 
 " Never mind it is over. And I can promise you that it 
 shall never occur again." 
 
 He hailed a passing tram, and they returned by that 
 pleasantest of conveyances to the station, where they took 
 the next Brighton train, then a cab, and got home three- 
 quarters of an hour before dinner. 
 
 Hester met them at the door, with an intelligent, inquir- 
 ing face. 
 
 "I thought it was you who was coming, sir," she said, 
 hospitably. " And I'm glad she's not going to mope alone 
 in the house this first evening. 'T would have been dis- 
 mal for her." 
 
 " She is not going to mope alone any more," replied Jim, 
 gravely, but audibly exulting; " I have made sure of that, 
 as far as a man can. Now, Hester, I don't like doing it, 
 but I see I must- -I give Mrs. Hammond into your charge 
 until dinner-time. Make her rest a little, and if possible 
 get some natural colour into her cheeks before I see her 
 again. Your face reproaches me, Kathy. I believe I 
 ought to have waited till to-morrow, I did intend to but 
 I found I couldn't." 
 
 Katherine was leaving the hall with her dumfounded 
 handmaid. At a distant door she turned back, and, run- 
 ning up to her husband, threw her arms around him with 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 3*3 
 
 one of her impulsive gestures. " Never mind my face," 
 she whispered, hiding it in his neck. " I'm glad I'm glad 
 you didn't wait till to-morrow." 
 
 Then she flashed away again, shutting a passage door 
 behind her ; and he walked to the nearest window, laid his 
 forehead against the frame, and looked out for a long while 
 upon the evening sea and sky. He was not a praying 
 man he had no language for his religion, which went too 
 deep for words but his soul overflowed with the rapture 
 of life that the thanksgivings of the faithful spring from. 
 
 " If there be no heaven hereafter, or if I am not to find it, 
 I am content." Perhaps that is what he would have said, 
 had he thought of saying anything. 
 
 CHAPTER XL VI. 
 
 A MARCH night with a moon. Nothing could have been 
 more delicious than the prospect from Katherine's din- 
 ing-room windows at 7 o'clock; the sun gone, the moon 
 not yet risen, but the celestial colour and effulgence of 
 both in the delicate autumn air and the tender shadows 
 gathering upon shore and sea. The casements were open 
 to the salt breeze, which discouraged mosquitoes, and the 
 shaded lamps on the dinner table were far enough off not 
 to blur the pictures framed in each rose-wreathed aperture, 
 over which the red blinds remained undrawn. 
 
 Jim stood alone for a long time, looking alternately at 
 the sea, which was like trembling quicksilver, at the closed 
 door, and at the table, set for two, at which he and Kath- 
 erine were to inaugurate their domestic life together. It 
 was a very pretty table, offering several marks of respect in 
 its decorations, which had been gathered from the treas- 
 ures of the conservatory fine feathers of adiantum, spiked 
 with the bronzy leaf -blades and queer red noses, curling 
 like a pig's tail, of the anthurium Scherzerianum in place 
 of the bridal flowers of the morning, which had all been 
 cleared away. The pure scarlet, gleaming from the green 
 mist of maidenhair, against the white damask and silver, 
 had a bright effect that charmed his eye. There was not 
 too much of it not enough to obliterate the air of every- 
 day homely comfort which was the proper " note" in this 
 case, and the great charm of all. On the table stood two 
 tall lamps, veiled in red silk shades. He did not remem- 
 ber to have seen these red shades before, and it did not oc- 
 cur to him that the sensible woman whom he had married 
 
324 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 might have devised them for the purpose of giving herself 
 a young complexion. 
 
 Certainly it looked unusually soft and fair when that 
 rosy light revealed her. Her colour had come back, and 
 bloomed in her healthy skin with the bloom of seven-and- 
 twenty at the most; and this was not wholly due to the 
 lamp-shades, but somewhat to the fact that she was phy- 
 sically strong and sound, and had habitually omitted from 
 her diet those generous liquors which are so good for peo- 
 ple in some ways, but so inevitably ageing in their super- 
 ficial effect ; and still more to the fact that she was for the 
 moment, at any rate fully and supremely happy. There 
 is nothing like happiness for making one look young. 
 
 And Jim was drinking of the same divine elixir, with the 
 same result. As he crossed the room to receive her, with 
 the step of a conquering king, his eyes shining, his pulses 
 throbbing, he was to all intents and purposes " as young as 
 anybody," and a great deal handsomer than he had been in 
 his early days. The noble aims and intellectual activities 
 of his life had given a dignity to his face and bearing, a 
 quality of distinction which, in regard to personal appear- 
 ance, has more than the effect of beauty. 
 
 They met in silence, and exchanged their first full kiss 
 as man and wife. 
 
 " And here we are at last !" Jim breathed, unsteadily, as 
 soon as he could speak. " No visions about, are there?" 
 
 " My husband!' she sighed, in passionate content. 
 
 " Say that again, Kathy. I want to realise it that it isn't 
 all on one side, as it used to be." 
 
 " Don't you realise that yet?" 
 
 " Yes. You said you were glad we hadn't waited till to- 
 morrow. Oh, you sweetest woman ! You know now that 
 I am your own man, don't you?" 
 
 " My man of men !" she murmured, from behind his ear. 
 " My soul's soul !" 
 
 " Soul and body, too, dear one. All all ! Kiss me again, 
 Kathy. I have lived for twenty years without one, remem- 
 ber." 
 
 " Ah-h ! The loss was mine, Jim. And yet and yet 
 
 "And yet we couldn't help it, could we? We did our 
 best. If we had saved those years we should have lost 
 this let that comfort us." 
 
 " I wasted the best years of your life " 
 
 " They haven't been wasted nor yours either." 
 
 " And now I am giving you the dregs ' 
 
 " Do you call it the dregs? the harvest of such a rich 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 325 
 
 experience the ripe perfection of the noblest the 
 truest " 
 
 " But, Jim, you don't consider. I shall be an old frump 
 in cap and spectacles before you know where you 
 are." 
 
 "Sweet old frump! And what shall I be? Look here, 
 Kathy, we needn't trouble ourselves about the future, nor 
 yet about the past, just now. Let us enjoy our present 
 blessedness, which makes up for all. Haven't we spent 
 our lives together, side by side? What difference can age 
 make now? You are you all I want, or ever wanted and 
 always will be. And now we are going to have such a 
 honeymoon as no young bride and bridegroom ever 
 dreamed of. ... Here comes the dinner. Remember, I 
 have not taken a single holiday, to call a holiday, since I 
 came out to Australia to look after you." 
 
 " Oh, poor boy ! No more you have. Well, now " 
 
 " Now you won't talk about old age, and wasted years, 
 and things of that sort, will you? Not for five days more, 
 at any rate." 
 
 "I will not I will not; you shall enjoy your first holi- 
 day, if I can make you. Jim, I don't believe / have ever 
 had a proper holiday, either." 
 
 " I know you never have. Well, for once, at last " 
 
 Hester brought in the first of Alphonse's delicate prepara- 
 tions, and the bridegroom broke off his sentence to ask her, 
 with quite the air of the master of the house, if she fully 
 " understood the arrangements. " She informed him in reply 
 that her mistress's portmanteau would be packed by the 
 time dinner was over, and that the carriage had been 
 ordered for 8 o'clock. 
 
 " I don't know what else " she began, and stopped. 
 
 " Even I do not know what else," said Katherine, with a, 
 soft laugh. " I am in my husband's hands." 
 
 " You are not afraid to trust her in my hands, are you, 
 Hester?" said Jim, as he led his wife to her place. 
 
 " No, sir," replied the woman, promptly. " Glad and 
 thankful am I that she is there. It's been the desire of my 
 heart these five years past." 
 
 4 'Has it really? I'm'glad to hear that. It's been the desire 
 of mine for five times five. Well, we've got our desire at 
 last. Sit down, Kathy." 
 
 Hester departed, wiping her eyes on her apron, and 
 Jim took the head of the table, and helped his wife, who 
 sat on his right hand, to some of the glorified little fishes 
 set before them. 
 
326 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 "See what you can do to gratify monsieur, and me. He 
 has evidently surpassed himself." 
 
 "For the last time," said Katherine. "He goes to-mor- 
 row." 
 
 "A good job, too," said Jim. "What will you drink, 
 love? Champagne and soda water?" 
 
 "I suppose our healths won't be any the worse for being 
 drunk in soda water only, will they?" she responded, smil- 
 ing. "I have had champagne once to-day, and, I don't 
 want to get a headache." 
 
 "I don't want it, either; not by any means. Do you feel 
 quite well now, Kathy? Got over the first shock?" 
 
 "I am getting over it." 
 
 "It was too bad, wasn't it? But, as Hester says, you 
 couldn't be left to mope here all the evening by yourself." 
 
 "I should have gone to the hospital to look for you." 
 
 "But you see you wouldn't have found me there ; only 
 a strange man, who might have asked you your business, 
 perhaps." 
 
 "That would have been awkward, certainly." 
 
 "My plan was much the best. You won't have to look 
 for me any more, Kathy." 
 
 "I hope not, Jim." 
 
 "I shouldn't have sprung it on you so suddenly, only I 
 thought, while they were about, I didn't want them to be 
 discussing our business, you know." 
 
 "Dear, I am satisfied. I was quite ready to leave it all 
 to you." 
 
 "Ready to come to me?" 
 
 She looked at him with her still beautiful eyes, that 
 shone so youthfully in the red lamplight. 
 
 "You don't know how eternally long this last month has 
 seemed," she laughed, as she reached for the salt. 
 
 He intercepted her hand, and kissed it over his plate. 
 Then Hester came in again. 
 
 It was nearly 8 o'clock when Alphonse sent in his 
 last perfect cup of coffee, and Jim began to consult his 
 watch and to look business-like. 
 
 ' ' If you have anything to say to your domestics, dear, 
 you had better say it now," he remarked. "Tell them you 
 will return in five days, and leave all new arrangements 
 till then. We shall have settled our plans in the mean 
 time. And what about your dress?" He looked her over. 
 She wore a morning gown, in preparation for the unknown. 
 "You don't want much, you know. We shall hardly see a 
 soul. Take strong boots, and a hat for the sun, and that 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 327 
 
 cloak with the fur lining. The night air by the sea is get- 
 ting chilly now." 
 
 "Oh, we are to be by the sea, then?" 
 
 "Kathy, it's the dearest place for a five-days' honeymoon 
 that you ever saw, within short reach, We can't afford 
 time for travelling, and hotels would have been a nuisance. 
 It is a little cottage all to ourselves ; only my old house- 
 keeper to do for us. It belongs to a patient of mine, with 
 a nice, clean wife, who has kept the place beautifully. 
 Plain and homely, of course ; but you don't mind that. I 
 have put some books there, and a few things to make it 
 comfortable." 
 
 "You need not tell me," she returned. "I know you have 
 thought of everything. You always do. You always have 
 done." 
 
 "Thank you, Kathy. There's some good in thinking of 
 things, now."- 
 
 The carriage came round from the stables, and he busied 
 himself putting her luggage into it, and giving his route to 
 the coachman, while she said good-bye to her women ser- 
 vants, exhorting them to make holiday amongst themselves 
 while she was away. Then bride and bridegroom departed 
 in peace. 
 
 They drove through a portion of the town, and along a 
 lonely, sandy road, which became heavy for the horses 
 after awhile. In fact, it degenerated into a mere bush 
 track. Now and then, at long intervals, a house appeared 
 on the landward, which was the left-hand side ; on the right 
 they had the sea the whole way, beautiful in the moonlight, 
 and as calm as an inland lake. 
 
 "Doesn't it remind you of the Corniche?" said Jim. 
 For this road was a terrace overhanging the bay, with only 
 a sloping belt of ti-tree scrub between them. 
 
 "I never was on the Corniche," said Katherine. 
 
 ' ' No ; I forgot. That is one of the pleasures in store for 
 me to take you to places." 
 
 "Ah, how nice that would be! I have never been to 
 places." 
 
 "We will see the world together. As soon as we can 
 wind up here we'll go; shall we?" 
 
 "I should love to go." 
 
 "And leave this place of all our troubles behind us." He 
 put his head out of the carriage window. "Here, Robert!" 
 
 The poor horses, floundering in the deep sand, pulled up, 
 with sighs and shakes, at a little wooden gate, within which 
 a neat garden and a whitewashed cottage, backed with 
 
328 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 orchard trees, made a small oasis of civilisation in about a 
 mile of desert scrub. The cottage door, which opened out 
 of the chief sitting-room of the establishment, showed a 
 blaze of firelight and scarlet table-cloth, and the figure of a 
 tidy old woman "Jim's old Susan," as Katherine was in 
 the habit of calling her trotting down the garden path, 
 crunching the snowy shingle that paved it under her hur- 
 rying feet. 
 
 Jim jumped out, and bundled bags and shawls into the 
 road. 
 
 "Susan will take them ; Susan will attend to everything," 
 he said to Katherine, as she tremblingly followed him. 
 "Just tell Robert to ride out every day for orders, in case 
 we want anything, and to see about the letters. Then .we 
 will have a little walk to rest us." 
 
 He took the fur cloak on his arm, and, when the carriage 
 had lumbered away, and Susan been spoken to, led Kath- 
 erine across the narrow road, over the rail fence, and down 
 through the belt of ti-tree to the shore, which was as lonely 
 as Robinson Crusoe's island. Black darkness enveloped 
 them while they were in the scrub, and they descended the 
 slope leisurely, blind leading the blind, not caring to see so 
 long as they could feel, the husband guarding his wife with 
 both arms from treacherous root and springing branch ; but 
 when they emerged upon the narrow beach the moonshine 
 was around them, almost as bright as day. They stood 
 still, and gazed, and sighed, and wondered if they had ever 
 seen anything so lovely. Not a visible living creature was 
 in that enchanted world except themselves. Not a sound 
 upon the shore , not a ship upon the sea. The great plain 
 shimmered and twinkled in its March-night beauty, under 
 the oriental-looking sky ; the little waves broke and bub- 
 bled on the shingle with a delicious sound of peace that 
 cannot be described. 
 
 Jim spread the fur cloak upon the sand, and Katherine 
 sat down on it ; then he stretched himself beside her, and 
 laid his head upon her lap. She had tossed her hat aside 
 for his convenience, and their moonlighted eyes met and 
 smiled as she bent over him. 
 
 " Are you happy now, my wife?" he murmured, in an 
 ineffable tone. 
 
 "Yes, Jim; yes, my love," she whispered back, stooping 
 lower at his mute invitation. " But don't talk about it. I 
 feel as if I might cry, with a little or do something idiotic. 
 It's a shock still, you know." 
 
 " I know. What shall we talk about?" He heaved him- 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 3 2 9 
 
 self into a sitting posture, and wrapped her in the fur cloak 
 and in his arms, for she was inclined to shiver. " I wonder 
 whether Forbes and Elvira are in the agonies of sea-sick- 
 ness? The Mary Johnson can't be far off the Rip by this 
 time." 
 
 " Oh, Jim ! How horrible !" 
 
 " Well, we won't talk about them ourselves are much 
 more interesting. What shall we do when we go back to 
 the world? Will you give up your house and come and live 
 with me until I can dispose of my practice and the hospital?" 
 
 " Certainly. Did you think of my living there alone as 
 a possible alternative?" 
 
 " Not precisely. I thought of going there myself as a 
 possible alternative, but that would be inconvenient at 
 present. It may take me a little time to get my affairs set- 
 tled, and I ought to be on the spot." 
 
 " Of course. Do you think of giving up altogether, Jim?" 
 
 " Giving up work for the rest of my life, do you mean? 
 No, Kathy. But I want us to have a holiday a long 
 travel a good spell of rest, after all our toils. We can 
 begin again whenever we want to." 
 
 " It seems a pity to give up our hospital, now we have 
 got it so perfect." 
 
 " Oh, no. Now that it is perfect, it is easy to keep it 
 going. Anybody could run it now. We can organise 
 another some day away from the shadow of that cursed 
 prison somewhere where we don't see all sorts of remind- 
 ers of what we have gone through." 
 
 " Yes, yes ; give it all up, and let us begin again in a new 
 place. Where shall it be, Jim?" 
 
 " We can leave that open, for the present. There is no 
 need for hurry. If anybody ever earned a long holiday, we 
 have, Kathy. We want time to be together, with no pa- 
 tients to come between us. We want to see the world and 
 educate ourselves before we grow old. I want an oppor- 
 tunity to study up and make experiments. You could help 
 me you are so clever. We might take a year or two 
 even more and it need not be time wasted. I am well off 
 now, and you are rich ; we can afford to treat ourselves. 
 And we do we do deserve it. Isn't that how you feel?" 
 
 She said that he deserved it, if she did not, and that it 
 was just how she felt that it would never do to divide and 
 distribute themselves, under the circumstances. And then 
 there was an interval of silence, while they gazed at the 
 sea, and shaped their ideas upon the subject. 
 
 " Let us go back to our old Broad, Kathy, shall we?" con- 
 
33 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 tinned Jim. " Think what it would be to me to paddle you 
 about amongst the reeds again ! We might be home in 
 time for the water-lilies that you used to be so fond of. 
 Do you remember when we went exploring, and got caught 
 in the storm and benighted?" 
 
 " And we pushed the boat into the reeds for shelter, and 
 you made me put on your coat, and got wet through your- 
 self, and had bronchitis after." 
 
 4 ' And that winter day, Kathy, when we had such a splen- 
 did skate, and found the reed- wren's nest in the dry stalks, all 
 covered with frost. Wouldn't you like to see the hoar frost 
 on the reeds again?" 
 
 " And the crunching of the powdery snow under our feet 
 as we walked home ! And the delicious cold, so keen and 
 fresh! Oh, what wouldn't I give " 
 
 " Exactly. I feel that way, too. We'll go back in time 
 for the water-lilies. There'll be nobody to scold us for 
 going too far and staying out too late. Think of twilight 
 lasting till nine or ten o'clock! How odd it will feel, till 
 we get used to it." 
 
 " I can see it the evening light on the water, the trees 
 upside down, as if reflected in a looking-glass so still, and 
 calm, and sweet " 
 
 She gazed upon the sea with rapt eyes, and fell into a 
 dreaming silence. 
 
 Jim softly turned his watch face to the moon. 
 
 CHAPTER XL VII. 
 
 As Jim heard from his family about once a year, on an 
 average, and Katherine never heard from her sister at all, 
 they did not think it necessary to send home any announce- 
 ment that they were coming. When the practice and the 
 hospital had been transferred, the two houses given up, 
 furniture sold, and property consigned to the care of legal 
 agents all of which business was despatched without de- 
 lay they took the first available mail steamer, and set 
 forth into the world with no plans at all, except to enjoy 
 themselves. 
 
 They broke off at Ceylon, and again in Egypt, and they 
 " saw places" in Italy and elsewhere ; but the longing for 
 their native fens came over them at an early stage, and 
 spoilt their pleasure in cathedrals and picture galleries and 
 historic landscapes of alp and lake. A sight of their own 
 unhistoric waters was the refreshment for which they 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 33 1 
 
 craved, after their long exile; and home-sickness, com- 
 bined with hot weather, drove them north while the best 
 half of the year was still unspent. 
 
 On arriving in London, Katherine 's first wish was to 
 ascertain if Aunt Mary Ann was still in the land of the liv- 
 ing; for Aunt Mary Ann Aunt Ellen having long been 
 dead seemed to represent all the family belongings that 
 her niece could, or cared to, lay claim to. She and Jim 
 made a pilgrimage to the little house in which they had 
 left her so many years ago, and there she was still, very 
 withered and wrinkled, but as hale as ever, and apparently 
 with all her wits about her. Her old husband was alive 
 also, so old that he was quite helpless and childish, and a 
 pitiable object to look at, with his palsied head waggling, 
 and his bleared eyes blinking blindly, and his feeble mouth 
 dribbling like that of a teething baby ; but he was still the 
 first object in life to Aunt Mary Ann, who washed and 
 dressed him, and fed him and coddled him, with an un- 
 flagging devotion that greatly touched her visitors. Kath- 
 erine regretted that her absorption in her own affairs had 
 made her so long forgetful of her good old kinswoman ; but 
 Aunt Mary Ann was no letter-writer, and, in fact, her 
 niece's last communication, dated 1875, was unanswered 
 still. 
 
 It became necessary, therefore, to detail the history of 
 fifteen years, as far as was deemed expedient; and this 
 took a long time, because Aunt Mary Ann insisted on re- 
 peating it all to her husband, who, she said, felt hurt if he 
 were left out of the conversation " which he understands 
 and enjoys, my dear, as much as you or I, though you 
 wouldn't think it to look at him." 
 
 "This is Katherine Knowles," she shouted in his ear, at 
 the top of her voice. " You remember Katherine my 
 niece, Katherine she that went away to Australia?" 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Mr. Linley. " I'm quite warm, my dear. 
 I feel the sun nicely, thank you." 
 
 " And this is James Hammond, who went to Australia, 
 too Squire Hammond's youngest son. You remember 
 Squire Hammond, who used to send you the partridges? 
 James and Katherine are married now, and they have come 
 home to see us." 
 
 " Yes, my dear, yes; beautiful for the time o' year." 
 
 And so on. 
 
 But when Mr. Linley suddenly fell asleep, in the middle 
 of a deafening account of how Katherine had succeeded to 
 the fortune of the drunken old woman who had been her 
 
332 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 fellow-passenger on the Huntingdonshire, Aunt Mary Ann 
 permitted herself to carry on the conversation without 
 him, to the relief of her two guests. 
 
 " Well," she said, looking at them over the top of her 
 spectacles, as they sat before her, " well, Katherine, my 
 dear, I am sorry your poor father isn't alive, to see his 
 great wish fulfilled like this." 
 
 " What great wish?" asked Katherine, quickly. 
 
 " Your marriage with him " nodding towards Jim. 
 " 'Twas the only thing that troubled him when he was 
 dying, that he'could not see you engaged first. His heart 
 was just set on it." 
 
 " I never knew that," said Katherine, looking at her hus- 
 band. " He never said a word about it to me, and I was 
 always with him." 
 
 " Because he had given a promise that you should not be 
 told. He knew all about it." And Mrs. Linley nodded at 
 Jim again. 
 
 " You, Jim? Did you know that that was his dying wish?" 
 
 "I did, Kathy." 
 
 " And never told me?" 
 
 " How could I tell you under the circumstances?" 
 
 She looked at him in silence, tears swimming into her 
 eyes. Then she leaned over and kissed him, regardless of 
 Aunt Mary Ann's spectacles and the senile laugh of the old 
 man, who had wakened up again and was asking Jim how 
 his rheumatics were. 
 
 Having narrated their own adventures, the visitors were 
 anxious for news of the old place in Norfolk, the old people 
 amongst whom they had spent their youth, and of Jim's 
 family in particular ; but here Aunt Mary Ann could do but 
 little for them. She had never gone to Norfolk since her 
 brother-in-law's death ; she never saw any of the old peo- 
 ple, and hardly ever heard of them. As Jim had been ab- 
 sorbed in Katherine, and Katherine in Forbes Alexander, 
 so the old lady had been absorbed in her old man, to the 
 exclusion of all active interest in other folks. The only 
 thing she could do was to give Jim the address of his sister, 
 Barbara, who also lived in London. 
 
 To Barbara's house he repaired, with his wife, and there 
 they got news of everybody. Mrs. Thwaites's changed ap- 
 pearance was a great shock to both of them, and it was evi- 
 dent on the face of things that life had proved no easy 
 matter to that once luxurious young lady. When they saw 
 Bill Thwaites, in middle age, so fat that he could hardly 
 waddle, a mountain of a man, soft looking, as from a life 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 333 
 
 of easy-chairs without proper exercise, and when they 
 counted seven boys and girls and two babies in the house, 
 poor Barbara's haggard face and the meagre, shabby-gen- 
 teel air of her surroundings were sufficiently accounted 
 for. Some idea of doing credit to Jim's choice in the eyes 
 of his family had inspired Katherine to pay this visit in the 
 newest and most beautiful of London garments; and the 
 great fact that she was, not only Jim's wife, but a woman 
 of independent wealth, was soon revealed and appreciated. 
 
 Her old friend, though she could not make enough of 
 her upbraiding her and Jim for keeping such important 
 matters from the knowledge of the family was pathetically 
 envious. 
 
 " And you are rich !" she exclaimed, again and again, lost 
 in the fascination of the theme. " Who would ever have 
 expected that? Katherine, it's rude, I know, but I may ask 
 it, as we are sisters now how much have you?" 
 
 Katherine told her, and poor Barbara's eyes looked hun- 
 gry as she heard. 
 
 " Ah, me !" she sighed. " How times are changed for 
 both of us !" She alluded to the days when she was in a 
 position to patronise Katherine. " And no children to pro- 
 vide for! And here am I, with mine; and if it wasn't that 
 Tom sends me something sometimes and he has a large 
 family of his own, and not half the income that father had, 
 because times are so bad now for landed proprietors if it 
 were not for him, and the clothes that Carry sends me for 
 the girls occasionally, I often shouldn't know how to keep 
 them decent. ' 
 
 "Dear Barbara," said Katherine, earnestly, " you won't 
 be too proud to let me help a little, will you? I have more 
 money than I want, and I am not likely to have children 
 of my own at my age, and, as you say, we are sisters now. 
 Let me provide for some of the boys put them to school 
 or to college whatever it is they want to start them in 
 life for old times' sake, dear for dear Neil's sake. I am 
 sure Jim would wish it." 
 
 The poor mother could not afford to be proud, she said. 
 In fact, she jumped at this golden opportunity. She fore- 
 saw what the effect would be upon the parents of the other 
 nephews and nieces when they became aware of the exist- 
 ence and presence amongst them of this wealthy aunt, who, 
 of course, would never have any family of her own ; she 
 could see them, in her mind's eye, all manoeuvring for 
 Katherine's favour, with a view to testamentary benefits 
 for their children; and she thanked Providence that her 
 
334 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 own poor boys, who needed money more than any of them, 
 were first in the field. If Katherine took charge of them in 
 this way now, she would doubtless make them her heirs in 
 the end. And so Barbara paraded her boys, in clean col- 
 lars and faces, and extolled their intelligence and virtues; 
 and Katherine promised to send one to school and another 
 to college, and otherwise lavished her substance on the 
 out-at-elbows family. Jim, though he called his brother- 
 in-law a lazy beast (behind his back), met half way a desire 
 for a loan on the part of that unprosperous barrister, who 
 represented himself as the victim of many children and 
 other unavoidable circumstances; and the benefactors, on 
 adjourning to their hotel, were able to feel that they were 
 welcomed home, after being so long absent and forgotten. 
 
 Barbara wrote at once to Carry and to Esther, and the 
 result was that both ladies, with their families, were at the 
 old house in Norfolk to receive the prodigal son, who had 
 returned in so unprodigal a fashion, and the dear, dear girl 
 who had been their bosom friend in girlhood, and whom 
 they had loved uninterruptedly, appearances to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding, ever since. 
 
 " Of course," said Esther to her mother, the famous 
 Roberta, who was now a white-haired old lady, but hand- 
 some and stately still, " of course Katherine will never have 
 any family of her own, marrying so late, and it would be 
 such a help to poor old Tom if she did something for the 
 younger children. They are such darlings that she must 
 take to them when she sees them. I am so glad now that I 
 didn't cut Franky's curls off." 
 
 " I daresay," said Carry, to her young daughter, who was 
 a little disposed to turn up her nose at some of her Ham- 
 mond connections, " I daresay you will find your aunt 
 very colonial and unpolished she never had any style 
 about her, at the best of times but you mustn't mind that, 
 my dear. She has a great deal of money, and is sure not to 
 have children of her own to leave it to." 
 
 By tacit consent no one spoke of Neil, whose tragic fate 
 had been laid at Katherine 's door, and for whose sake she 
 had been regarded as the enemy of the house, never to be 
 forgiven. Her crime was no more remembered against 
 her. 
 
 There was a new vicar in the place of Mr. Brand, who 
 had been gathered to his fathers, and the new vicar, pas- 
 sionately desiring to revise the out-of-date internal arrange- 
 ments of his church, for which object large donations were 
 necessary, took a great interest in the expected bride and 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 335 
 
 bridegroom, and suggested that the bells should be rung in 
 honour of their arrival and a triumphal arch erected for 
 them to pass under. This was thought to be a very good 
 idea, and was duly carried out much to the dismay of Jim 
 and Katherine, who, driving into their native village, with 
 full hearts, had not expected to have hurrahs shouted into 
 the carriage windows, and to see welcomes in yard-long 
 letters flaunting over their heads. 
 
 " I suppose it is meant for us," said Katherine, with a touch 
 of sarcasm. " But there seems something rather sudden 
 about it, somehow. They didn't use to think us such im- 
 portant people." 
 
 " We were not important then," laughed Jim. " It's to 
 our poor old woman that we are indebted for this honour, 
 rather than to our own merits, I am afraid." 
 
 They passed Weep Hall shortly before the triumphal 
 arch burst upon their view, and were saddened by the sight 
 of blank windows and a weedy garden, a neglected air that 
 the old house had never worn in former days. They called 
 to Tom to ask who lived there now, and he called back, 
 " Nobody." 
 
 Tom, stout and grey-bearded, rode by the carriage from 
 the station to the house ; and under the ancestral porch a 
 group of matrons and tall girls and boys were gathered to 
 receive the distinguished guests. Prominent amongst 
 them, Esther, the hostess, on the arm of her eldest son, the 
 baby of twenty years ago, showed a still curly and uncapped 
 head, and the Pomeroy comeliness which wore so long and 
 well. She, at any rate, had never thought ill of Katherine, 
 or called her a murderess; not being of his blood, she had 
 not worshipped Neil as a god who could do no wrong; and 
 with a clear conscience she held out her arms to the bride 
 as she was helped out of the carriage, and assured her that 
 no sister of Jim's choice could have been more welcome 
 than she. 
 
 Then ensued a time of bewilderment and commotion 
 to Katherine, at least. While her husband was being taken 
 " round the place" by his brother, she was interviewed in 
 her room the state guest-room of the house by all the 
 other members of the family, and their several histories 
 were retailed to her. Grown young ladies, with Carry's 
 recently presented daughter at their head, young men 
 home but yesterday from college for the long vacation, 
 girls and boys from the schoolroom, and two or three 
 toddlers in charge of a fat nurse, were presented in turn ; 
 and a thousand questions were asked and answered, and a 
 
33 6 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 thousand reminiscences of old times revived. The new 
 aunt was a born mother, and sat with as many nephews 
 and nieces in her arms as she could hold until the first bell 
 rang, and Uncle Jim came up to his dressing-room and 
 scattered the party. She was honestly in love with her 
 juvenile relatives, and they agreed that Aunt Katherine 
 was surprisingly nice and handsome, considering all they 
 had heard of her. Carry's daughter emphatically approved 
 of Mrs. Jim's dress and appearance, and corrected her 
 mother's mistake in supposing that she had no style. 
 
 At dinner the bride sat by her host in the very correctest 
 dinner costume only Carry's daughter, just returned from 
 her first season, was able to fully appreciate how entirely 
 in the best taste and latest mode it was and dinner was a 
 family festival to-night, with champagne and speeches. 
 Tom stood up, and said it was the er proudest day of his 
 life hum ha and that he was sure everybody present 
 rejoiced with him to see his dear brother in his own place 
 at that board once more, and the er charming lady, who 
 though absent so long, had been cherished in their hearts 
 hum ha and was bound to them by so many ties er 
 in addition to the nuptial bond, which er was the which 
 he might say was in fact, it was difficult to express their 
 joy and satisfaction in seeing her united to the man of her 
 choice, who, he was sure all present would feel, as he did, 
 was worthy of her, if any man could be etc. , etc. 
 
 And Jim, with a faint smile on his quiet face, and with 
 an occasional tremble in his voice, said that words were 
 inadequate to describe the pleasure of his dear wife and 
 himself at finding themselves in their native air and under 
 that roof again, and their gratitude for the kind, the more 
 than kind, reception that had been accorded them. They 
 had gone through many troubles since they were here last, 
 but he trusted their troubles were over now. For his part, 
 he congratulated his brother on his own domestic good fort- 
 une, which had evidently been increasing from year to 
 year. Time had left untouched or only touched to im- 
 prove it the beautiful face that he (the speaker) saw at 
 the head of the table, and greatly did he value the privi- 
 lege of calling himself uncle to her sons and daughters, 
 who took after their parents, and were a family that any 
 father would be proud of. And so on. 
 
 After which exchange of compliments, the ladies, dabbing 
 their eyes with the hems of their handkerchiefs, took their 
 new sister by the arm and waist, and led her to the hall 
 where they used to have their Christmas games, and to the 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 337 
 
 drawing-room where they had played " Little Toddles" in 
 the bay window, and Katherine had danced with Neil 
 against her will. They put her into a deep chair, and the 
 nieces brought her footstools and cushions; and they 
 gathered round her in the tender summer twilight, and 
 congratulated themselves that she had practically no be- 
 longings outside their circle. 
 
 " We don't know whether your sister knows of your re- 
 turn," said Esther, " and we didn't think it necessary to tell 
 her. In fact, we haven't been friends for many years. We 
 don't like her a bit, and we consider she has treated you 
 abominably. Tom did seem to think we ought to have 
 asked her to meet you she is but four miles off but I said 
 it would be better to leave you to do what you liked about 
 it. We have so often heard her say that she wished to 
 have nothing more to do with you, that I thought, and so 
 did Carry, that you would rather the overtures did not 
 come from our side." 
 
 " Much rather," said Katherine, who, as past events had 
 proved, was not an easily forgiving person. " She can't 
 wish to keep distance between us more than I wish it. The 
 little that she ever had to do with me was more than 
 enough." 
 
 " Exactly. That is just what we thought. " 
 
 " But she's such a pushing creature," said Carry, disdain- 
 fully, " and so perfectly shameless where her own interests 
 are concerned, that she will be rushing here to fall on 
 Katherine 's neck as soon as ever she hears that she has 
 come home rich." 
 
 N. B. In years gone by the fascinating Mrs. Anderson 
 laad laid her spells upon Carry's husband, who was a lead- 
 ing man in the county. 
 
 " She surely won't have the brazen impudence to come 
 here" said Esther, bridling, " seeing that the last time she 
 came I almost had her turned out of the house." 
 
 This referred to a period, also long gone by, when Tom, 
 in common with his father and mother, thought Belle an 
 angel, though the younger matrons of the family had con- 
 clusively proved to him that she was nothing of the sort. 
 
 However, Carry's prediction was fulfilled. No later than 
 the next morning, when Katherine was beginning to feel a 
 little rested from her excitements, Mrs. Anderson arrived, 
 and, learning from the servant who opened the door that 
 Mrs. James was in her room, made her way thither, with- 
 out any formalities. And she literally fell upon her sister's 
 neck, and remained clinging affectionately for some min- 
 
33 s NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 utes, although Katherine received her caresses like a log 
 of wood. 
 
 " Oh, my darling girl, why didrit you let me know? And 
 coming here, where they have treated you so badly when 
 they have said such things instead of to me, who am your 
 own flesh and blood! Oh, Katherine, don't think I have 
 been forgetting you, because I haven't written. You have 
 been in my heart all the time, and many a sleepless night 
 have I had on your account. And I intended to write 
 again and again but you know how it is, when one has 
 been long away and I have had such trials, Katherine! 
 My poor Joe he is a perfect wreck ! You can't imagine 
 what I have gone through, and it would have been no kind- 
 ness to have inflicted my troubles on you in addition to 
 your own and I had nothing else to write about. But 
 now you must come to me, my darling, and we can talk 
 over everything at our leisure oh, you must you and your 
 husband. To think of your marrying a Hammond, after 
 all ! And he is the best of the lot I always said so 
 he was my favourite, even when we were children together. 
 So devoted of him, to go out to Australia for your sake ! If 
 we hadn't been obliged to come home for the children's 
 education ah, you will be surprised when you see the 
 children, Katherine! Children no longer, indeed; Emme- 
 line is married, and has a baby. Think of me, a grand- 
 mother! 'The Baby's Grandmother,' people call me I 
 suppose you have read that delightful book? and certainly 
 I can't feel that I look the part, at present, though I ought 
 to be old, considering all I have had to age me. My 
 Gladys she will win your heart, Katherine; she was so 
 fond of you when she was little that short, sad time that 
 we were together ! and she has never forgotten her auntie 
 from that day to this. A baby, was she? Oh, but babies 
 have wonderful memories as you would know, if you had 
 had the opportunities for studying them that I have. Ah, 
 poor Katherine ! how sad that you have married too late to 
 know the happiness of being a mother! Well, you must 
 
 share my children with me. There is my boy, now " 
 
 etc., etc., etc. 
 
 Jim came upstairs, seeking his wife to take her for a 
 walk, and became very stony in his demeanour when he 
 recognised her visitor. He bowed in silence, responded 
 briefly and haughtily to her cordial greetings, and was al- 
 together as rough and rude as he could bring himself to be 
 to a lady ; but it availed him nothing. Belle was bent upon 
 captivating him, hopeless as the task appeared, and she 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 339 
 
 really half succeeded in melting him to a certain extent, so 
 plausible, and so clever, and so far too good a match for 
 any mere man was she. She looked almost as young as 
 ever, thanks to the consummate art of her get-up, a legiti- 
 mate rival to the fair Lady Matilda ; and he detected no 
 falsehood in her hair, her figure, or her complexion, as he de- 
 tected but a small part of the falsehood of her soul. It was 
 the way with men, until they had known her for a long time. 
 
 She was not so successful with women. And yet Esther 
 had to countenance her presence in the house, and even 
 Carry found herself inquiring after the health of Mr. Ander- 
 son in a conventionally polite manner. By sheer force of 
 will and good generalship the unwelcome guest got her- 
 self asked to lunch, got a sort of promise from Katherine 
 to go and stay with her (though Jim would not allow a date 
 to be put to it), and got herself re-established as a recog- 
 nised connection of the Hammond family. It is needless 
 to add that she thereupon set herself to the congenial task 
 of circumventing that family in their supposed designs. 
 
 "My children," she argued, "are Katherine's own flesh 
 and blood. They have a right to succeed to her property 
 since, of course, she will never have any of her own to 
 leave it to." 
 
 However much they might disagree in other matters, all 
 the mothers agreed in this that Katherine would never 
 have any children of her own. They tried not to hurt her 
 feelings by dwelling upon the fact, but it was too often 
 implied to permit of her remaining in ignorance of it. And 
 she writhed under her disabilities, amidst the numerous 
 olive branches of her husband's house. 
 
 " Oh," she said to him one day, in a tone of strange bit- 
 terness, " if they only knew how I felt it ! It is the thing I 
 have done that I can't atone for. You had as much right 
 to look to have your children around you as they, and I 
 have defrauded you of it!" 
 
 But Jim only laughed, as he stooped to kiss the unwonted 
 tear first from one eye and then from the other. " My dear," 
 he said, with a tender gravity that made her heart leap, " I 
 am not at all sure that I am going to be defrauded." 
 
 CHAPTER XL VIII. 
 
 SUNSET on the Broads the lilies closing for the night. 
 Not lilies only, but all the treasures of the marsh in au- 
 tumn yellow iris, purple loosestrife, brown velvet bul- 
 rushes, russet grass feathers waving in the green jungles 
 
340 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 that parted one more from another these, and a thousand 
 more, in their homely beauty greeted the wanderers on 
 their return. 
 
 The little birds were not gone yet the buntings, and 
 the reed wrens, and the wagtails, and the bearded tits, that 
 had nested in the reeds ; they were fluttering home to their 
 summer roosts. The wild fowl had not yet come down 
 from the snowy north, or it would have been just the hour 
 for them to wake up and take their flight to their secret 
 feeding grounds. The first snipe was circling in the lonely 
 air, and a hawk or two, and gulls from the sea, calling and 
 crying; the herons stood in line, like sentinels, in the 
 gleaming pools, making their last meal. As the golden 
 afterglow paled and paled they flopped away one by one, 
 with heavy, long wing-strokes ; and the owls and bats came 
 out, and the moon rose above the ramparts of reeds, turn- 
 ing gold to silver ; and evening was night a tender, dewy 
 English night. 
 
 Jim had not forgotten the art which was second nature in 
 his family how to sail a boat on those sinuous streams. 
 In a twenty-foot yacht, with a forty-foot breadth of sail, 
 the tiller in one hand and the main-sheet in the other, he 
 could run or tack in a gale of wind all about the winding 
 dykes and rivers that meshed the lakes and marshes be- 
 tween Weep Hall and the sea. If the blow was particularly 
 hard, Katherine's hand on the jib-sheet was all the aid he 
 needed. She, too, remembered her old skill, and could 
 humour a capricious wind as well as he, so that they re- 
 quired no crew besides themselves. They set up a little 
 boat that would only hold two comfortably, and, sometimes 
 in company of other boats of the family, but most often 
 alone, spent days and nights in that airy and watery wilder- 
 ness; their nights in a cabin that neither of them could 
 stand up in, and their days on deck in all weathers, feasting 
 their eyes on the dear, flat landscape, which had not 
 changed very much in twenty years. There was less water 
 and more weeds, perhaps, in places ; more sails and fewer 
 windmills ; but the same wooded and reedy shores, making 
 a sanctuary of the wilder lakes ; the same old cottages and 
 church towers amongst the oak-knolls and willow copses 
 and yellow corn-fields beyond the reeds ; the same spacious 
 solitude of sedgy fen and tidal marsh, unspoilt by the in- 
 trusion of tourists and civilisation except in parts, which, 
 having been visited for commissariat purposes, could easily 
 be left behind and forgotten. 
 
 They had been sailing off and on all day, in light winds 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 34* 
 
 and tempered sunshine, reading, sewing, talking, fishing a 
 little, basking in peace; and now, when the herons were 
 sailing homeward, and the water hens and water rats were 
 taking the air boldly, under cover of dusk, and the marsh 
 owl was watching them, Jim sailed his boat into a quiet 
 corner amongst the rushes and sleeping lilies, lowered his 
 sails and stowed them, drew an awning over the boom and 
 the well to make a roof for their supper-room and subse- 
 quent dressing-chamber, and then stood on deck with his 
 companion to watch the fading of the light upon the Broad 
 and the levels beyond it the light that lingered so far into 
 the night, and returned so speedily in the morning. 
 
 "That is one of the advantages of a flat country," said 
 Katherine. " You have such a scope for atmospheric effects. " 
 
 " Yes, dear," said Jim. " But atmospheric effects at this 
 hour are apt to be injurious to health. We are not in Aus- 
 tralia, you know, that you can stay out o' nights with im- 
 punity. Feel the mist, how wet it is. You must come 
 below now, Kathy." 
 
 They went down into the well, where they lit their lamp 
 and spread a little meal under the awning, ate it, and 
 cleared and packed away the folding table ; then Jim slung 
 the hammocks to the cabin roof, and Katherine, enveloped 
 in a bag of soft blanket stuff, was tucked into hers, kissed, 
 and bidden to go to sleep. With a pillow under her head, 
 and an air cushion on the seat beneath her, which she was 
 apt to sink down on for want of space to swing, she was 
 more comfortable than she ever could have been amidst 
 the luxury of the Mary Johnson perfectly at rest and 
 happy. But she fell to thinking instead of to sleeping; 
 and Jim, when he turned in, moved from time to time, as 
 if wakeful too. She wondered if he were thinking the 
 same thoughts as she. 
 
 There was a little night breeze stirring, and the boat swayed 
 gently, like a baby's cradle. Ropes tapped against the 
 mast, and the reeds rustled and whispered, and the water 
 made a continual lapping against the side. These soft 
 noises were accented at intervals by the splash of fish, the 
 stroke of wings in the air, the distant cry of an otter hunt- 
 ing along the banks. No marsh mists dulled the bright- 
 ness of the moon, which suffused the little bed-chamber 
 and revealed its occupants to one another. 
 
 " Kathy," said Jim, under his breath, " are you awake?" 
 
 " Yes," she answered, turning and stretching her hand 
 across the space between them. " Do talk to me, I can't 
 sleep." 
 
342 NOT ALL IN VAIN. 
 
 " Kathy, we said we would spend the winter travelling, 
 but I think now we won't." 
 
 She said nothing, but drew his hand back, and held it to 
 her breast. 
 
 " What we had better do is to take Weep Hall and furnish 
 it, and send for Hester. I don't think the cold would hurt 
 you. I shall take care of you, Kathy, and not let you run 
 any risks." 
 
 " Don't you always take care of me?" 
 
 " But now now, I shall do nothing else." 
 
 Next morning they sailed home, and Jim decided that, 
 whatever they did in the daytime, no more nights were to 
 be spent out of doors this year. He at once set about se- 
 curing a short lease of Weep Hall, which his lordship of 
 the neighbourhood, to whom it belonged, was pleased to 
 let to the daughter of his old tenant and a person of so 
 much present consequence ; and the men were put on in 
 the garden, and the furniture man was summoned, and the 
 furniture came down from London in such volume as to 
 awe villagers, who had never seen anything like it ; and in 
 not much more than the stipulated fortnight all was ready, 
 and Jim and Katherine free to enjoy the luxury of a home 
 of their own once more. By the end of August they were 
 installed in it, and by the end of September Hester had 
 arrived from Australia to be maid and housekeeper to her 
 old mistress, with a still more important office in prospect. 
 
 Great was the satisfaction of all the relations when the 
 dear and valuable aunt thus settled amongst them, but 
 equally great was their annoyance when they found they 
 were not to have the run of her house at all hours, and that 
 Jim would not allow her to attend the parties they delighted 
 to continually organise in her honour. 
 
 " Why can't she come?" they used to demand impatiently. 
 " It isn't honeymoon now." 
 
 44 Oh, yes, it is," Jim would say. "It's always honey- 
 moon." 
 
 "But surely you are not so infatuated that you can't 
 spare her to us for a few hours especially if you corne, 
 too?" 
 
 " It's not good for her health. She has not been used to 
 parties, and they don't suit her." 
 
 " She has been used to sitting up of nights and doing 
 things that are much worse for health than parties." 
 
 " Well, I'm not going to let her do things any more. So 
 don't bother." 
 
NOT ALL IN VAIN. 343 
 
 " One would think Aunt Katherine was delicate" they used 
 to say to one another, when they could express their indig- 
 nation freely, " to see the fuss he makes about her. It's 
 perfectly ridiculous, when anybody can see that she's as 
 strong as a horse and especially since she came back to 
 England." 
 
 September passed, and October, and November, and the 
 Broads and marshes were all lonely and dim with creeping 
 mists, under a steel-grey winter sky, before the great 
 secret was discovered. Then old Mrs. Pomeroy arrived to 
 spend Christmas with her daughter, and, paying a little 
 visit to Weep Hall one day, for the pleasure of having a 
 gossip about Australia, suddenly looked at Katherine 
 through her gold-rimmed spectacles and realised the 
 situation. 
 
 When April came, and the fair spring day that saw the 
 great event when the reed fringe round the Broad was 
 green again, and its roads blue with forget-me-nots and 
 fragrant with meadow-sweet, and the wild birds were nest- 
 ing everywhere in the water solitudes, and the nightingales 
 singing in the apple-trees by Katherine 's window when 
 her hour of peril arrived at last, it proved to be rather 
 more perilous than usual, but was safely surmounted ; and 
 Jim, coming out of his wife's room, haggard but happy, 
 announced to all concerned that his son was a quite per- 
 fect baby and the picture of health, and the mother doing 
 well in every respect just going off to sleep, with her 
 treasure in her arms, drowned in a bottomless sea of bliss 
 and peace. 
 
 They said they never were more agreeably surprised in 
 their lives, and, what is more, they meant it that is, all the 
 Hammonds did. From that moment they remembered 
 only that the little heir was a Hammond, too, and they 
 took him to their hearts and loved him, for his father's sake. 
 
 " Oh, what a perfect little sweet /" they exclaimed, when 
 they were permitted to see him. " What are you going to 
 call him, Katherine?" 
 
 " Neil," said his mother. 
 
 THE END. 
 
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, 
 at the Edinburgh University Press. 
 
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