CHAPTER XIX

ANOTHER LETTER FROM ALFRED

'Bindarra Station, N.S.W., _April 13_.

'Dearest Mother,--Your dear letter, in answer to my first, written in January, has just reached me. Though I wrote so fully last mail, I can't let a mail go without some sort of an answer. But, as a matter of fact, I am in a regular old hurry. The mail-boy is waiting impatiently in the veranda, with his horse "hung up" to one of the posts; and the store keeper is waiting in the store to drop my letter in the bag and seal it up. So I must be short. Even with lots of time, however, you know I never could write stylish, graphic letters like Gran can. So you must make double allowances for me.

'And now, dear mother, about our coming back to England; and what you propose; and what you say about my darling. To take the best first--God bless you for your loving words! I can say nothing else. Yes, I knew you were getting to love her in spite of all her waywardness; and I know--I _know_--that you would love her still. And you would love her none the less for all that has happened; you would remember what I explained in my first letter, that it was _for my sake_; you would think no longer of what she did, but why she did it.

'But, about coming back, we have, as you already know, made up our minds to live out our lives here in Australia. After all, it's a far better country--a bigger and a better Britain. There is no poverty here, or very little; you never get stuck up for coppers in the streets of the towns; or, if you do, it's generally by a newly-landed immigrant who hasn't had time to get out of bad old habits. There's more room for everybody than at home, and fairer rations of cakes and ale all round. Then there's very little ill-health, because the climate is simply perfect--which reminds me that _I_ am _quite_ well now--have put on nearly two stone since I landed! But all this about Australia's beside the mark: the real point is that it suits Gladdie and me better than any other country in the world.

'Now for some news. We have decided upon our station at last. It is the one in Victoria, in the north-eastern district---- I think I mentioned it among the "probables" in my last. It is not large as stations go; but "down in Vic" you can carry as many sheep to the acre as acres to the sheep up here in the "back-blocks." You see, it is a grass country. But the scenery is splendid: great rugged ranges covered with the typical gum-trees, of which there are none up here, and a fine creek clean through the middle of the "run." Then there are parrots and 'possums and native bears all over the place, none of which you get up here, though I fear there will be more snakes too. The only drawback is the "cockatoos." I don't mean the _bird_, dear mother, but the "cockatoo selectors." Personally, I don't think these gentry are the vermin my father-in-law makes them out to be; _he_ brackets them with the rabbits; but _I_ mean to make friends with them--if I can. The homestead is delightful: good rooms, and broad veranda round three sides. We are going to be absurdly happy there.

'We shall not take possession though till after shearing--_i.e._ in your autumn, though the agreement is signed and everything arranged. Meanwhile, we shall stay on here, and I am to get a little more Colonial experience. I need it badly, but not perhaps so badly as my father-in-law makes out. He ridiculed the idea of my turning squatter on my own account, unless Gladys was "boss." But, now that we have fixed on the Victorian station, he is a bit more encouraging. He says any fool could make _that_ country pay, referring of course to the rainfall, which just there, in the ranges, is one of the best in Australia. Still, he is right: experience _is_ everything in the Colonies.

'So I am not quite idle. All day I am riding or driving about the "run," seeing after things, and keeping my eyes open. In the evenings Gladdie and I have taken to reading together. This was her doing, not mine, mind; though I won't yield to her in my liking of it. The worst of it is, it's so difficult to know where to begin; _I_ am so painfully ignorant. Can _you_ not help us, dear mother, with some hints? Do!--and when we come home some day (just for a trip) you will find us both such reformed and enlightened members of society!

'But, long before that, _you_ must come out and see _us_. Don't shake your head. _You simply must._ England and Australia are getting nearer and nearer every year. The world's wearing small, like one of those round balls of soap, between the hands of Time--(a gem in the rough this, for Gran to polish and set!) Why, there's a Queensland squatter who for years has gone "home" for the hunting season; while, on the other hand, Australia is becoming _the_ crack place to winter in.

'Now, as you, dear mother, always _do_ winter abroad, why not here as well as anywhere else? You must! You shall! If not next winter, then the following one; and if the Judge cannot bring you, then Gran must. That reminds me: how are they both? And has Gran been writing anything specially trenchant lately? I'm afraid I don't appreciate very 'cutely--"miss half the 'touches,'" he used to tell me (though I think I have made him a present of a "touch" to-day). But you know how glad we would both be to read some of his things; so _you_ might send one sometimes, dear mother, without him knowing. For we owe him so much! And, besides what he did for me afterwards, he was always so nice and brotherly with Gladys. I know she thought so at the time, though she doesn't speak about him much now--I can't think why. _You're_ the one she thinks of most, dearest mother; you're her model and her pattern for life!

'The mail-boy has begun to remonstrate. He'll have to gallop the whole way to the "jolly" township, he says, if I am not quick. So I must break off; but I will answer your dear letter more fully next mail, or, better still, Gladdie shall write herself. Till then, good-bye, and dearest love from us both.

'Ever your affectionate son,

'Alfred.

'PS.--Gladys has read the above: so one last word on the sly.

'Oh, mother, if you only saw her at this moment! She is sitting in the veranda--I can just see her through the door. She's in one of those long deck-chairs, with a book, though she seems to have tired of reading. I can't see much of her face, but only the sweep of her cheek, and the lashes of one lid, and her little ear. But I can see she isn't reading--she's threading her way through the pines into space somewhere--perhaps back to Twickenham, who knows? And she's wearing a white dress; you would like it--it's plain. And her cheek is quite brown; you'll remember how it was the day she landed from the launch. But there! I can't describe like Gran, so it's no good trying. Only I do know this: I simply love her more and more and more, and a million times more for all that has happened. And you, and all of you, and all your friends, would fairly worship her now. You couldn't help it!'

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_LIST OF TITLES_

AINSWORTH, H. 74 Windsor Castle 200 The Tower of London

À KEMPIS, THOMAS 98 The Imitation of Christ

ANDERSEN, HANS 175 Fairy Tales

ARNOLD, MATTHEW 138 Poems

AURELIUS, MARCUS 82 The Meditations of

AUSTEN, JANE 53 Sense and Sensibility 103 Pride and Prejudice 190 Emma 193 Mansfield Park

BACON, FRANCIS 167 Essays

BARHAM, REV. R. H. 71 The Ingoldsby Legends

BEACONSFIELD, LORD 183 Vivian Grey

BLACKMORE, R. D. 176 Lorna Doone

BORROW, GEORGE 141 Lavengro

BRONTË, ANNE 97 Tenant of Wildfell Hall

BRONTË, CHARLOTTE 7 Shirley 11 Jane Eyre 64 Villette

BRONTË, EMILY 31 Wuthering Heights

BRONTË, THE SISTERS 91 Agnes Grey, The Professor, and Poems

BROWNING, MRS E. B. 67 Poems--Series I. 127 Poems--Series II.

BROWNING, ROBERT 156 Poetical Works of

BUNYAN, JOHN 24 The Pilgrim's Progress

BURNS, ROBERT 164 Poetical Works of

CARLYLE, THOMAS 61 Heroes and Hero Worship 109 Sartor Resartus 114 French Revolution, I. 115 Do. II. 155 Past and Present

CARROLL, LEWIS 81 Alice in Wonderland

COLLINS, WILKIE 18 The Woman in White 20 No Name 130 The Moonstone

COOPER, FENIMORE 134 The Deerslayer 188 The Pathfinder

CRAIK, MRS 5 John Halifax, Gentleman 80 A Noble Life 137 A Life for a Life

DARWIN, CHARLES 69 Voyage of the Beagle 149 On the Origin of Species

DAUDET, ALPHONSE 182 Tartarin of Tarascon

DE QUINCEY, THOMAS 75 The Confessions of an Opium Eater

DE WINDT, HARRY 129 Through Savage Europe

DICKENS, CHARLES 1 David Copperfield 14 Great Expectations 29 Barnaby Rudge 33 Oliver Twist 35 A Tale of Two Cities 36 The Old Curiosity Shop 37 Nicholas Nickleby 38 Pickwick Papers 39 Sketches by Boz 40 Dombey and Son 41 American Notes 42 Hard Times 43 A Child's History of England 44 Christmas Books 45 Reprinted Pieces 46 Martin Chuzzlewit 47 Bleak House 48 Little Dorrit 49 Master Humphrey's Clock, etc. 50 Stories and Sketches 73 Our Mutual Friend 154 The Uncommercial Traveller

DODD, WILLIAM 169 The Beauties of Shakespeare

DUMAS, ALEXANDRE 62 The Three Musketeers 123 Twenty Years After 132 Count of Monte-Cristo (Vol. I.) 133 Count of Monte-Cristo (Vol. II.) 160 The Black Tulip 165 Marguerite de Valois 173 Vicomte de Bragelonne 178 Louise de la Vallière 185 The Man in the Iron Mask 199 The Forty-five Guardsmen

ELIOT, GEORGE 3 Adam Bede 13 The Mill on the Floss 19 Silas Marner 32 Scenes of Clerical Life 68 Romola 96 Felix Holt

EMERSON, R. W. 99 Essays and Representative Men

FROUDE, J. A. 125 Short Studies

GASKELL, MRS 54 North and South 57 Cranford 186 Mary Barton

GOLDSMITH, OLIVER 94 The Vicar of Wakefield

GRANT, JAMES 122 The Romance of War

GRIMM BROS. 143 Fairy Tales

HAWTHORNE, N. 17 The Scarlet Letter 28 The House of the Seven Gables

HAZLITT, WILLIAM 172 Table Talk

HOLMES, O. W. 59 The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table 92 The Professor at the Breakfast Table 113 The Poet at the Breakfast Table 124 Elsie Venner

HUGHES, THOMAS 8 Tom Brown's Schooldays

HUGO, VICTOR 128 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame 142 Les Misérables 162 The Toilers of the Sea 202 Ninety-Three

IRVING, WASHINGTON 107 The Sketch Book

KEATS, JOHN 179 Poetical Works of

KINGSLEY, HENRY 116 Ravenshoe 140 The Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn

KINGSLEY, CHARLES 4 Two Years Ago 6 Westward Ho! 86 Hypatia 89 Hereward the Wake 106 Alton Locke 108 The Heroes 161 Yeast

LAMB, CHARLES 56 The Essays of Elia

LAMB, CHAS. AND MARY 76 Tales from Shakespeare

LEVER, CHARLES 15 Charles O'Malley 148 Harry Lorrequer

LLOYD, ALBERT B. 135 Uganda to Khartoum

LONGFELLOW, H. W. 65 Poems

LOVER, SAMUEL 60 Handy Andy

LYTTON, LORD 27 The Last of the Barons 55 Last Days of Pompeii 77 Rienzi 87 Harold 126 The Caxtons 152 Eugene Aram 191 My Novel

MACAULAY, LORD 118 Historical Essays 119 Miscellaneous Essays

MARRYAT, CAPTAIN 84 Mr Midshipman Easy 195 The Children of the New Forest

MELVILLE, HERMAN 146 Typee

MELVILLE, WHYTE 85 The Gladiators 105 The Interpreter 145 The Queen's Maries 196 Cerise

MILLER, HUGH 104 My Schools and Schoolmasters

MORRIS, WILLIAM 197 The Life and Death of Jason

OLIPHANT, MRS 102 Miss Marjoribanks

PALGRAVE, F. T. 95 The Golden Treasury

PAYN, JAMES 110 Lost Sir Massingberd

POE, EDGAR ALLAN 201 Tales of Mystery and Imagination

PROCTER, ADELAIDE 72 Legends and Lyrics

READE, CHARLES 9 It is never too Late to Mend 21 Cloister and the Hearth 52 Hard Cash 136 Peg Woffington and Christie Johnstone 150 Love Me Little, Love Me Long 170 Put Yourself in His Place

RUSKIN, JOHN 70 Sesame and Lilies and The Political Economy of Art 78 Unto this Last, and The Two Paths

SCOTT, SIR WALTER 2 Kenilworth 12 The Talisman 22 Ivanhoe 58 Waverley 63 Heart of Midlothian 90 Old Mortality 101 Poetical Works 112 Bride of Lammermoor 117 The Fair Maid of Perth 131 Guy Mannering 139 Rob Roy 153 The Monastery 157 The Abbot 163 The Antiquary 168 Redgauntlet 174 Fortunes of Nigel 177 Woodstock 180 The Pirate 187 Quentin Durward 194 Peveril of the Peak

SHAKESPEARE, WM. 189 Tragedies

SLADEN, DOUGLAS 146A The Japs at Home

SOUTHEY, ROBERT 111 The Life of Nelson

TENNYSON, LORD 25 Poems

THACKERAY, W. M. 23 Henry Esmond 34 Vanity Fair 66 The Newcomes 83 The Virginians 120 Adventures of Philip 121 Pendennis 144 Yellowplush Papers 151 Four Georges 158 Christmas Books 171 Lovel the Widower 181 Barry Lyndon, etc. 184 Book of Snobs 192 The Great Hoggarty Diamond 198 Paris Sketch Book

TROLLOPE, ANTHONY 79 Barchester Towers 100 Framley Parsonage 147 Orley Farm 159 The Claverings

WALTON, IZAAK 88 The Compleat Angler

WOOD, MRS HENRY 10 East Lynne 16 The Channings 26 Mrs Halliburton's Troubles 30 Danesbury House 51 Verner's Pride

YONGE, C. M. 93 The Heir of Redclyffe 166 The Dove in the Eagle's Nest

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Transcriber's note:

Archaic and variable spelling is preserved as printed, e.g. bewrayed, subtile, understanded, jodel.

Punctuation errors have been corrected.

Quotation marks and an exclamation point have been added to the entry for Chapter XIV in the Table of Contents, to match the chapter title in the main text.

On page 169, for sense the word 'no' has been added--"... she had brought only unhappiness to them all; there could be no more happiness for them or for her ..."

The following typographic errors have been corrected:

Page 82--repects amended to respects--"... and in many respects the least well-informed of men, ..."

Page 101--likly amended to likely--"And a week ago she would very likely have told him, ..."

Page 123--Glady's amended to Gladys's--"... that made the latter clutch Gladys's hand so eagerly."

Page 163--felt amended to feet--"... a right and proper eagerness to help the great man to his feet."

Page 167--abour amended to about--"I won't hear another word about her; ..."

Page 197--you amended to your--"... for your wire from _Liverpool Street_?"