care altogether, nor, indeed, was I very keen of the
responsibility. She wanted to go to Melbourne, but the master would not
hear of it; and not all her fleeching, nor her tears, nor three days'
sulks, in which she would not open her mouth to him, would make him
give in to that.

"He seemed to have the greatest dread of parting with her, particularly
to go to Melbourne; and it was a busy time of the year, so that he
could not stay with her there. But he said he would go and fetch a
doctor, if one was to be had, and keep him in the house till he was
needed, and for as long as she was in any peril; and with that she
behoved to be contented. He was as good as his word, for he fetched one
from the town. I did not much like the looks of the man, but I said
nothing, and the mistress seemed quite satisfied.

"But Mr. Phillips took me by myself, and says he to me, 'I believe this
man is skilful enough and clever enough, but he has one fault--we must
keep drink from him and him from drink, or we cannot answer for the
consequences. But for this fault he would have had too good a practice
in Melbourne for us to be able to have him for weeks here. There is no
place near where he can get drink, so I think we can easily manage to
keep him all right. We need not tell Mrs. Phillips, Peggy.'

"Well, I kept watch over this Dr. Carter very well for a fortnight or
more, and he seemed to go on all right; but after that time he got very
restless, and I used to hear him walking about at night as if he could
not sleep, and through the day he could not settle to his book as he
used to do at first, or go to take a quiet walk, or ride not over far
from the house, but took little starts and turned back, as if something
was on his mind.

"I misdoubted him, but with all my watching I could see nothing. As ill
luck would have it, the night the mistress was taken ill, and I went to
call him up, there I found this man Carter as drunk as he could be, to
be able to stand, with an empty brandy bottle beside him that he had
knocked the head off. The keys were in my pocket, and not a bottle
missing out of the press. There never was much kept in the house, for
Mr. Phillips was a most moderate man, and tea is the great drink in the
bush; but in case of sickness we aye had some brandy by us. But the
poor deluded man had got one of the men about the place to ride forty
miles to get him this brandy that had just come at the time when he was
especially neede