ld.

"It will be a disgrace to us, Elizabeth, if we send the poor child to
strangers," Westonley had said to her, almost sternly. "Tom, although he
is a bachelor, would be overjoyed if we let her go to him."

"He is most unfitted to have the care of a child," said Mrs Westonley,
icily; "from his conversation I should imagine he would be a most
_decidedly_ improper person."

"But he means well, you know; but, like your poor father, he's a bit too
outspoken and rough. And... and Elizabeth, we have no children of our
own, and you will get to love the poor little one."

"I will make no guarantee as to conferring my affections upon a child
whose disposition may prove to be utterly unworthy of the tuition and
Christian training I have undertaken to give her--at your request," was
the acidulous reply.

Westonley groaned inwardly, but made no answer.

A few months after this conversation, Tom Gerrard made a short visit to
Marumbah Downs to see Westonley and his dead sister's child. He had just
returned from the little bay near Cape Howe, where the _Cassowary_ had
been castaway, and where his father, mother, and Dr Rayner had been
buried, together with all the other passengers and members of the crew
whose bodies had been washed ashore. After dinner, he, Westonley, and
his step-sister, were discussing Captain Gerrard's will, when just then
there came in a neighbour of Westonley's--a squatter named Brooke--who
was one of the executors. Mrs Westonley received him rather coldly,
and when Tom Gerrard began describing to him the situation of the
place where his father and mother were interred, she listened with an
ill-concealed impatience.

"Well! Mrs Westonley," said Brooke, stretching out his spurred and
booted feet, "your father and mother died together--as they lived, hand
in hand, and heart to heart."

"The late Mrs Gerrard was _not_ my mother."

There was a dead silence, and then Tom Gerrard rose, and looked his
step-sister in the face with undisguised and bitter contempt.

"No, thank God! she was _not_, but she was _mine_, I am proud to say."

Then he held out his hand to Westonley, "Good-bye, Ted, I'm leaving."

"For heaven's sake, Tom!... Elizabeth, you forget yourself! Oh, I say,
Brooke, don't let him go."

But Tom Gerrard, his heart aflame with anger, pushed Brooke and his
brother-in-law aside, went to the stables, saddled his horse, and rode
off to the Marumbah township, fifteen miles away, and next morning