Westonley received a note.

"Dear old Ted,--You and I will always be the same old pals. I know you
will be kind to Mary's little one, and will write to me from time to
time, as I shall to you. But I can't forgive Lizzie. You will say I
write in anger. _I do_. And yet I am a man quick to forgive an ordinary
affront, even from a woman. You understand, old boy. TOM."

And so for many years, Tom Gerrard kept away from Marumbah, till his
step-sister and Westonley wrote, and urged him to visit them.

CHAPTER III

Breakfast was served punctually at eight o'clock, and Tom Gerrard, whose
equanimity was now quite restored, took his seat opposite his sister
with a smiling face, and in a few minutes, under the sunshine of his
genial manner, Mrs Westonley, much against her own inclination, began to
thaw, and presently found herself chatting quite pleasantly with him.

"I've sprung myself on you two or three days before you expected me,
Lizzie, but I'm sure you don't mind."

"Indeed no, Thomas. I am very glad I wish Edward was here, but the
mailman may bring me a letter from him this morning. He said in his
last letter he would be sure to return home by Saturday, and to-day is
Thursday. But what brought you here so quickly, Thomas?"

"Well, I was very lucky in getting a passage in one of the new Dutch
mail steamers, instead of having to wait for the slow old _Eagle_ so I
reached Melbourne a week earlier than I expected. Then at Melbourne I
caught the steamer for Port Albert, just as she was leaving. At Port
Albert, instead of waiting two days for the coach for Marumbah, I bought
a couple of horses, a gun, and some other gear, and came the ninety odd
miles comfortably, instead of being shaken to pieces in one of Cobb's
awful coaches."

"But what an unnecessary expense, Thomas. The two horses----"

"Oh! the whole thing, gun and all included, didn't run into fifty
pounds."

"Fifty pounds! Oh, Thomas! And your coach fare would have been but three
pounds! You really are dreadfully extravagant."

"Not at all, Lizzie. I shall not lose much in the end. Ted will buy the
horses, and all the gear from me. I think I can jew him into giving me
something for them, even if it is only thirty quid."

"Thirty what?"

"Thirty quid--thirty pounds. Now my dear old Lizzie, don't pretend to
be shocked at the word 'quid.' You know you've heard all the colonial
expressions--and poor dad used them pretty frequently."

"Indeed he did,