I am going to ride out, and perhaps you will be good
enough to let me know your mind when I come back.'

"Then he just shook her hand, and I hurried away from the door. It
was rather mean of me to be listening to them, but I took as much
interest in Miss Edgeworth as if she were my own daughter.

"'There is no need to hurry,' he had said, but in my opinion there
was too much hurry, for they were married on the Saturday, and he
rode away the same morning having to open school again on Monday.

"Of course, Miss Edgeworth was a good deal put about when we heard
what had happened, through the papers, but I comforted her as much as
possible. I said, 'as for myself, I had never liked the look of the
poor man with his red hair and freckles. I am sure he had a bad
temper at bottom, for red-haired men are always hasty; and then he
had a high, thin nose, and men of that kind are always close and
stingy, and the stingiest man I ever knew was a Dublin man. Then his
manners, you must remember, were anything but nice; he didn't wasteany
compliments on you before you married him, so you may just fancy what
kind of compliments you would have had to put up with afterwards.
And perhaps you have forgotten what you said yourself about him at
Bendigo. You were sure he was a severe master, you could see
sternness on his brow. And however you could have consented to go to
the altar with such a man I cannot understand to this day. I am sure
it was a very bad match, and by-and-by you will thank your stars that
you are well out of it.'

"I must acknowledge that Miss Edgeworth did not take what I said to
comfort her very kindly, and she 'gave me fits,' as the saying is;
but bless your soul, she'll soon get over it, and will do better next
time."

Soon after the death of Philip, Major Chisholm and his family left
Nyalong, and I was appointed Clerk to the Justices at Colac. I sat
under them for twelve years, and during that time I wrote a great
quantity of criminal literature. When a convict of good conduct in
Pentridge was entitled to a ticket-of-leave, he usually chose the
Western district as the scene of his future labours, so that the
country was peopled with old Jack Bartons and young ones. Some of
the young ones had been Philip's scholars--viz., the Boyles and the
Blakes. They were friends of the Bartons, and Old John, the
ex-flogger, trained them in the art of cattle-lifting. His teaching
was far more successful than that o