them up to the room they shared between them, and insisted
upon their going at once to bed, after partaking of a cup of tea.

"What am I to do for this young fellow, Wilson?" Mr. Hudson asked
as, having seen his patient comfortably in bed, he returned
downstairs, and took a seat in the verandah by his fellow
passenger. "I owe Frances' life to him, and there is nothing I
wouldn't do for him. The question is, what? One does not like to
offer money to a man, for such a service as this."

"No," Mr. Wilson agreed, "especially in his case. The young fellow
appears to me very much above his condition. Your daughter first
pointed it out to me, and I have since chatted with him several
times, and find him a very superior young fellow. Certainly his
education has been very different from that of most men in his
condition of life, and I should have taken him for a gentleman, who
had got into some scrape and run away, had it not been that he
seems to have been regularly apprenticed to his trade. Still, there
is something a little mysterious about him. I asked him casually
what part of the country he came from. He hesitated a moment, and
then said, 'From the south of England.' Of course, I did not ask
any further questions, as it was clear he did not care about naming
the precise locality, or he would not have given so vague an
answer. I feel as deeply indebted to him as you do."

Mr. Hudson nodded. Only the evening before arriving at Cape Town,
Captain Wilson had spoken to him on the matter of his affection for
his daughter, and had asked his permission to speak to Frances.
They had known each other in the colony, but had not been intimate
until thrown together on board the Paramatta. Seeing that she was
an only child, and that her father was considered one of the
wealthiest squatters in the colony, Captain Wilson had feared that
Mr. Hudson would not approve of him as a suitor; and had therefore
broached the subject to him, before speaking to her. Mr. Hudson,
however, had raised no objections.

"You have taken a manly and proper course, in speaking to me
first," he said; "just what I should have expected from you. I own
that, with the fortune the girl will have some day, I have always
looked for her making what they call a good match, and settling
down in the old country; but I may tell you that while she has been
in Europe she has had several opportunities of so doing, if she
would have taken them. She did not think fit to do