to
this service Dick had, after a term, found himself promoted. Then it had
come to pass that he had remained for a period on one of these islands,
with the view of persuading the men to emigrate and reemigrate; and had
thus been resident among them for more than a couple of years. They had
used him well, and he had liked the islands,--having lived in one of
them without seeing another European for many months. Then the payments
which had from time to time been made to him by the Queensland planters
were stopped, and his business, such as it had been, came to an end. He
had found himself with just sufficient money to bring him home; and here
he was.

'My boy, my darling boy!' exclaimed his mother again, as though all
their joint troubles were now over.

The doctor remembered the adage of the rolling stone, and felt that the
return of a son at the age of thirty, without any means of maintaining
himself, was hardly an unalloyed blessing. He was not the man to turn a
son out of doors. He had always broadened his back to bear the full
burden of his large family. But even at this moment he was a little
melancholy as he thought of the difficulty of finding employment for the
wearer of those yellow trousers. How was it possible that a man should
continue to live an altogether idle life at Pollington and still remain
a teetotaller? 'Have you any plans I can help you in now?' he asked.

'Of course he'll remain at home for a while before he thinks of
anything,' said the mother.

'I suppose I must look about me,' said Dick. By-the-by, what has become
of John Caldigate?'

They all at once gazed at each other. It could hardly be that he did not
in truth know what had become of John Caldigate.

'Haven't you heard?' asked Maria.

'Of course he has heard,' said Mrs. Rewble.

'You must have heard,' said the mother.

'I don't in the least know what you are talking about. I have heard
nothing at all.'

In very truth he had heard nothing of his old friend,--not even that he
had returned to England. Then by degrees the whole story was told to
him. 'I know that he was putting a lot of money together,' said Dick
enviously. 'Married Hester Bolton? I thought he would! Bigamy! Euphemia
Smith! Married before! Certainly not at the diggings.'

'He wasn't married up at Ahalala?' asked the doctor.

'To Euphemia Smith? I was there when they quarrelled, and when she went
into partnership with Crinkett. I am sure there was no such marriag