ack to Birmingham for the sole
purpose of seeing Miss Augusta Smithers, with whom, if the whole truth
must be told, he had, to his credit be it said, fallen deeply, truly, and
violently in love. Indeed, so far was he in this way gone, that he had
determined to make all the progress that he could, and if he thought that
there was any prospect of success, to declare his passion. This was,
perhaps, a little premature; but then in these matters people are apt to
be more premature than is generally supposed. Human nature is very swift
in coming to conclusions in matters in which that strange mixture we
call the affections are involved; perhaps because, although the
conclusion is not altogether a pleasing one, the affections, at any rate
in the beginning, are largely dependent on the senses.

Pity a poor young man! To come from London to Birmingham to woo one's
grey-eyed mistress, in a third-class carriage too, and find her gone to
New Zealand, whither circumstances prevented him from following her,
without leaving a word or a line, or even an address behind her! It was
too bad. Well, there was no remedy in the matter; so he walked to the
railway station, and groaned and swore all the way back to London.

Augusta, on board the Kangaroo, was, however, in utter ignorance of this
act of devotion on the part of her admirer; indeed, she did not even know
that he was her admirer. Feeling a curious sinking sensation within her,
she was about to go below to her cabin, which she shared with a
lady's-maid, not knowing whether to attribute it to sentimental qualms
incidental to her lonely departure from the land of her birth, or to
other qualms connected with the first experience of life upon the ocean
wave. About that moment, however, a burly quarter-master addressed her in
gruff tones, and informed her that if she wanted to see the last of "hold
Halbion," she had better go aft a bit, and look over the port side, and
she would see the something or other light. Accordingly, more to prove to
herself that she was not sea-sick than for any other reason, she did so,
and, standing as far aft as the second-class passengers were allowed to
go, stared at the quick flashes of the light-house, as second by second,
they sent their message across the great waste of sea.

As she stood there, holding on to a stanchion to steady herself, for the
vessel, large as she was, had begun to get a bit of a roll on, she was
suddenly aware of a bulky figure of