itzgerald, and both of them only too
gladly left Australia, with all its sorrows and bitter memories.

Standing with her husband on the deck of one of the P. and O. steamers,
as it ploughed the blue waters of Hobson's Bay into foam, they both
watched Melbourne gradually fade from their view, under the glow of the
sunset. They could see the two great domes of the Exhibition, and the
Law Courts, and also Government House, with its tall tower rising from
the midst of the green trees. In the background was a bright crimson
sky, barred with masses of black clouds, and over all the great city
hung a cloud of smoke like a pall. The flaring red light of the sinking
sun glared angrily on the heavy waters, and the steamer seemed to be
making its way through a sea of blood. Madge, clinging to her husband's
arm, felt her eyes fill with tears, as she saw the land of her birth
receding slowly.

"Good-bye," she murmured, softly. "Good-bye for ever."

"You do not regret?" he said, bending his head.

"Regret, no," she answered, looking at him with loving eyes.

"With you by my side, I fear nothing. Surely our hearts have been tried
in the furnace of affliction, and our love has been chastened and
purified."

"We are sure of nothing in this world," replied Brian, with a sigh.
"But after all the sorrow and grief of the past, let us hope that the
future will be peace."

"Peace!"

A white-winged sea-gull rose suddenly from the crimson waters, and
circled rapidly in the air above them.

"A happy omen," she said, looking up fondly to the grave face of her
husband, "for your life and for mine."

He bent down and kissed her.

The great steamer moved slowly out to sea, and as they stood on the
deck, hand clasped in hand, with the fresh salt breeze blowing keenly
in their faces, it bore them away into the placid beauty of the coming
night, towards the old world and the new life.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, by Fergus Hume

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