and with his
newly-wedded wife, his acquaintances stared at them both in profound
astonishment. They had heard that he had married in Sydney, and from
their past knowledge of his character expected to see a loudly-attired
Melbourne or Sydney barmaid with peroxided hair, and person profusely
adorned with obtrusive jewelry. Instead of this they beheld a tall,
ladylike girl with a cold, refined face, and an equally cold and distant
manner.

"Well, I _have_ seen some curious things in my time," said Fryer, the
American master of a Torres Straits pearling schooner, to the other men,
as they watched Charlton and his wife drive away from the hotel, "but
to think that _that_ fellow should marry a lady! I wonder if she has the
faintest idea of what an anointed scoundrel he is?"

"He's been mighty smart over it, anyway," said a storekeeper named Lee.
"Why, it isn't six months since Nina drowned herself. I suppose it's
true, Fryer, that she did bolt with Jack Lester?"

The American struck his hand upon the table in hot anger. "That's a
lie! I know Lester well, and Nina Charlton was as good a woman as ever
breathed."

"Well, you see, Fryer, we don't know as much as you do about the matter.
But when Nina cleared out from her husband and Lester disappeared a day
or two later and went no one knows where, it did look pretty queer."

"And I tell you that Lester never saw Mrs. Charlton after the day he
took it out of Charlton. He's a gentleman. And if you want to know where
he is now I'll tell you. He's pearling at Thursday Island in Torres
Straits. And Nina Charlton, thank God, is at rest. After the fight
between Lester and her husband she ran away, and reached Port Denison
almost dead from exposure in the bush. Shannon, of the _Lynndale_, who
had known her in her childhood, gave her a passage to Sydney. Two days
before the steamer reached there she disappeared--jumped overboard in
the night, I suppose."

"Well, I'm sorry I repeated what is common gossip; but Charlton himself
put the story about. And the papers said a lot about the elopement of
the wife of a well-known plantation manager.'"

Fryer laughed contemptuously. "Just the thing Charlton would do. He's an
infernal scoundrel. He told Lester that he'd make it warm for him--the
beast. But I'm sorry for that sad-faced girl we saw just now. Fancy
the existence she will lead with an unprincipled and drunken brute like
Charlton! Good-bye; I'm off aboard. And look here, if ever