years of age. Hilda would be best described as a jolly
girl with no humbug about her. Simple in tastes, unaffected in manner,
strikingly self-reliant, and as straight as a die in disposition, her
inherited strength of character had been fostered and fortified at the
expense of all the weaknesses of her sex, by the manner of her
upbringing. Yet, withal, she was purely womanly. In appearance she was
tall and fair, her figure slender but firmly-built; she was lissom in
all her movements and a general air of independence, in harmony with the
frankness of her speech and the directness of her gaze, hung around her.
She was a large-hearted girl and no one but her banker knew of the
thousands of pounds that were quietly distributed amongst the charities
of the city every year: a decided eccentricity, and most directly
opposed to the current method, which consists in having the name of the
donor published in the leading papers, to be cabled over to England and
brought at any cost under the notice of Her Majesty, in case there might
be a spare title going begging. Had she wanted a title she could have
had one, for it was well-known that a certain sprig of the nobility,
when on a visit to the colonies, had graciously decided to make her and
her fortune his own. "She is not much to look at, but her fortune is
good," he had said to his friend, the Governor, who was complaining that
he had given up his home and friends to spend five years penal servitude
amongst those ignorant Australian savages. A few days after, therefore,
the Honourable--it would be unfair to give his name--presented himself
to Hilda, and was about to offer her his hand and heart, when he was
stopped midway with the remark--"I am really very busy to-day. If it is
a situation on one of my stations that you want, I will be pleased to
mention your name to my manager, for I do not meddle with those matters
myself." It is not known if he ever consulted the manager.

She now owned three large stations, besides city property and countless
investments. The management of all this she had taken into her own hands
on her coming of age. She then purchased Blue Gums, the handsome mansion
in which we have seen her, where she shocked and scandalised Society for
the moment by entertaining on her own account. Society salved its
conscience by holding aloof from her for a few weeks, then thought
better of it, and she was now one of the most prominent entertainers in
Sydney. At Gover