128
XI LAUNCESTON 144
XII GOODCHILD'S 156
XIII PORT ARTHUR 170
XIV EASTELLA 182
XV MAY 192
XVI HOBART 203
XVII SYDNEY 214
XVIII THE GIRLS 222
XIX HIL 232
XX BRISBANE 242
XXI TOOWOOMBA 254
XXII DALBY 269
XXIII CAMPING OUT 283
XXIV FRED PHILAMORE 294
XXV BLUE GUMS 306
XXVI MARJORIE WILLIAMSON 319
XXVII FOILED 332
XXVIII PREPARATIONS 343
XXIX EAR-MARKED 354
XXX THE TRIAL 367
XXXI THE VERDICT 377
XXXII CONCLUSION 383

APPENDIX

CHAPTER I.

THE DETLIJ CLUB.

In a handsome block of buildings in the neighbourhood of Piccadilly--a
phrase which may embrace a considerable area, North, South, East or
West--is located the quarters of that small and extremely select Club,
known, and known up till now only to a favoured few, as the Detlij Club.
The name, like the Club itself, is an uncommon one, and is simply
indicative of the sad mischance which must befal each member before he
can qualify for admission. No mysterious or secret rites were shadowed
in the title, and the ultra-curious in search of the origin of the
name, need no more overhaul their Hindu or Persian dictionaries, than
they need their Liddell and Scott. A simple inversion of the letters is
all that is necessary to solve the riddle, a process which discovers the
word "jilted," and discloses the character of the Club.

Briefly, the origin of the Club was in this wise. Some four years
previous to the date our story opens, a certain Major Fitzgerald, a man
of unenviable notoriety in Society, whose name was almost as well known
in the Divorce Court as it was in the clubs and boudoirs--a fact which,
though it caused his exclusion from some circles, made him more welcome
in others--chanced to meet the young and charming heiress, Helen Trevor,
at the time of her _debut_.

"That's the girl for my money," was the Major's inward com