than ever you 'ad before."

"Oh lor!" said the girl. "Oh, lor!" And plumping down on the
chopping-block she snatched her apron to her face and began to cry.

Chapter VIII

Two months passed before Mahony could help Polly and Mrs. Beamish into
the coach bound for Geelong.

It had been touch and go with Polly; and for weeks her condition had
kept him anxious. With the inset of the second month, however, she
seemed fairly to turn the corner, and from then on made a steady
recovery, thanks to her youth and an unimpaired vitality.

He had hurried the little cradle out of sight. But Polly was quick to
miss it, and quite approved of its having been given to a needy
expectant mother near by. Altogether she bore the thwarting of her
hopes bravely.

"Poor little baby, I should have been very fond of it," was all she
said, when she was well enough to fold and pack away the tiny garments
at which she had stitched with such pleasure.

It was not to Mahony's mind that she returned with Mrs. Beamish--but
what else could be done? After lying a prisoner through the hot summer,
she was sadly in need of a change. And Mrs. Beamish promised her a diet
of unlimited milk and eggs, as well as the do nothing life that
befitted an invalid. Just before they left, a letter arrived from John
demanding the keys of his house, and proposing that Polly should come
to town to set it in order for him, and help him to engage a
housekeeper. A niggardly--a truly "John-ish"--fashion of giving an
invitation, thought Mahony, and was not for his wife accepting it. But
Polly was so pleased at the prospect of seeing her brother that he
ended by agreeing to her going on to Melbourne as soon as she had
thoroughly recuperated.

Peace between him and Mrs. Beamish was dearly bought up to the last;
they barely avoided a final explosion. At the beginning of her third
month's absence from home the good woman grew very restive, and sighed
aloud for the day on which she would be able to take her departure.

"I expec' my bein' away like this'll run clean into a fifty-poun'
note," she said one evening. "When it comes to managin' an 'ouse, those
two girls of mine 'aven't a h'ounce o' gumption between them."

It WAS tactless of her, even Polly felt that; though she could
sympathise with the worry that prompted the words. As for Mahony, had
he had the money to do it, he would have flung the sum named straight
at her head.

"She must never come again," said P