e saved his money," thought Polly,
when she saw the coach. Despite their protests they were packed like
herrings in a barrel--had hardly enough room to use their hands.
Altogether it was a trying journey. Jinny, worked on by excitement and
fatigue, took a fit of hysterics; Trotty, frightened by the many rough
strangers, cried and had to be nursed; and the whole burden of the
undertaking lay on Polly's shoulders. She had felt rather timid about
it, before starting; but was obliged to confess she got on better than
she expected. A kind old man sitting opposite, for instance--a splitter
he said he was--actually undid Jinny's bonnet-strings, and fetched
water for her at the first stoppage.

Polly had not been in Melbourne since the year after her marriage, and
was looking forward intensely to the visit. She went laden with
commissions; her lady-friends gave her a list as long as her arm.
Richard, too, had entrusted her to get him second-hand editions of
various medical works, as well as a new stethoscope. Thirdly, she had
promised old Mr. Ocock to go to William's Town to meet Miss Amelia, who
even now was tossing somewhere on the Indian Ocean, and to escort the
poor young lady up to Ballarat.

Having seen them start, Mahony went home to drink his coffee and read
his paper in a quiet that was new to him. John's departure had already
eased the strain. Then Tilly had been boarded out at the Methodist
minister's. Now, with the exit of Polly and her charges, a great peace
descended on the little house. The rooms lay white and still in the
sun, and though all doors stood open, there was not a sound to be heard
but the buzzing of the blowflies round the sweets of the flytraps. He
was free to look as glum as he chose of a morning if he had neuralgia;
or to be silent when worried over a troublesome case. No longer would
Miss Tilly's bulky presence and loud-voiced reiterations of her
prospects grate his nerves; or John's full-blooded absorption in
himself, and poor foolish Jinny's quavering doubts whether she would
ever be able to live up to so magnificent a husband, offend his sense
of decorum.

Another reason he was glad to see the last of them was that, in the
long run, he had rebelled at the barefaced way they made use of Polly,
and took advantage of her good nature. She had not only cooked for them
and waited on them; he had even caught her stitching garments for the
helpless Jinny. This was too much: such extreme obligingnes