make his farming
pay to support them all. He has no ambition, no desire to make his
fortune and come back to England. It means a thorough colonial life
for always. Oh, what fools men are!'

She paced her room with clenched hands.

'I never dreamt of such a thing. I came out here to shake him up, to
make him better himself. And I find he is perfectly content, and
considers my coming a decided nuisance, though he doesn't like to say
so. He can barely afford to live comfortably himself, and yet he
meditates a speedy marriage. I should like to postpone it. I suppose
if I asked him to let me stay out here for three or four months and let
his marriage wait till after I left him, he might agree, but then what
should I gain by that? I want him to give up this farming, which will
never make his fortune; but if he has a wife in view he will cling to
it! How I wish he had heard Mr. Montmorency talk of the certainty of
finding fresh goldfields, if only men of push and a certain amount of
money could be forthcoming! I will not let my journey out here be all
in vain! Walter must be roused, and made to do something better with
his life than his present existence. I wish Mr. Montmorency would pay
us a visit soon. He would advise him for his good. He says this
country is teeming with riches under the surface, only colonists are
often content with so little that they do not develop half the
resources so close to them. After all, it won't hurt that girl to wait
another year longer. She looks a simple, stupid little thing; and if
Walter can be got to postpone his marriage, we may be able to do
something with him yet.'

As Gwen thus cogitated, the scene in the cottage garden at home came
before her, when she found Patty Howitt locked out by her irate sister,
and her words flashed across her with clear distinctness now,--

'If I'm kept out here till dark, I'll maintain a promised wife comes
before a sister!'

A shadow crossed Gwen's determined face at this recollection.

'It is not a case of me or the promised wife,' she muttered to herself
with a little laugh. 'I would willingly go home again at once and
leave the young couple to themselves, but it is of their future that I
am thinking; and they will thank me in the end for it, I know.'

Not a doubt crossed her mind of the wisdom or expediency of trying to
upset her brother's plans and purposes. She knew what influence she
possessed over him. His was a placid, r