s of
form! What dignity robes the man who is filled with a lofty thought!

CHAPTER IV.

He is gone; he has left a void in my existence. I had grown to love him
so well; I had been so proud when men praised him. My love was a sort of
self-love,--I had looked upon him in part as the work of my own hands.
I am a long time ere I can settle back, with good heart, to my pastoral
life. Before my cousin went, we cast up our gains and settled our
shares. When he resigned the allowance which Roland had made him, his
father secretly gave to me, for his use, a sum equal to that which I and
Guy Bolding brought into the common stock. Roland had raised a sum
upon mortgage; and while the interest was a trivial deduction from his
income, compared to the former allowance, the capital was much more
useful to his son than a mere yearly payment could have been. Thus,
between us, we had a considerable sum for Australian settlers,--L4,500.
For the first two years we made nothing,--indeed, great part of the
first year was spent in learning our art, at the station of an old
settler. But at the end of the third year, our flocks having then
become very considerable, we cleared a return beyond my most sanguine
expectations. And when my cousin left, just in the sixth year of exile,
our shares amounted to L4,000 each, exclusive of the value of the two
stations. My cousin had at first wished that I should forward his share
to his father; but he soon saw that Roland would never take it, and it
was finally agreed that it should rest in my hands, for me to manage for
him, send him out an interest at five per cent, and devote the surplus
profits to the increase of his capital. I had now, therefore, the
control of L12,000, and we might consider ourselves very respectable
capitalists. I kept on the cattle station, by the aid of the
Will-o'-the-Wisp, for about two years after Vivian's departure (we had
then had it altogether for five). At the end of that time, I sold it and
the stock to great advantage. And the sheep--for the "brand" of which I
had a high reputation--having wonderfully prospered in the mean while, I
thought we might safely extend our speculations into new ventures. Glad,
too, of a change of scene, I left Bolding in charge of the flocks and
bent my course to Adelaide, for the fame of that new settlement had
already disturbed the peace of the Bush. I found Uncle Jack residing
near Adelaide in a very handsome villa, with all the signs a