troyed Philip's peace of mind. It
was to the effect that he was to open a school for boarders at
Nyalong, and, as a preliminary, marry a wife. The Major said that if
Philip had no suitable young lady in view, Mrs. Chisholm, he was
sure, would undertake to produce one at a very short notice. She had
the whole matter already planned, and was actually canvassing for
pupils among the wealthiest families in the colony. The Major
smiled benevolently, and said it was of no use for Philip to think of
resisting Mrs. Chisholm; when she had once made up her mind,
everybody had to give way, and the thing was settled. Philip, too,
smiled faintly, and tried to look pleased, dissembling his outraged
feelings, but he went away in a state of indignation. He actually
made an attack on the twelve virtues, which seemed all at once to
have conspired against his happiness. He said: "If I had not kept
school so conscientiously, this thing would never have happened. I
don't want boarders, and I don't want anybody to send me a wife to
Nyalong. I am not, thank God, one of the royal family, and not even
Queen Victoria shall order me a wife."

In that way the lonely hermit put his foot down and began a
countermine, working as silently as possible.

During the Christmas holidays, after his neighbour Frank had been
jilted by Cecily, he rode away, and returned after a week's absence.
The Major informed him that Mrs. Chisholm had met with an accident
and would be unable to visit Nyalong for some time. Philip was
secretly pleased to hear the news, outwardly he expressed sorrow and
sympathy, and nobody but himself suspected how mean and deceitful he
was.

At Easter he rode away again and returned in less than a week. Next
day he called at McCarthy's farm and dined with the family. He said
he had been married the previous morning before he had started for
Nyalong, and had left his wife at the Waterholes. McCarthy began to
suspect that Philip was a little wrong in his head; it was a kind of
action that contradicted all previous experience. He could remember
various lovers running away together before marriage, but he could
not call to mind a single instance in which they ran away from one
another immediately after marriage. But he said to himself, "It will
all be explained by-and-by," and he refrained from asking any
impertinent questions merely to gratify curiosity.

After dinner Gleeson, Philip, and McCarthy rode into the bush w