want to influence him."

Alice broke into a laugh.

"You little goose, as if what you say doesn't influence him."

Three weeks later, Reuben received a letter from Mr. Hudson.

"My dear Whitney, I am glad to hear, from you, that you are engaged
to be married; and the circumstances which you tell me of make it a
most interesting affair. If I were you, I should cut the
constabulary. I enclose a paper from Wilson, giving you three
weeks' leave. Come down to Sydney at once, and talk it over with
me. You know I regard you as my son, and I am going to have a voice
in the matter."

Reuben went down to Sydney and, after ascertaining his views, Mr.
Hudson went into town and forthwith arranged for the purchase, for
him, of a partnership in the chief engineering firm in the town.
When he told Captain Wilson what he had done, the latter declared
that he had robbed the colony of its best police officer. Reuben
protested against the generosity of the old settler, but the latter
declared he would have no nonsense on the subject.

"I am one of the richest men in the colony," he said, "and it's
hard if I can't spend my money as I choose."

There is little more to tell. Reuben became one of the leading
citizens of Sydney and, twenty years afterwards, sold his business
and returned to England, and bought an estate not far from Lewes,
where he is still living with his wife and family. He was
accompanied from Australia by his mother; who, in spite of her
strong objections to the sea, went out to live with him, two years
after his marriage.

The only point upon which Reuben Whitney and his wife have never
been able to come to an absolute agreement is as to which owes most
to the other.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Final Reckoning, by G. A. Henty

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