tralia. For a time word came from him. Then I was
taken ill and couldn't answer his letters, and a cousin of my own, who
had tried to win my love, did a wicked thing. He wrote a letter to him
and told him I was dyin', and that there was no use of farther words
from him. And never again did word come to me from him. But I waited, my
heart sick with longin' and full of hate for the memory of the man who,
when struck with death, told me of the cruel deed he had done between us
two."

She paused, as she had to do several times during the recital, through
weariness or pain; but, after a moment, proceeded. "One day, one
beautiful day, when the flowers were like love to the eye, and the larks
singin' overhead, and my thoughts goin' with them as they swam until
they were lost in the sky, and every one of them a prayer for the
lad livin' yet, as I hoped, somewhere in God's universe--there rode a
gentleman down Farcalladen Rise. He stopped me as I walked, and said a
kind good-day to me; and I knew when I looked into his face that he had
word for me--the whisperin' of some angel, I suppose, and I said to him
as though he had asked me for it, 'My name is Mary Callen, sir.'

"At that he started, and the colour came quick to his face; and he said:
'I am Sir Duke Lawless. I come to look for Mary Callen's grave. Is there
a Mary Callen dead, and a Mary Callen livin'? and did both of them love
a man that went from Farcalladen Rise one wild night long ago?'

"'There's but one Mary Callen,' said I, 'but the heart of me is dead,
until I hear news that brings it to life again?'

"'And no man calls you wife?' he asked.

"'No man, Sir Duke Lawless,' answered I. 'And no man ever could, save
him that used to write me of you from the heart of Australia; only there
was no Sir to your name then.'

"'I've come to that since,' said he.

"'Oh, tell me,' I cried, with a quiverin' at my heart, 'tell me, is he
livin'?'

"And he replied: 'I left him in the Pipi Valley of the Rocky Mountains a
year ago.'

"'A year ago!' said I, sadly.

"'I'm ashamed that I've been so long in comin' here,' replied he; 'but,
of course, he didn't know that you were alive, and I had been parted
from a lady for years--a lover's quarrel--and I had to choose between
courtin' her again and marryin' her, or comin' to Farcalladen Rise at
once. Well, I went to the altar first.'

"'Oh, sir, you've come with the speed of the wind, for now that I've
news of him, it is only