y, the shame, the hideous associations of those
years which to him must have seemed a century of despair; or would he
have fallen under the burden?

Virginia shivered as if with cold, as she fancied a hard, official voice
announcing that Number So-and-So was dead.

CHAPTER VII

THE GATES OPEN

The Countess de Mattos had a headache which was so severe, she announced,
that it would prevent her from landing; besides, she was not interested
in convicts. Lady Gardiner, on the contrary, was greatly interested.
Never had she been more alert; never had her black eyes been so keen. She
wanted to go everywhere; she wanted to see everything. She thought Noumea
a charming place; she had "really _no_ sympathy for the prisoners." One
might commit a crime solely for the pleasure of being sent here.

The party of five went ashore, and Kate's principal preoccupation seemed
to be to keep as close to Virginia as possible. She had the air of
expecting some choice excitement, which she might miss if the girl were
lost sight of for a moment. But nothing in the manner of Virginia or her
brother or cousin suggested that they had come to this strange spot "at
the end of the world" with any object save that of amusement. They
behaved just as they had behaved at Sydney, or any other port at which
they had called. All five strolled up, under a blaze of tropical
sunshine, to the Place des Cocotiers, and sitting on the shaded verandah
of the Hotel de France, sipped a cooling drink concocted of oranges,
lemons and pineapple. Then they sauntered on again, much observed by a
few weary-looking persons they met, through broad streets, with long,
low, white houses.

Dr. Grayle kept beside Lady Gardiner now, and they walked in front, as
the former was supposed to have studied the subject of the penal
settlement so thoroughly as to be qualified for guide.

Kate glanced over her shoulder often; but Dr. Grayle succeeded in
genuinely interesting her in a story of an atrocious criminal who had
been expatriated to Noumea some years before. When she looked hurriedly
back, ostensibly to ask Roger Broom if he had ever heard the spicy
narrative, the three had disappeared.

Lady Gardiner flushed in anger with them for their duplicity, with
herself for her carelessness in letting them slip away. "Dear me! what
_has_ become of the others?" she exclaimed. "We must turn back and find
them."

Dr. Grayle took the defection calmly--so calmly that Kate lea