orable scenes of his life.
"Look here," cried Dr Rider; "authority has little to do with it. If you
had been my wife, Nettie, to be sure you could not have deserted me. It
is as great a cruelty--it is as hard upon me, this you are trying to do.
I have submitted hitherto, and heaven knows it has been bitter enough;
and you scorn me for my submission," said the doctor, making the discovery
by instinct. "When a fellow obeys you, it is only contempt you feel for
him; but I tell you, Nettie, I will bear it no longer. You shall not go
away. This is not to be. I will neither say good-bye, nor think of it.
What is your business is my business; and I declare to you, you shall
not go unless I go too. Ah--I forgot. They tell me there is a fellow, an
Australian, who ventures to pretend--I don't mean to say I believe it.
You think _he_ will not object to your burdens! Nettie! Don't let us
kill each other. Let us take all the world on our shoulders," cried the
doctor, drawing near again, with passionate looks, "rather than part!"

There was a pause--neither of them could speak at that moment. Nettie,
who felt her resolution going, her heart melting, yet knew she dared not
give way, clasped her hands tight in each other and stood trembling,
yet refusing to tremble; collecting her voice and thoughts. The doctor
occupied that moment of suspense in a way which might have looked
ludicrous in other circumstances, but was a relief to the passion that
possessed him. He dragged the other vast Australian box to the same
corner where he had set the first, and piled them one above the other.
Then he collected with awkward care all the heaps of garments which lay
about, and carried them off in the other direction to the stairs, where
he laid them carefully with a clumsy tenderness. When he had swept away
all these encumbrances, as by a sudden gust of wind, he came back to
Nettie, and once more clasped the firm hands which held each other fast.
She broke away from him with a sudden cry--

"You acknowledged it was impossible!" cried Nettie. "It is not my doing,
or anybody's; no one shall take the world on his shoulders for my sake--I
ask nobody to bear my burdens. Thank you for not believing it--that is a
comfort at least. Never, surely, any one else--and not you, not you! Dr
Edward, let us make an end of it. I will never consent to put my yoke
upon your shoulders, but I--I will never forget you or blame you--any
more. It is all hard, but we cannot