w kind Mr. Hatteras was when those larrikins were rude to me in
the Domain."

"I am sincerely obliged to you, Mr. Hatteras," he said, holding out his
hand and shaking mine heartily. "My daughter did tell me, and I called
yesterday at your hotel to thank you personally, but you were
unfortunately not at home. Are you visiting Europe?"

"Yes; I'm going home for a short visit to see the place where my father
was born."

"Are you then, like myself, an Australian native? I mean, of course, as
you know, colonial born?" asked Miss Wetherell with a little laugh. The
idea of her calling herself an Australian native in any other sense! The
very notion seemed preposterous.

"I was born at sea, a degree and a half south of Mauritius," I answered;
"so I don't know what you would call me. I hope you have comfortable
cabins?"

"Very. We have made two or three voyages in this boat before, and we
always take the same places. And now, papa, we must really go and see
where poor Miss Thompson is. We are beginning to feel the swell, and
she'll be wanting to go below. Good-bye for the present."

I raised my cap and watched her walk away down the deck, balancing
herself as if she had been accustomed to a heaving plank all her life.
Then I turned to watch the fast receding shore, and to my own thoughts,
which were none of the saddest, I can assure you. For it must be
confessed here--and why should I deny it?--that I was in love from the
soles of my deck shoes to the cap upon my head. But as to the chance,
that I, a humble pearler, would stand with one of Sydney's most
beautiful daughters--why, that's another matter, and one that, for the
present, I was anxious to keep behind me.

Within the week we had left Adelaide behind us, and four days later
Albany was also a thing of the past. By the time we had cleared the
Lewin we had all settled down to our life aboard ship, the bad sailors
were beginning to appear on deck again, and the medium voyagers to make
various excuses for their absences from meals. One thing was evident,
that Miss Wetherell was the belle of the ship. Everybody paid her
attention, from the skipper down to the humblest deck hand. And this
being so, I prudently kept out of the way, for I had no desire to be
thought to presume on our previous acquaintance. Whether she noticed
this I cannot tell, but at any rate her manner to me when we _did_ speak
was more cordial than I had any right or reason to expect it would be.
See