ou up at Port Jackson. So, what do you say
to my taking you away with me at once?"

"Lady O'Hara!"

"Don't shout, boy: this isn't the bush. Will you come?"

Nic sprang from his chair.

"Look at that, now!" cried Lady O'Hara, showing her teeth. "Hadn't we
better have a bit of lunch first?"

"Oh! yes, yes, yes, of course. But, Lady O'Hara, will you take me?"

"Take ye? Why, what an ungrateful young rapparee it is, wanting to
leave the home of five years like that!"

"Home!" cried Nic piteously. "Oh, Lady O'Hara, it hasn't been like
home. I haven't been happy here."

"Sure, I know, boy, and it was only my fun," said Lady O'Hara, laying
her hand upon the lad's head: "as if a boy could be quite happy away
from all who love him, and whom, in spite of his thoughtless way; he
loves! Then you shall come and live with me at the hotel, and help me
do all my shopping and commissions, beside getting your outfit and the
things you're to take out for your father. Come, Dominic, is it a
bargain?"

"Do--do you really wish it?"

"Why, of course, boy, or I wouldn't ask you. Ah, here's the doctor and
his lady. Sure, madam, I'm glad to make your acquaintance," said Lady
O'Hara, with grave dignity. "Dominic Braydon and I have been arranging
matters, and I should be obliged by your having his boxes seen to and
sent off to-morrow."

"To-morrow?" said the doctor.

"Yes," said the visitor, in a quiet, decisive tone; "and as for your
pupil--your late pupil--I shall take him away with me directly after
lunch."

Both the doctor and his lady began to make excuses about the
impossibility of Braydon being ready at so short a notice; and Lady
O'Hara turned to the boy.

"Do you hear that, Dominic? You can't be ready in the time. What do
you say?"

"I can," replied Nic.

"Of course you can, boy. There, doctor, I've come to take him, so now
let's have lunch."

The lunch was eaten, and the doctor and Mrs Dunham having nothing more
to say, Nic hastily packed up his things, and then ran to the schoolroom
to say good-bye. Ten minutes later he was in Lady O'Hara's carriage,
with the cheer given by the boys humming in his brain and a peculiar
sensation of sadness making itself felt, though all the time his heart
was throbbing with exultation, and the intense desire to go on faster
and faster, far away from school, and to make his first plunge into the
unknown.

Lady O'Hara did not speak for some time, but took out her l