d, 'it isn't quite so bad as all that. Besides,
we'll be back again in February, as like as not. We're not going for
ever.'

'Are you telling me the truth, Richard Marston?' says she, standing up
and fixing her eyes full on me--fine eyes they were, too, in their way;
'or are you trying another deceit, to throw me off the scent and get rid
of me? Why should you ever want to see my face after you leave?'

'A friendly face is always pleasant. Anyhow, Kate, yours is, though
you did play me a sharpish trick once, and didn't stick to me like some
women might have done.'

'Tell me this,' she said, leaning forward, and putting one hand on my
shoulder, while she seemed to look through the very soul of me--her face
grew deadly pale, and her lips trembled, as I'd seen them do once before
when she was regular beyond herself--'will you take me with you when you
go for good and all? I'm ready to follow you round the world. Don't be
afraid of my temper. No woman that ever lived ever did more for the man
she loved than I'll do for you. If Jeanie's good to Jim--and you know
she is--I'll be twice the woman to you, or I'll die for it. Don't
speak!' she went on; 'I know I threw you over once. I was mad with rage
and shame. You know I had cause, hadn't I, Dick? You know I had. To
spite you, I threw away my own life then; now it's a misery and a
torment to me every day I live. I can bear it no longer, I tell you.
It's killing me--killing me day by day. Only say the word, and I'll join
you in Melbourne within the week--to be yours, and yours only, as long
as I live.'

I didn't think there was that much of the loving nature about her. She
used to vex me by being hard and uncertain when we were courting. I knew
then she cared about me, and I hadn't a thought about any other woman.
Now when I didn't ask her to bother herself about me, and only to let
me alone and go her own way, she must turn the tables on me, and want to
ruin the pair of us slap over again.

She'd thrown her arms round my neck and was sobbing on my shoulder when
she finished. I took her over to the sofa, and made her sit down by the
side of me.

'Kate,' I said, 'this won't do. There's neither rhyme nor reason about
it. I'm as fond of you as ever I was, but you must know well enough
if you make a bolt of it now there'll be no end of a bobbery, and
everybody's thoughts will be turned our way. We'll be clean bowled--the
lot of us. Jim and I will be jugged. You and Jeanie wi