ng, drinking, and
sleeping. Despite my forty-seven years, I begin to feel almost like the
James North who fought the bargee and took the gold medal. What a drink
water is! The fons Bandusiae splendidior vitreo was better than all the
Massic, Master Horace! I doubt if your celebrated liquor, bottled when
Manlius was consul, could compare with it.

But to my notable facts. I have found out to-night two things which
surprise me. One is that the convict who attempted the life of Mrs.
Frere is none other than the unhappy man whom my fatal weakness caused
to be flogged at Port Arthur, and whose face comes before me to reproach
me even now. The other that Mrs. Carr is an old acquaintance of Frere's.
The latter piece of information I obtained in a curious way. One night,
while Mrs. Frere was not there, we were talking of clever women. I
broached my theory, that strong intellect in women went far to destroy
their womanly nature.

"Desire in man," said I, "should be Volition in women: Reason,
Intuition; Reverence, Devotion; Passion, Love. The woman should strike
a lower key-note, but a sharper sound. Man has vigour of reason,
woman quickness of feeling. The woman who possesses masculine force of
intellect is abnormal." He did not half comprehend me, I could see, but
he agreed with the broad view of the case. "I only knew one woman who
was really 'strong-minded', as they call it," he said, "and she was a
regular bad one."

"It does not follow that she should be bad," said I. "This one was,
though--stock, lock, and barrel. But as sharp as a needle, sir, and as
immovable as a rock. A fine woman, too." I saw by the expression of the
man's face that he owned ugly memories, and pressed him further. "She's
up country somewhere," he said. "Married her assigned servant, I was
told, a fellow named Carr. I haven't seen her for years, and don't know
what she may be like now, but in the days when I knew her she was just
what you describe." (Let it be noted that I had described nothing.) "She
came out in the ship with me as maid to my wife's mother."

It was on the tip of my tongue to say that I had met her, but I don't
know what induced me to be silent. There are passages in the lives of
men of Captain Frere's complexion, which don't bear descanting on.
I expect there have been in this case, for he changed the subject
abruptly, as his wife came in. Is it possible that these two
creatures--the notable disciplinarian and the wife of the ass