little figure never raised its
head.

"Susy, won't you wish me good-bye. Say something to me before I go. Must
I go?"

He had no hope she would change her mind. He had learned her
steadfastness only too well in the last four weeks, only he asked
because it gave him the faintest shadow of an excuse for stopping at her
side.

"Yes, go, go!" And the command was almost prayerful in its intensity.

"But--but--one word--one word--you--"

"God bless you! God keep you! Go, go!"

He turned away then, away from the bright water sparkling in the
sunlight, away from the woman he loved with all his strength; but a
chimera, it seemed to him, a vague fancy, stood between them, yet it
was stronger than iron bars, and with a heavy sigh he turned his face
towards the dark ranges and went down to the township, five miles
beyond.

The good ship _Vanity_ had lain three long months at Port Melbourne
Pier, but they were weighing anchor at last. Standing there on the poop,
the second mate listened sadly enough to the chanting of the men as they
walked slowly round the capstan. There was almost a wail in the tune,
though the words were the essence of common-placeness, and related how
the singers had courted Sally Brown for seven years, and when she had
proved obdurate, with great complacency had taken her daughter instead.

"Seven long years I courted Sally,
Ay, ay, roll and go!
Seven long years and she wouldn't marry,
Spend my money on Sally Brown."

"Ay! ay!" it rose loud and clear above the noise of the busy pier, above
the voices of the men at work there, above the creaking and groaning of
the crane that was loading the great iron tank that lay next them, "ay!
ay! roll and go!"

Yes, he was going now, leaving all the sunshine of his life behind him,
the best part of his life and--

"Now then, mister, bear a hand there, ain't there longshore lubbers
enough wi'out you?"

"Ay! ay! roll and go!" It was only another way of saying "Blessed be
drudgery," only a reminder that work is a universal panacea for all ills
and heartaches. And after all the second mate of the sailing-ship is not
likely to have much time for idle dreams--regretful or otherwise--for
the life of such men is monotonous enough; and two days later when they
had come through the Rip, and were out in the Southern Ocean sailing
along eastward, there was little enough to remind Ben Harper of the
events of a week before. True it was on this stern