sn't
her fault that she wasn't."

"What did she do?"

"Do! What didn't she do? Next day she went down to our place when I
was at work, and hugged and kissed mother and the girls all round, and
cried, and told mother that she'd try and be a dutiful daughter to her.
Good Lord! You should have seen the old woman and the girls when I came
home.

"Then she let everyone know that Bridget Page was engaged to Jack
Mitchell, and told her friends that she went down on her knees every
night and thanked the Lord for getting the love of a good man. Didn't
the fellows chyack me, though! My sisters were raving mad about it, for
their chums kept asking them how they liked their new sister, and when
it was going to come off, and who'd be bridesmaids and best man, and
whether they weren't surprised at their brother Jack's choice; and then
I'd gammon at home that it was all true.

"At last the place got too hot for me. I got sick of dodging that girl.
I sent a mate of mine to tell her that it was all a joke, and that I was
already married in secret; but she didn't see it, then I cleared, and
got a job in Newcastle, but had to leave there when my mates sent me the
office that she was coming. I wouldn't wonder but what she is humping
her swag after me now. In fact, I thought you was her in disguise when
I set eyes on you first.... You needn't get mad about it; I don't mean to
say that you're quite as ugly as she was, because I never saw a man that
was--or a woman either. Anyway, I'll never ask a woman to marry me again
unless I'm ready to marry her."

Then Mitchell's mate told a yarn.

"I knew a case once something like the one you were telling me about;
the landlady of a hash-house where I was stopping in Albany told me.
There was a young carpenter staying there, who'd run away from Sydney
from an old maid who wanted to marry him. He'd cleared from the church
door, I believe. He was scarcely more'n a boy--about nineteen--and a
soft kind of a fellow, something like you, only good-looking--that is,
he was passable. Well, as soon as the woman found out where he'd gone,
she came after him. She turned up at the boarding-house one Saturday
morning when Bobbie was at work; and the first thing she did was to rent
a double room from the landlady and buy some cups and saucers to start
housekeeping with. When Bobbie came home he just gave her one look and
gave up the game.

"'Get your dinner, Bobbie,' she said, after she'd slobbered over him