y as he could, said gravely, "This must be looked to!"
He continued to stare at the wash of water during the remainder of our
perilous and rough transit without vouchsafing any explanation of his
meaning, but after we had safely landed he replaced his spectacles,
first in their huge shagreen case, and next in his pocket, with an air
which seemed to say, "The danger is now over: thanks to my precautions."

Timaru was reached very late, and the best accommodation at the inn
placed at our disposal. Still, in those distant days there was no such
thing as a private sitting room, and we had all to eat our supper in the
same rough-boarded little apartment. But in all my varied wanderings in
different parts of the world, when the accidents of travel have thrown
me for a time among the class whom we foolishly speak of as the lower
orders, I have never yet had to complain of the slightest inconvenience
or disagreeableness from my fellow-travellers. On the contrary, I have
always received the most chivalrous politeness at their hands, and have
noticed how ready they were to forego their usual tastes and habits lest
they should cause me any annoyance. I wonder whether fine gentlemen in
their splendid clubs would be quite so willing to spoil the pleasure of
their evening if any accident were to throw an unwelcome lady amongst
them? At all events, they could not be _more_ self-sacrificing than my
friends in fustian jackets have always proved themselves, and on this
particular evening the landlord of the inn was so amazed at the orders
for tea and coffee instead of the usual "nips" of spirits, that he was
constrained to inquire the reason. A stalwart drover who was sitting
opposite to me at the rude table, murmured from the depths of his
great beard, in an oracular whisper, "The smell of speerits might'nt be
agreeble like to the lady." In vain I protested that I did not mind it
in the least; tea and coffee was the order of the evening, and solemn
silence and good behaviour. No smoking, no songs, no conviviality of
any sort. I would fain have shown my appreciation of their courtesy by
talking to them; but alas, I was one vast ache all over! Although the
road had been a dead level, sixteen hours of jolting and bumping had
reduced me to a limp, black-and-blue creature, with out a word or a
smile. Of course I retired to what was literally a pallet, and a very
hard pallet too, as early as possible, but even after I had vanished
behind the t