talk like that, sir? My father _is_ a King's officer, and
before he came here he fought for his country."

"Veil, Mees Dorotee, I do beg your pardon mooch, and I vill vight vor
mein country if you vil learn to loaf me on dot account."

But Miss Dolly would listen no more, and, with a ceremonious bow, walked
away. Then the Dutch merchant went to the Commissary's office to
talk the matter over with her father, who told him that he would
not interfere in his daughter's choice; if he could not make himself
agreeable to her, neither her father nor mother could help him.

Just after sunrise next morning, Dolly, who had spent the night in tears
and repentance, woke, feeling very miserable. From her opened window
she could see the morning mists hanging over the placid waters of
the harbour disappearing before the first breaths of the coming
south-easter. The _Policy_, she thought, could not have sailed yet, and
she meant to send her lover a note, asking him to come and see her again
before he left. Then she gave a little cry and sob, and her eyes filled
with tears. Far down the harbour she could see the sails of the _Policy_
just disappearing round a wooded headland.

An hour or so after breakfast, as Dolly was at work among her flowers,
the tall figure of Sergeant Burt stood before her, and saluted--

"The _Policy_ has sailed, Miss Scarsbrook," said the Sergeant, "and I
have brought you a letter."

"Indeed!" said Dolly, with an air of icy indifference, turning her back
upon the soldier, and digging her trowel into a little heap of soil. "I
do not take any interest in merchant ships, and do not want the letter."
When she glanced round again she was just in time to see Sergeant Burt
standing in the roadway with a lot of tiny pieces of paper fluttering
about his feet.

Something impelled her to ask: "What are you doing, Burt?"

"Mr. Foster's orders, Miss. Told me if you would not take the letter I
was to destroy it."

Dolly laid her trowel down and slowly went to her room "with a bad
headache," as she told her mother.

II

Nearly two years went by, and then one morning the look-out at the South
Head of Sydney Harbour signalled a vessel to the north-east, and a few
hours later the _Policy_ was again at anchor in Sydney Cove, and Captain
Foster was being warmly welcomed by the residents generally and Dolly's
father in particular, who pressed him to come ashore that evening to
dinner.

Among the first to board t