ontinued his tour, and I had
forgotten the incident. Later on I was in Melbourne, staying with Lord
Hopetoun for the Cup carnival. I had backed Auraria myself, hoping to lay
off. However, when the day came, nobody wanted to back her. As a matter
of fact, you could get forty to one about her as the horses went to the
post. The race started. Coming up the straight it was an open race. When
they got to the distance the crowd yelled the names of several horses as
the winners. At the half distance there came a regular roar. "Auraria,
Auraria wins!" A few seconds more and Auraria was first past the post.

After the race we went to afternoon tea with their Excellencies. The room
was full, but there were only one or two of us winners, when one of the
A.D.C.s told His Excellency that the Duke of the Abruzzi was just outside
and he had asked him to come in. In he came, with two of his staff, full
of smiles, rushed towards His Excellency and said, "Look! I backed
Auraria. We"--he pointed to his A.D.C.--"backed Auraria. We each win
L160. Look! All here in our pockets," which were bulging with gold and
notes. And, turning round to the admiring crowd, he suddenly saw me. In a
moment he was embracing me with both arms round my neck, saying,
"Auraria, my friend! The beautiful Adelaide Auraria." He then explained
that it had been mere chance that he had been enabled to leave Sydney the
night before, and had arrived at Flemington race-course just in time for
the race, and they had backed Auraria with the cash bookmakers, obtaining
the useful odds of forty to one. He then pulled out his pocket-book and
said, "You see the name 'Auraria'? You wrote it for me in Adelaide. I
came to put my money on. It is splendid." And so it was.

[Illustration: The Opening of the First Parliament of the Commonwealth of
Australia by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales, 9th May, 1901]

CHAPTER XV

A MERCHANT, THEN AN ACTOR

Well, something else had to be done to recover my losses and fill in
time. Having the offices on my hands--for I had taken them on a three
months' lease--it struck me that if I became a commission agent, and if I
secured something good to sell, I might make some money.

So I decided to interview several firms in the exhibition with a view to
becoming their agent. My first endeavours met with what I thought was
considerable success. They were mostly foreign firms that I approached,
as I am a good linguist, and they appeared to be deligh