Part 48 (1/2)

Mrs Beaudesart ell-born Don't study that expression too closely, or you'll get puzzled Her father, Hungry Buckley, of Baroona--a gentle--had been snuffed-out by apoplexy, and abundantly filled a pre Baroona pass, by foreclosure, into the hands of a brainy and nosey financier People who had known the poor gentleman when he was very emphatically in the flesh, and had listened to his palaver, and noticed his feckless way of going about things, were not surprised at the misfortune that had struck Buckley Mrs B had then taken a small villa, near Sydney, where, in course of tie, such as their circuentility (an objectionable word, but it has no synonyainst any a representative of the opposite sex

But young Mr Buckley, as so indefinite in a bank, presently ventured on a bit of blacks, by reason of hopeless iot a tenner hard

About the sa lady-- became a veritable heroine of roet at the present moment, visited these provinces; and our Beatrix Esreatness is better than no greatness at all

So, at all events, thought Mr Lionel Fysshe-Jhonson, who th of her celebrity This young man in less than two years went to his reward; and his , after a see the hand and heart of old Mr Tidy, an aitchless property-owner, whose hobby was to collect his own rents

Bottohteen months, and paid probate duty on 25,000 After three years of so like life, she accepted the addresses of the Hon Henry Beaudesart, a social refugee froentleman of such refined tastes that it took over 10,000 a year to satisfy his soul-yearnings; so, when she buried him, after two years' trial it was in the sure and certain hope that he would stay where he was put This brought her to about the year '78 And the tide had turned

For the next two years, the poor gentlewoar to its very dregs the cup of bitterness which a heartless society holds to the lips of its deposed queen The elegancies of life were necessities to her; but those elegancies would cost--to put it tangibly-- the balance of profit accruing froe industrious women And when the industrious woancies to come froentler heart than Maud Beaudesart's, and will break many more It is a cruel question; but not to put it would be entlewoentlewoloats on the adversity of the world's spoiled child; the next basest is that which concentrates its sympathy on the saoaded by a huet a lever under the order of things which necessitates the spoiling of any particular child

Two or three years before the date of this record, Mrs Montgo-school friend of Mrs Beaudesart, had ht her out to Runny the tenaciousas a fixture, had insisted upon her having some definite status on the place, and she was therefore installed as housekeeper Little wonder that the poor gentlewo under the omery, used to make the handmaidens of the household wish theer, shi+fted froht take it out of the boys Such is life

Levites, tribesmen, and Gentiles alike, used to poke fun at ht they knew h sobut provoking Yet h I'll tell you exactly hoe stood

On o in front of the store, Mrs Beaudesart passed by He detained her a -accorave courtliness, introduced me to her as the last lineal descendant of Commander David Collins, RN Situated as I hat could I say?-- ould you have said? I had to fall in with the thing at the ti done so, of course, I had to live up to it; ood deal when I had to beat time with a woman like Maud In spite of my chivalrous disinclination to flaunt superior descent in the face of a lady, our shudderso up row more imperative as it became more difficult

But even at this distance of tih the ordeal without any sacrifice of veracity--partly bymy forbears, and the rest by a little diplorandfather, Sir Timothy Collins, had been well known in connection with the turf, I omitted to explain that he was allowed to obtain it only fro, and that his custom was to sell it at the stump for so much per donkey-load, to be taken out in spuds or oatht expect

Meanwhile, sos, as well as that strange fascination which accoMrs Beaudesart possessed a vast store of Debrett--inforentlemen-colonists whose enterprise is hyreed and unspeakable arrogance has yet to be said or sung Socially, she knew so fie-fie about most of our old nobility; and her class-sympathy, supported by the quasi-sacredness which invests aristocratic giddiness, lent tenderness of colour and accuracy of detail to some queer revelations She could make me fancy myself in ancient Corinth

And such was her hypnotic power, or my adaptability, that in the atood old type, and actually enjoyed the coreed lady and a pedigreed gentleomerys as of the wealthy lower orders, people of yesterday, and so forth; and because we took especial care to let nobody hear us, the jealousy of our inferiors e so dear to the middle-class mind

'Inferiors,' I say advisedly, for there was an indescribable so too subtle for expression in the vulgar tongue, which eoisie, and ourselves the real Mackay Of course, Montgoh descent as soon as the words of introduction were out of his entilesse for the present; fa me to be extremely sensitive on the subject of my low position This was the only witchcraft I had used

Ida, the handmaid of the barracks, was a coed to the same mammiferous division of vertebrata as Mrs Beaudesart, but there the affinity ended with a jerk In a word, she was the low-born daughter of a late poverty-stricken Victorian selector Her father, after twelve years' ed himself in the stable; whereupon the storekeeper had sold the ee the fares, month by month, went to the support of her broken-downcare of Ida's reetting run-over, in a painfully protracted way, by a heavy set of harrows Her other brother had unfortunately sat down to eat his lunch on the wrong side of a partly grubbed tree

Altogether, poor Ida had very little to be thankful for Personally, she ithout any exception, the ugliest white girl I ever saw Shefrom the chin to Self-Esteem as from Benevolence to A; her skin was of a neutral creaoatee of dirty white, oolly side-boards of the same colour, in lieu of the short, silky moustache which is the piquant trade-mark of our country-women

Besides this, she was la been cut through by a reaping-ers of her left hand had been snipped to a unifor into the feed of a chaff-cutter Montgomery had picked her purposely for the barracks--so, at least, he told Mrs Montgomery; so she told Mrs Beaudesart, and so the latter told me For myself, I often felt an impulse to marry the poor mortal; partly from compassion; partly froely to my honour; and partly from the impression that such an unattractive wohter of an unlucky selector is not taught to spare herself; and Ida was an untiring and conscientious worker For the rest, she was a generous, patient, self-denying girl, transparently honest in word and deed; the gentle soul shi+ning through its holy, illiterate--and, above all, ill-starred, lowly, and defenceless--as she was, she would have made an admirable butt for the flea-power of your illustrated coliness, for her vulgarity, for her simplicity, but chiefly for her na how rancorously I once hated another boy because he caht) Yet the two eable on Ida, ould answer back, in her own ravation, she could n't answer back without crying

So; and Mrs Beaudesart re into Ida's tear-stained face, and noting with polite deprecation the convulsive sobs which the sensitive girl vainly tried to repress before the young fellows

Beauty in distress is a favorite theme of your shallow ro to that of ugliness in distress

At the best of ti my soul with commiseration; and when the syuish was superiht, the pressure became intolerable It had always been ht and beautiful angel; and now I fell back for solace upon that thought--though how the thing was to be accorasp of a water-worn and partially dissolved understanding like ood,” ht up as you have been, you can't be expected to have the manners we look for in the servants of a well-conducted household; so when I consider it my duty to instruct you in the decencies of life, you norance, Mary, as well as for their faults I kno you must feel it; but parents in the position that yours were in should send their children to service before they are too old for the necessary training”

”My parents done the best they could to keep their ho voice

”Speak grammatically, my dear No doubt your parents did as you say, but ot their position Instead of accepting the fair wages and abundant food which society offers to their class, they joined the hungry horde that has cut up those fine Victorian stations

Part of the retribution justly falls on their children; part, of course, on themselves Your father, I venture to say, often envied the life of the domestic animals on the station where he had selected But he aimed at independence--independence! A fine word, Mary, but a poor reality

This idea of independence is st people who, however poorly they ht I'ious side of the question, Mary; the divine command to do our duty in that state of life in which it has pleased God to call us Service is honourable”----

Here Ida sobbed out so that sounded like a rejoinder; and there was a harder ring in the lady's voice as she continued, without pausing:

”Yes, my dear; if your parents had known themselves, and had cheerfully remained in the position for which their birth and education fitted them, you would have been spared many humiliations, and it would have been better for your father, both in tirave?” sobbed the girl