So they went, and were strictly to be home at dinner time; whereas not one of them came home for a week.
When they came to the door at Garoopna, there was Alice, most bewitchingly beautiful. Papa was away on the run, and Dr. Mulhaus with him; so the three came in. Alice was very glad to see Halbert--was glad also to see Sam; but not so glad, or, at all events, did not say so much about it.
"Alice, have you seen the newspaper?" said Jim.
"No; why?"
"There is a great steamer gone down at sea, and three hundred persons drowned!"
"What a horrible thing! I should never have courage to cross the sea."
"You would soon get accustomed to it, I think," said Halbert.
"I have never even seen it as yet," she said, "save at a distance."
"Strange, neither have I," said Sam. "I have dim recollections of our voyage here, but I never stood upon the sh.o.r.e in my life."
"I have beat you there," said Jim. "I have been down to Cape Chatham, and seen the great ocean itself: a very different thing from Sydney Harbour, I promise you. You see the great cape running out a mile into the sea, and the southern rollers tumbling in over the reefs like cascades."
"Let us go and see it!--how far is it?" said Alice.
"About thirty miles. The Barkers" station is about half a mile from the Cape, and we could sleep there, you know."
"It strikes me as being a most brilliant idea," said Sam.
And so the arrangement was agreed to, and the afternoon went on pleasantly. Alice walked up and down with Sam among the flowers, while Jim and Halbert lay beneath a mulberry tree and smoked.
They talked on a subject which had engaged their attention a good deal lately: Jim"s whim for going soldiering had grown and struck root, and become a determination. He would go back to India when Halbert did, supposing that his father could be tempted to buy him a commission.
Surely he might manage to join some regiment in India, he thought.
India was the only place worth living in just now.
"I hope, Halbert," he said, "that the Governor will consent. I wouldn"t care when I went; the sooner the better. I am tired of being a cattle-dealer on a large scale; I want to get at some MAN"S work. If one thing were settled I would go to-morrow."
"And what is that?" said Halbert.
Jim said nothing, but looked at the couple among the flower-beds.
"Is that all?" said Halbert. "What will you bet me that that affair is not concluded to-night?"
"I"ll bet you five pounds to one it ain"t," said Jim; "nor any time this twelvemonth. They"ll go on shillyshallying half their lives, I believe."
"Nevertheless I"ll bet with you. Five to one it comes off to-night!
Now! There goes your sister into the house; just go in after her."
Jim sauntered off, and Sam came and laid his great length down by the side of Halbert.
They talked on indifferent matters for a few minutes, till the latter said,--
"You are a lucky fellow, Sam."
"With regard to what?" said Sam.
"With regard to Miss Buckley, I mean."
"What makes you think so?"
"Are you blind, Sam? Can"t you see that she loves you better than any man in the world?"
He answered nothing, but turning his eyes upon Halbert, gazed at him a moment to see whether he was jesting or no. No, he was in earnest. So he looked down on the gra.s.s again, and, tearing little tufts up, said,--
"What earthly reason have you for thinking that?"
"What reason!--fifty thousand reasons. Can you see nothing in her eyes when she speaks to you, which is not there at other times; hey, Bat?--I can, if you can"t."
"If I could think so!" said Sam. "If I could find out?"
"When I want to find out anything, I generally ask," said Halbert.
Sam gave him the full particulars of Cecil"s defeat.
"All the better for you," said Halbert; "depend upon it. I don"t know much about women, it is true, but I know more than you do."
"I wish I knew as much as you do," said Sam.
"And I wish I knew as little as you do," said Halbert.
Dinner-time came, but the Captain and the Doctor were not to the fore.
After some speculations as to what had become of them, and having waited an hour, Jim said, that in the unexplained absence of the crowned head, he felt it his duty to the country, to a.s.sume the reins of government, and order dinner. Prime Minister Alice, having entered a protest, offered no further opposition, and dinner was brought in.
Young folks don"t make so much of dinner as old ones at any time, and this dinner was an unusually dull one. Sam was silent and thoughtful, and talked little; Alice, too, was not quite herself. Jim, as usual, ate like a hero, but talked little; so the conversation was princ.i.p.ally carried on by Halbert, in the narrative style, who really made himself very useful and agreeable, and I am afraid they would have been a very "slow" party without him.
Soon after the serious business of eating was over, Jim said,--
"Alice, I wonder what the Governor will say?"
"About what, brother?"
"About my going soldiering."
"Save us! What new crotchet is this?"
"Only that I"m going to bother the Governor, till he gets me a commission in the army."
"Are you really serious, Jim?"
"I never was more so in my life."
"So, Mr. Halbert," said Alice, looking round at him, "you are only come to take my brother away from me!"