“But it hasn’t,” said Clif consolingly; “they’ll be as right as ever in the morning.”
And truly enough they were.
[158]
]CHAPTER XIV
TRYING TO LIVE
It almost came to pass that in a month “Brownses” was empty again. After a long talk with Dr. Wise and the clergyman Mrs. Conway was aghast at the prospect before her. There were absolutely no possibilities about the place. The miners’ children went to the half-time public school, which also the tradesmen’s young ones attended. Dr. Wise promised Clif
and Teddie, the clergyman his two grand-children, but six guineas a quarter would hardly keep a house going.
“There is no help for it, I must go back to Sydney,” the widow said, but a white look came over her face. She was in the Wises’ cottage, and the doctor and his wife were discussing the situation with her.
“That scamp of an agent!” cried the doctor hotly. “You are saddled with your house for a year, are you not?”
Mrs. Conway’s lips said yes, her voice she knew would fail her.
[159]
]The doctor strode up and down the room, his blood boiling. It seemed a blot on his country that a defenceless widow should hardly have landed on its shores before she fell a prey to a scoundrel like that.
“I’d bring it before the Courts, if I could,” he said from time to time.