Now visitors to the Queen City of the South are usually captivated at once by her charms, especially with the wondrous beauty of her glorious harbour, and their enjoyment is always heightened by the delightful hospitality of the citizens. But although neither of the three friends could be said to be insensible to either the beauties of nature or the wonders of man’s handiwork, they were all filled with a great longing for the home about which C. B. had spoken so lovingly, and whose simple delights he had so often pictured to them. And therefore, when Mr. Oliphant at his cheerful table that night produced a programme of visits and sightseeing that he and his wife had arranged for their guests, he received somewhat of a shock to find that they manifested not the slightest desire to avail themselves of his thoughtful kindness.
He had been amazed at the refusal of his guests to taste the costly wines he had set before them, wondered too at the extreme simplicity of their tastes, which made them neglect nearly all the carefully prepared dishes on the table and content themselves with the plainest fare, but now to find that they were careless of the wonders of Sydney, both natural and artificial—well, it was incomprehensible to him, and his wife’s chagrin was so great that she could hardly conceal her vexation. Now the guests knew that as they were people of practically no importance socially, for Mr. Oliphant had no idea that Mr. Stewart had so recently been a millionaire, this solicitude for their comfort and pleasure could only arise from sheer kindness of heart, so they hastened to explain. The task of doing so fell upon Mr. Stewart, for C. B. had been strangely reticent of late, his usual fluency of speech seemed to have deserted him.
“Dear host and hostess,” said the old gentleman, “nine months ago when I was hastening home to San Francisco from a world-tour with my dear daughter here and her mother, now with God, had anyone told me that I should turn a cold shoulder to hospitality such as you offer us I should have laughed in their faces. For we were all very keen on sightseeing, and I was besides a business man to my finger-tips; in fact it seemed to me almost the only thing that made life worth living, for to make money rapidly and spend it royally. I do not feel inclined to tell you all the story now, and indeed it would take too long, of how thoroughly my views and my whole life have been changed.
“I have lost my dear wife and almost the whole of my fortune, but I am to-day a happier man than I have ever been in my whole life. I have learned from that dear fellow there what it is to really live, and how little we really need in this world in order to be truly happy. I am more glad that he is my daughter’s husband than I should be if she were the wife of a reigning sovereign, and I am looking forward with great longing to spend the rest of my days in his peaceful home on Norfolk Island, a place which perhaps you know something about?”
“I know there is such a place at no great distance from here, less than 1,000 miles anyway, and I know too that it has had an awful history as a convict settlement, but since that black stain has been wiped out from our Australasian Colonies I cannot say that I know anything of its history. I know at any rate that we have no trade with it, so if there is a settlement there it must be self-supporting, I should think.”
Then C. B., being appealed to by the gentle eyes of his wife, told his host and hostess the story of the emigration to Norfolk Island of a large number of the Pitcairn Island folk, descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty, while they sat in dumb surprise.
But when the recital was over Mrs. Oliphant looked at her husband, and, shrugging her shoulders, said—
“There’s no accounting for tastes, Harry, but I think such a life as that would drive me mad within a month. How can people go back to such barbarism as that when once they have escaped from it? That’s wonderful, but it’s ten times more wonderful that people like you,” nodding at Mr. Stewart and his daughter, “should be attracted by such a life and leave all the delights of civilization for it. However, it’s no business of ours to try and persuade you, presumably you have decided fully on your course?”
“Indeed we have, ma’am,” said Mary; “and you see, although we are fully persuaded ourselves, we do not seek to make converts to our way of thinking, nor are we following any new religion. We ourselves have been converted mainly by the spectacle of a good life—that of my husband—whom if you knew, you would say of him as nearly every one else says, that he is a man after God’s own mind. Now we should not have told you these things because we felt we should be misunderstood, but we wanted you to know that it was not churlishness nor ingratitude that made us refuse your very kind and generous offer.”
Mr. Oliphant made a gesture as if washing his hands of the whole affair, as if indeed he felt frankly that it was quite beyond him, and said, “Well then, Mr. Stewart, perhaps you will tell me in what way as your agent here I can serve you?”