There was a pause for a few moments, then Helen said:—
"What do you think about it, Jim?"
"All things considered I am not sorry," he answered. "Yet, perhaps, I should not say that, for it brought me the greatest blessing a man can have."
"And that blessing?" she asked innocently.
"Is a good wife," he answered, stooping to kiss her. After which he disappeared into the house.
"And pray what does Alice say?" he asked, when he returned a few minutes later.
"She gives us such good news," Helen replied. "She and Jack will spend Christmas with us. She declares she is the happiest woman in the world. Jack is a paragon."
In case the reader should fail to understand who Jack is, I might remark that he is no less a person than Jack Riddington, the overseer, mentioned at the commencement of my story, and who was supposed to be Jim's best friend. Alice, after they were engaged, admitted that she had always entertained a liking for him, while it was well known that he had always been head over ears in love with her. During Jim's absence in England he had come into a large sum of money, had purchased a station one hundred and fifty miles south of Gundawurra, had married Alice within six months of her return, and was now living a life of undoubted felicity.
"They may be happy," said Helen, "but they can never be as happy as we are. That is quite certain, husband mine."