Hubert’s modest commission was not forgotten, nor the less-developed literary needs of Maurice and Ned, while at a neighbouring establishment he chose a collection of music, vocal and instrumental, which would keep Laura and Linda moderately well employed for a twelvemonth. A new piano the girls must have, but not yet, not all at once, whispered Prudence. He must not show his hand too suddenly. All in good time. And, as a young professional of the period ran his fingers lightly over the notes of a lovely Erard semi-grand, Mr. Stamford almost waltzed out of the shop, to the seductive strains of “Auf Wiedersehn.” His last and crowning exploit was to procure, after, perhaps, rather more personal exertion and loss of dignity than were expended on the foregoing transactions, the services of a well-recommended, capable female domestic, whose scruples at going so far into the bush he combated by a liberal rate of wages, and a promise to pay her return fare if she remained for twelve months in his service. After all this Mr. Stamford paid a farewell visit to Mr. Barrington Hope, with whom he arranged for shearing supplies, and, finally, at the close of an exciting day, he found himself in the mail-train in a state of high contentment, in charity with all men, and honestly grateful to that Almighty Ruler who had uplifted him from those dark depths, at the remembrance of which he still shuddered.
At a reasonably early hour on the following day the unpretending architecture of Mooramah emerged from the forest hills which encompass that rising township, and there was Hubert sure enough, with the well-worn buggy and the good old horses, still high in bone, though, like himself, much improved in spirits and demeanour.
“Why, governor!” quoth that young man, after an affectionate greeting and the gradual absorption into the recesses of the buggy of the tolerably heavy miscellaneous luggage of his parent, “you’re quite another man. Let me look at you. Fashionable and distinguished-looking, I declare! Thought you were a gentleman from England. Mother and the girls won’t know you. I suppose it’s the rain, and Mr. Barrington—what’s his name, Hope or Faith, isn’t it? He seems to have lots of the latter requisite, doesn’t he? We ought to have made his acquaintance years ago. And this is the new servant, I suppose. Very glad to see you, Mary Jane. Not Mary Jane? Isabella; well, that sounds nicer—country looks grand, doesn’t it? Old Mooramah’s quite another place. But I can’t take my eyes off you, governor! You look ten years younger.”
“I feel so, my boy, I assure you. Things have gone well, I needn’t tell you. I found Mr. Hope a most satisfactory person to do business with. And of course the rain has crowned everything.”
“Satisfactory! I should think he was! Smartest man we’ve ever worked with. I closed with old Saville, and bought six thousand Riverina ewes bred at Broongal. Sent a wire to him, had his answer, and nailed them before dark. I believe I could make a half-a-crown profit a head on the whole lot. That’s something like business, if you like.”
“And you’re sure you’ll have grass enough for them and our own, too! It doesn’t do to run risks, you know, Hubert!”
“Grass!” retorted the young man scornfully. “Wait till you see the old place. Now that the stock are all off the frontage, the prairie grass and trefoil are coming up like a hayfield. Why, we sha’n’t be able to see the sheep in it at shearing time. Don’t the old horses go differently? They’re picking up hand over hand, though of course they’ve not had time to lay on flesh yet. The sheep are quicker about it, and they look wonderful. You’d hardly know the dry flocks. We’re not far from the river, now; it’s just crossable again. Wait till you come to the outer gate. But it’s all alike. I feel almost too happy. If I hadn’t had a good lot of hardish work just at first, I think I should have gone off my head.”
Harold Stamford put his hand on the boy’s shoulder, and looked with loving pride into his clear eyes and bold, frank brow. “God in His mercy be thanked for our prosperity, my son!” he said. “May He keep us in health of body and mind, and long preserve us to each other. I feel, also, as if my cup was almost too full. May He aid us to enjoy and use wisely the benefits He has conferred on us!”
The young man turned and wrung his father’s hand silently.
“Great Heaven!” thought Mr. Stamford to himself, as he noted the clear bronzed cheek, the manly, frank impression, the muscular frame of his first-born, the whole figure instinct with the splendid health and graceful vigour of early manhood when developed to maturity amid the wholesome influences of a country life. “What a contrast does he present to Carlo Grandison! Surely I am wise in shielding him from the disturbing forces, the crowding temptations, with which wealth besets mankind. I dislike every aspect of deception, but surely the postponing the dangerous knowledge, which would relieve these children from all necessity for self-denial, is a justifiable exercise of my discretion as the head of the household. It will, it must, I feel convinced, be for their ultimate advantage.”