‘The land which knew my life’s best hours,
Ere Fate had gloomed youth’s vernal bowers,
And Hope’s bright blossoms marred,
as some boyish rhymer has it.’
‘Australia has done well for us, sir,’ said the young fellow, ‘and you have done something for her, permit me to say, in rearing a family true to the best traditions of the dear old land, our Mother England, God bless her! It remains with them to carry out your policy, and as your heir and eldest son I dedicate myself to the task.’
‘God bless you, my boy!’ said Arnold Banneret, grasping his hand. ‘You have spoken like the son of your father, and his father, who was strong on the point of the loyalty of Australia to the Crown. How often have I heard him condemn the self-indulgent, luxurious lives spent by the sons of wealthy colonists. Only, what about this P. & O. arrangement?’
‘I have thought of that, sir. Pilot Mount will [451] ]run alone, and keep straight by itself for a year. Within that time I propose to return, if I can get the permission of a certain young lady—I may as well say the young lady—to help in the colonisation scheme.’
‘I understand, my dear boy. I trust the affair may come off. You have my best wishes. But consider the climate, the—I don’t say rougher, but the untried social conditions of colonial life. Take thought ere it be too late, I beg of you.’
‘I have considered that side of the matter well, my dear Dad; and if Corisande be the girl I take her to be, she will like the life all the better for the opportunity of watching the development of a great British community from its initial stages.’
‘Possibly, possibly, my dear boy; knowing what I do of life and feminine characteristics I dare not say probably. That will be for you to discover by experience. Everything, that is, everything connected with the success, the happiness, even the comfort of your after life, depends upon the result of that experiment.’