Nick made a bargain for a certain date, though he was always begging her to change her mind, and let him off a month or so, more especially as the nuggets thickened.
And when he pleaded in his earnestness, Nan’s face, for all its wistful, resolute look, would brighten and brighten till it seemed to me the face of an angel, and would give me that nasty pain at my heart once more. But she was resolute always, and the richer Nick became the more she held to her determination.
Nan used to live with the Postmaster’s wife, who was a good sort and something of a lady. She used to take Nan to the entertainments, that were given at Eungella, and there were balls and picnics and concerts, and even a kind of theatre, for money was so plentiful there just then, that actors and conjurors and people of that sort were bound to come.
This was all good for The Eungella Star, which flourished mightily, and I made quite a feature of “social topics.”
It was a short time before Christmas when there was a big ball given at the Town Hall, as they called the zinc building. That was the wind up of some races, to which I went as in duty bound, and at which Nick ran and rode a horse, and Nan was present with the Postmaster’s wife, and clapped Nick as he went victoriously past the winning post.
Nick could afford to keep racehorses in these days.
It was only a few days before, that he had come into my office—we had got great friends—I couldn’t help liking the fine, generous fellow in spite of my love for Nan and the soreness of my disappointment. I am sure that Nan had told him about the whole affair, though he never said a word to me on the subject, and that was what made him so nice in his ways to me.
“Curran,” he said, and his whole face was alight, “do you believe in a good fairy coming to bring a man luck? Nan is my good fairy—she has brought me luck. The gold has been coming up thicker and thicker ever since my darling came out to me. To-day has come the biggest luck of all. I’m a rich man, Curran—my fortune is made.”
“He went victoriously past the winning post.”