Again did her large, black eyes fall upon me, but I was blind to her blandishments and arts; and, at length, Maria appeared to entertain the same opinion, for she threw out signals to Fred, and when she found that they were not answered, she commenced the practice of a thousand arts, which a woman knows so well how to use, to make him feel an interest in her welfare. But all her play was useless, and even when she pretended that her hair, long, black, and wavy, fell around her shoulders accidentally, and when she laughed, and threw it back from her fresh, child-like face, we were not melted, for we remembered that she had a husband, and that his rights were sacred.
Her bold challenge was unheeded, and Maria felt that she was defeated, even where she was sure of victory. She had, apparently, entertained a different idea respecting us, and for a few minutes she sat looking humbled, but not ashamed. It seemed a pity that one so fair should be so rude and vile; but the streets of London soon corrupt, and the haunt from whence Maria graduated is notorious for its wantons.
We pitied her husband, although we had only known and employed him for a short time, yet we had found him honest and industrious, and apparently disposed to do well. I could see that he felt grateful for the course which we had pursued, and I determined to have a long talk with him, upon the first favorable opportunity, in regard to his future prospects.
"Well," Maria muttered, after sitting in silence for a short time, suddenly starting up, "if I am to be turned out of doors. I suppose that I must go without delay. Come along, old man, if you are coming," she continued, addressing her husband, and the latter obediently followed to the tent, which we had been to some pains to prepare for her.
"Thank Heaven, she has gone," said Smith, fervently, raising his head, like a camel after a cloud of dust had passed over a desert; "only think what my wife would have said, if she had insisted upon sleeping in the same room with us. And yet I feared that she would carry her point, for she is as determined a vixen as ever assumed the form of woman."
The matrimonial life of poor Barney was not a lengthy one; and I may as well follow it to a close, while I am writing upon the subject. At his request we paid him off, and hired another man to drive the second team. He had money enough to commence housekeeping, or rather tent-keeping, on a very respectable scale, and with the funds which he had left, purchased a mining claim, nearly worked out to be sure, but still, considerable sums of gold had been taken from it, and quite a number of nuggets of fair size had been secured.
The claim was very near our store, so that our advice was frequently required by poor Barney, who led rather a hard life of it, toiling as he did all day under ground, in wet and cold places, and when night arrived, half of the time he would have to get his own supper, his amiable wife being on visits of privacy to people in the neighborhood.
For the first few weeks of their residence at Ballarat the ill-matched couple did all of their trading at our store, until at length so many stimulating luxuries were purchased by Maria, that Barney requested us to refuse her credit, which, in compliance with his wishes, we did, and received such a torrent of abuse from the wife for so doing, that we wished her back to her old haunts, in Radcliff Highway, and had serious thoughts of attempting to recover damages from the "Moral Emigration Society" which exported her. For a woman with so fair a face, she had the vilest tongue that I ever heard.
After the credit system was abolished, Maria transferred her favors to a store on Gravel Pit Hill, where, for a time, she was quite a favorite, and thrived wonderfully; but her husband got wind of her doings, and threatened to shoot the first man that he saw taking improper liberties with his property, and that rather dashed the spirits of the gallants, for Barney was bold as a lion, and carried a pair of very good pistols in his belt, in addition to a bowie knife of wondrous keenness.
The poor, depraved woman, finding that she was watched, and that her male companions kept aloof, after the threat which Barney made, got up a clandestine correspondence with a young fellow who was smitten with her pretty face, and to put a stop to it Barney was obliged to break one of his rival's arms with a pistol bullet, one morning, just as he was putting a letter under a log that stood in front of his tent.