Babes in the Bush

Now it had been crossed; the promised land won – a land of milk and honey as far as they were concerned – of olives and vineyards – all the biblical treasures – no doubt looming in the future.

For this prosperity the discovery of Port Phillip was accountable, conjointly with the lavish, exuberant season. The glorious land of mountain and stream, valley and meadow, laden with pastoral wealth and bursting with vegetation, had been in a manner gifted to them by the gallant, ill-fated Hubert Warleigh. They were all revelling in the intensity of life, forming stations, buying and selling, speculating and calculating, and where was he? Lying at rest beneath the sombre shade of the forest giant, far from even the tread of the men of his race. Left to moulder away, with the fallen denizens of the primeval forest; to fade from men’s minds even as the echo of the surges, as the spring songs of the joyous birds!

It seemed increasingly hard to realise. As he approached the well-known track that led from the main road to Warbrok he could see the very tree near which he had waved a farewell at their first meeting. There was the gate through which they had ridden on the occasion of his second visit, when he had been received on terms of equality by the whole family.

‘How glad I am now that we did that!’ Wilfred told himself. ‘We tried our best to raise him from the slough into which he had fallen, and from no selfish motive; how little we thought to be so richly repaid! One often intends a kindness to some one who dies before it is fulfilled. Then there is unavailing, perhaps lifelong regret. Here it was not so, thank God! And now, home at last – ’

Of that happy first evening what description can be given that faintly shall suggest the atmosphere of love and gratitude that enveloped the family, as once more Wilfred sat among them in the well-remembered room? Speech even died away, in that all might revel in an uninterrupted view of the returned wanderer. How improved, though bronzed and weather-beaten, he was after his wayfaring!

‘And to think that Wilfred has returned safe from those dreadful blacks! And oh, poor dear Hubert Warleigh! That fine young man, so lately in this room with us, full of health and strength, and now to know that he is dead – killed by savages – it is too dreadful!’

‘Mamma! mamma!’ said Annabel, sobbing aloud, ‘don’t speak of it. I can’t bear it.’

Here she arose and left the room.

‘She is very sensitive, dear child,’ said Mrs. Effingham. ‘I do not wonder at her feeling the poor fellow’s death. I can’t help thinking about him, as if he were in some way more than an acquaintance.’

‘You have come back to a land of plenty, my son,’ said Mr. Effingham, ‘as you have doubtless observed. If you had known that such rain was to fall, it might have saved you all the journey.’

‘My dear sir,’ answered Wilfred, ‘don’t flatter yourself that, myself excepted, one of our old society will be contented to live here again. The land we have reached opens out such an extensive field that no sane man would think of staying away from it. Rockley will follow, and half Yass, I believe. No one will be left but you and I and the Parson.’

‘What an exodus! It amounts to a misfortune,’ said Rosamond. ‘It seems as if the foundations of society were loosened. We shall never be so happy and contented again.’

‘We never may,’ said Wilfred; ‘but we shall be ever so much richer, if that is any compensation. Stock of all kinds are fetching fabulous prices in Port Phillip. By the bye, how is Dr. Fane? His store cattle are now worth more than the Benmohr fat cattle used to be.’

‘We had Vera here for a whole month,’ said Rosamond. ‘She is the dearest and best girl in the whole world, I believe, and so handsome we all think her. She said her father had sold a lot of cattle at a fine price, and if he didn’t spend all the money in books, they would be placed in easy circumstances.’

As Wilfred paced the verandah, smoking the ante-slumber pipe – a habit he had rather confirmed during his journeyings and campings – he could not but contrast the delicious sense of peaceful stillness with much of the life he had lately led. All was calm repose – amid the peaceful landscape. No possibility here of the wild shout – the midnight onset – as little, perhaps, of lawless deeds as in their half-forgotten English home. A truly luxurious relief, after the rude habitudes and painful anxieties of their pioneer life.

The night’s sound sleep seemed to have concentrated the repose of a week, when Wilfred awoke to discover that all outer life was painted in rose tints. That portion of the herd which had been left behind had profited by the unshared pasturage to such an extent that they resembled a fresh variety. Daisy and her progeny looked nearly as large as shorthorns, and extreme prices had been offered for them, old Andrew averred, by the cattle-dealers that now overspread the land.

A field of wheat, by miraculous means ploughed and harrowed, since the Hegira, promised an abundant crop.

‘Weel, aweel!’ said Andrew, who now appeared bearing two overflowing buckets of milk, ‘ye have been graciously spared to return from yon fearsome wilderness, like Ca-aleb and Joshua. And to think o’ that puir laddie, juist fa’en a prey to thae Amalekites, stricken through wi’ a spear, like A-absolom! Maist unco-omon – ane shall be taen and the t’ither left. It’s a gra-and country, I’m hearin’.’

‘The finest country you ever set eyes on, Andrew. The Chase seems a mere farm after it. If it was not for the family, I should soon pack up and go back there.’

‘I wadna doot. Rovin’ and rampa-agin’ aboot the waste places o’ the yearth is aye easy to learn. But ye’ll ken yer duty to yer forebears and the young leddies, Maister Wilfred, no’ to tak’ them frae this douce-like hame.’

‘Oh yes, I know,’ said Wilfred. ‘Of course I shall stay here, and shall be very happy and make lots of money again. All the same, it’s a wonderful new country. Half the people here will be wanting to get away when they hear about it. But how did you get this fine crop of wheat put in without working bullocks? I’m afraid, Andrew, you must have been taking a leaf out of Dick Evans’s book, and using other people’s cattle.’

‘Weel, aweel!’ said Andrew, looking doubtful, ‘I winna deny that there micht be some makin’ free wi’ ither folks’ beasties. But they were juist fair savin’ their lives wi’ oor grass parks, and when the rain fell, it was a case o’ needcessity to till the land, noo that the famine was past.’

With regard to the ‘fatal maid,’ Wilfred Effingham had much difficulty in reaching a determination worthy of a man who prided himself upon acting on logically defensible grounds. He was by no means too certain, either, that he could lay claim to Miss Christabel’s undivided affections. So much of her heart as she had to give, he suspected was bestowed upon Bob Clarke. If that were so, she would cling to him with the headlong hero-worship with which a woman invests the lover of her girlhood, more particularly if he happens to be ill-provided with this world’s goods.

The result of all this introspection was that Wilfred, like many other men, sought refuge in delay. There was no need of forcing on the decision. He had work to do at home for months to come. And the marriage question might be advantageously postponed.

Unpacking his valise after breakfast, he produced a number of newspapers, the which, as being better employed, he had not opened. Now, in the leisure of the home circle, the important journals were disclosed. Each one, provincially hungry for news, seized upon one of the messengers from the outer world. ‘Ha!’ said Wilfred suddenly, ‘what is this? Colonel Glendinning, of the Irregular Horse, desperately wounded. Wonderful gallantry displayed by him. Chivalrous sortie from cantonments. Why, this must be our Major, poor fellow!’

He was interrupted by a faint cry from Beatrice, and looking round he saw that she had grown deadly pale. He had just time to catch her fainting form in his arms. But she was not a girl who easily surrendered herself to her emotions. Rousing herself, she looked around with a piteous yet resolved expression, and with an effort collected her mental forces.

‘Mother,’ she said, ‘I must go where he is. Tell my father that I have always deferred to his wishes, but that now I must join him – I feel responsible for his life. Had I but conquered my pride, a word from me would have kept him here. And now he is dying – after deeds of reckless daring. But I must go; I will die with him, if I cannot save him.’

‘Dearest Beatrice, there is no need to excite yourself,’ said the fond yet prudent mother. ‘You have only to go to your father. He will consent to all that is reasonable. I myself think it is your duty to go. Major Glendinning is severely wounded, but good nursing may bring him round. I wish you had a companion.’

‘Where could you have a better one than Mrs. Snowden?’ cried Annabel hastily. ‘She said she half thought of going home by India, and I know she does not care which route she takes. She has been there before, and knows all about the route. If papa would only make up his mind to go, half the trouble would be off his mind, and he would enjoy the voyage.’

‘There could not be a more favourable time, my dear sir,’ said Wilfred in the family council at a later hour. ‘I shall be here now. It is a matter of life and death to poor Beatrice as well as to the Colonel. You had better arrange to start by the first vessel, and to bring back some Arab horses on your return.’

‘It is the only thing to be done,’ said Rosamond, who had just returned from her sister’s room. ‘I wouldn’t answer for Beatrice’s reason if she is compelled to wait here. She has repressed her feelings until now, and the reaction is terrible. It is most fortunate that Mrs. Snowden is ready to leave Australia.’

Subjected to the family pressure, aided by the promptings of his own heart, Mr. Effingham was powerless to resist. The acclimatisation question was artfully brought up. He at once yielded, and before the evening was over, a letter was in the mail-bag, requesting their Sydney agent to take passages by the first outward-bound boat for India, and to advise by post, or special messenger, if necessary.

Beatrice, informed of this determination, gradually recovered that calmness allied to despair which simulates resignation. She busied herself unweariedly in preparation for the voyage, cherishing the hope of soothing the last hours of her lover, if indeed it was denied her, to watch over his return to the world of love and hope.

Mrs. Snowden arrived on the following day, and cordially acceded to the proposition made to her, to share the adventures of the voyage and of Indian travel.

‘If you knew,’ she said, ‘how grateful I feel for the opportunity of changing the scene of my sorrows and being of use to my friends after this lonely life of mine, you would not thank me. I would go many a mile by sea or land to nurse the Major myself. Between me and Beatrice he will be well looked after.’

All circumstances seemed favourably shaped for the errand of mercy. A ship was about to sail for China, whence the opium clippers might be trusted for a swift run to the historic land. Almost before the news of the intended journey had reached Yass, so that the parson could drive over and express his entire concurrence with the arrangement, the little party had set out for Sydney.

In the fulness of time the very last evening, before the Rockley family left Yass, arrived. All the party from The Chase had been in to say good-bye, and had returned. Some mysterious business kept Wilfred in town, and that special evening he of course spent at Rockley Lodge.

For it was not to be supposed that, on that momentous evening, the family declined to see their friends. In the ‘Maison Rockley’ the head of the house was so absorbed in his business pursuits that, except at dinner-time, and for an hour after, he could hardly be said to possess any family life whatever. He was grateful, therefore, for the presence of such friends who would take the burden of domesticity, in part, off his hands, and made no scruple of expressing, in the family circle, his thanks for such services.

It so turned out that, on this particular morning, he had found time, for once in a way, to give his daughter an earnest lecture about her ridiculous fancy, as he termed it, for Bob Clarke; a young fellow who, without any harm in him, would never come to much, or make any money worth speaking of, seeing that he was far too fond of those confounded horses, out of which no man had ever extracted anything but ruin, in Australia. That they had never heard a word from him for ever so long; most probably he was flirting away in Tasmania, and did not cast a thought upon her. And here was Wilfred Effingham, than whom he did not know a finer fellow anywhere – steady, clever, a man of family, and in every way desirable. If he liked her, Christabel – he couldn’t say whether he did or not, he had no time to trouble about such rubbish – why didn’t she take him, and have done with it, and settle down creditably for the rest of her life, instead of wasting her time and vexing her friends? – and so on – and so on.

Christabel wept piteously during this paternal admonition, delivered, as usual, with a loud voice and a fierce expression of countenance, but had gone away reflecting that although she was, so to speak, badly treated in this instance, yet, as she had succeeded in getting her own way all her life, she probably might enjoy a reasonable portion of it in the future.

Meanwhile, being fairly malleable and of the texture which is bent by circumstances, she began to consider, when alone in her room, whether there was not something of reason in her father’s arguments. Here she was placed in the position of only having to accept. Of the true nature of Wilfred’s feelings she herself had little doubt. There is something, too, not wholly without temptation to the female heart in the unconditional surrender of the lover, then and there urging his suit. There may be also a wild impulse to accept the inevitable, and thus for ever extinguish the uneasiness of anxiety and suspended judgment.

Then, Wilfred Effingham was very good-looking – fair perhaps in complexion, and she did not admire fair men, but brown-bearded, well-featured, manly. All the girls voted him ‘so nice-looking,’ and the men invariably spoke of him as a good fellow. He was well off; he would have The Chase some day, and she would be the great lady of the Yass district, with her carriage and her servants; could entertain really well. She would also, beyond doubt, be envied by all her schoolfellows and girl friends.

The prospect was tempting. She thought of Bob’s dark eyes, and their passionate look when he last said good-bye. She thought of the happy days when he rode at her bridle-rein, and would lean over to whisper the cheery nonsense that amused her. She thought of the thrill at her heart, the strange deadness in every pulse, when The Outlaw went down, and they lifted Bob up, pale and motionless; of her joy when he appeared next day on the course, with his arm in a sling, but with eyes as bright and smile as pleasant as ever. These were dangerous memories. But they were boy and girl then. Now she was a woman, who must think of prudence and the wishes of her parents.

Then Bob would be poor for many a day, if, indeed, he ever rose to fortune. Through her heart passed the uneasy dread, which gently-nurtured women have, of the unlovely side of poverty, of shifts and struggles, of work and privation – of a small house and bad servants, of indifferent dresses, and few thereof. Such thoughts came circling up, like birds of evil aspect and omen, ready to cluster round the corse of the slain Eros.

Les absens sont toujours torts, says the worldly adage. In his absence, the advocacy for Bob Clarke was perhaps less brave and persistent than it would otherwise have been. The girl strove to harden her heart, by clinging to the prudent side of the case, and recalling her father’s angry denunciations of any other course than an affirmative reply to Wilfred Effingham, should he this night tell her the real purport of his constant visits.

He himself had resolved to risk his fate on this last throw of the dice, and so far everything assisted his plans. Mr. Rockley was in an unusually genial frame of mind at dinner – cordial, of course, as ever, but unnaturally patient under contradiction and the delays consequent upon the cook’s unsettled condition. Mrs. Rockley excused herself after that meal as having household matters to arrange. But Christabel, whose domestic responsibilities had always been of the faintest, was at liberty to remain and entertain Mr. Effingham and her father, indeed she was better out of the way at the present crisis. Wilfred had no thought of leaving early in order to accommodate his friends in their presumed state of bustle and derangement, for it was one of those rare households where visitors never seem to be in the way. None of the feminine heads of departments were fussy, anxious, ‘put out,’ or had such pressing cares that visitors came short of consideration.

Mrs. Rockley’s talent for organisation was such that no one seemed in a hurry, yet nothing was left undone. The house was nearly always full of inmates and visitors, male and female, with or without children. Still, wonder of wonders, there was never any awkwardness or failure of successful entertainment. Rockley, personally, scoffed at the idea of being responsible for the slightest share of household management. He merely exacted the most complete punctuality, cookery, house-room and attendance for the ceaseless flow of guests, the cost of which he furnished, to do him justice, ungrudgingly. Whatever might need to be done next day (if the whole family, indeed, had been ordered for execution, as Horace Bower said), William Rockley would have dined and conversed cheerfully over his wine, suggested a little music (for the benefit of others), smoked his cigar in the verandah, and mocked at the idea of any guest being incommoded by the probably abrupt translation of the family, or going away a moment before the regulation midnight hour.

Therefore, when Rockley told him that he hoped he was not going to run away a moment before the usual time for any nonsensical idea of being in the way because they were starting for Port Phillip on the next day (what the deuce had that got to do with it, he should like to know?), Wilfred fully comprehended the bona fides of the request, and prepared himself to make the most of a tête-à-tête with Miss C. Rockley, if such should be on the cards.

So it came to pass that while Mr. Rockley and Wilfred were lounging in the Cingalese arm-chairs, which still adorned the verandah, Christabel betook herself to the piano, whence she evoked a succession of dreamy nocturnes and melancholy reveries which sighed through the hushed night air as though they were the wailings of the Lares and Penates mourning for their dispossession.

‘Bowerdale hasn’t turned up,’ said Rockley abruptly. ‘The Rebecca has never been heard of. She sailed the day we left Melbourne. Queer things presentiments. You remember his saying he felt hypped, don’t you?’

‘Yes, quite well. What an awful pity that he should have persisted in going by her – after your warning, too!’

‘Didn’t like to lose his passage-money, poor fellow!’ continued the sympathising Rockley. ‘I’d have settled that for him quick enough, but he wasn’t the sort of man to let any one pay for him. Leaves a wife and children too. Well, we must see what can be done. Fortune of war might have been our case if I hadn’t taken Jackson’s measure so closely.’

‘Happy to think you did,’ said Wilfred, with natural gratitude. ‘If you had not been so determined about the matter, I should have risked the sea-voyage. I was tired of land-travelling.’

‘We should all have been with “Davy Jones” now. No cigars, eh? This claret’s better than salt water? I suppose we all have our work to do in this world; mine is not half done yet; yours scarcely begun. By Jove! I forgot to leave word at the office about my Sydney address – where to send all the confounded packages, about a thousand of them. I’ll run down and see that put straight. Don’t you go till I come back. Tell Mrs. Rockley she must have a little supper ready for us.’

Rockley lighted a fresh cigar and plunged into the night, while Wilfred lost no time in repairing to the piano, which he managed to persuade the fair performer to quit for the verandah, under the assumption that the room was warm, and the night air balmy in comparison.

For a while they walked to and fro on the cool freestone pavement, talking on indifferent subjects, while Wilfred gazed steadfastly into the girl’s marvellous eyes, ever and anon flashing under the soft moon-rays, as if he could read her very soul. She was dressed that evening in a pale-hued Indian muslin, which but partly veiled the exquisite graces of her form. How well he remembered it in after-days! There was a languor in her movements, a soft cadence in the tone of her voice, a quicker sympathy in her replies to his low-toned speech, which in some indefinable manner encouraged him to hope. He drew the lounges together, and telling her she needed rest, sat by her side.

‘You are really going away,’ he said; ‘no more last farewells, and Heaven knows when we shall meet again. I feel unutterably mournful at the idea of parting from your mother, Mr. Rockley – and – yourself. My sisters were in the depths of despair yesterday. I don’t think it affects you in the least.’

‘Why should you think I am hard hearted?’ asked the girl as she raised herself slightly, and leaning her face on her hand, curving the while her lovely rounded arm, looked up in his face with the pleading look of a spoiled child. ‘Do you suppose it is so pleasant to me to leave our home, where I have lived all my life, and travel to a new place where we know nobody – that is, hardly any one?’

‘How we all – how I,’ said Wilfred, ‘shall miss these pleasant evenings! How many a one have I spent in your father’s house since we first met! I can safely say that I have never been so kindly treated under any roof in the whole world. As to your father, my dear old governor has always been too good, but I scarcely think he could do more for me than Mr. Rockley has done.’

‘Papa is always kind, that is, to people whom he likes,’ said Christabel with an absent indifference, as if Mr. Rockley’s philanthropy and irritability, his energy and his hospitality, were qualities of much the same social value.

At that moment the moonbeam was darkened by a passing cloud, and Wilfred drew nearer to the girl until he could almost feel her breath upon his hair, and hear her heart palpitate beneath the delicate fabric of her dress.

‘Christabel,’ he said, ‘ask your heart this night whether I am right in hoping that you will not accompany your parents to this rude settlement. Here you are known, honoured – yes, loved! Why leave one who would cherish you while life lasted?’

Christabel Rockley spoke not nor moved, but she cast her eyes down, till in the clear light the long dark lashes could be seen fringing her cheek. Her bosom heaved – she made no sign.

‘Christabel,’ he murmured, ‘darling Christabel, I have long loved you, fondly, passionately. One word will make me the happiest of living men. Bow but your head in token that you grant my prayer, and I will take it as a sign from Heaven. Stay with my mother till she embraces you as a loved daughter. Only say the word. Will you try to return, in your own good time, my deep, my unalterable love?’

She raised her head and looked fixedly at him as he stood there, the embodiment of love’s last appeal, in the direct path of the moon’s rays. His face and form, instinct with strong emotion, seemed glorified by the flood of light in which it was encircled.

‘I can hardly tell,’ she said. ‘I have been trying to think – asking myself if I can give you my heart, and this pale face of mine, that you set so much value on – foolish boy! I think I may, in a little while, if you will bear with me, but I would rather not say, for good and all, just at this moment. You will give me more time, won’t you? Ah! what is that?’ she suddenly broke off, with almost a shriek, as the roll of horse-hoofs smote clearly through the still night air upon the senses, almost upon the overwrought hearts of the listeners. ‘Who can it be? Surely it isn’t papa riding back on the warehouse-keeper’s cob?’