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She could love Fred, she could even bear a rough pull of the hair from him, she could stand a little teasing from John, who found fault with a new muslin frock she wore at dinner, and we all know it is not pleasant to have our dress found fault with; but this attack of Fred's about the book, was not to be borne, not by Edith, at least, and thus she sobbed and cried in her own room, thinking herself the most miserable of creatures, and very indignant that Emilie did not come to comfort her; "but she is gone out after that tiresome old woman, with her scalt foot, I dare say," said Edith, "and she would only tell me I was wrong if she were here oh dear! oh dear me!" and here she sobbed again.
And strangely enough he brought about the very last thing he intended with his music stopped the flirtation's immediate progress. Maga seemed to take to Fred's unchastened harmony with all the wildness that possessed her. Some chord he struck, or likelier, some abandoned succession of them touched off her magazine of poetry. And so she sang.
"If it was with my last breath, I would protest against so cowardly an outrage," replied Fred, with all the contempt that he could assume. "Hullo! I know that voice," cried Kellum, starting forward, and pulling Fred's cap from his face. "D n me, if I didn't think so," he continued. "You are the grocer that dared to raise your hand against me yesterday morning.
They were too much engrossed to notice him; nevertheless, he covered his face with his hand as he stood by the mantel-piece. "Where is she going?" he quietly asked. "To Melbourne, with Fred," said Miss Deborah. "Fred's going out to see about the money and gold that John left, and to realise it. They are not to stay: it will only be the voyage out and home.
"He selected me and my money at any rate; he didn't choose you and yours," replied Maria, tossing up her head. The rapture was, however, only temporary. Fred's father and senior partners counselled him to take Maria, even with the twenty thousand settled, half down, and half at the death of Mr. Osborne, with the chances of the further division of the property.
Some people get on by avoiding dangers, others by riding through them. They stood by the railing looking back at the sand levels, both feeling that the train was steaming ahead very fast. Fred's mind was a confusion of images and ideas. Only two things were clear to him: the force of her determination, and the belief that, handicapped as he was, he could do better by her than another man would do.
But though Fred strained his eyes eagerly, the distance kept him from recognising any familiar faces, and a terrible sense of heart-sinking increased as he hurried on. All at once the thundering of horses' hoofs was heard behind, and a familiar voice shouted Fred's name. He turned to see that it was his father, who slightly checked his powerful horse as he came up.
And lastly, there was pretty Mrs Isa Martin, Fred's newly-married wife. Besides these there were skipper Lockley of the Lively Poll, and his wife Martha for it will be remembered Martha was cousin to Isa, and Stephen's smack chanced to be in port at this time as well as the Sunbeam and the Fairy, alias the Ironclad, which last circumstance accounts for Dick Martin being also on shore.
Only the Emperor of Japan continued his pacing back and forth, his royal gloom untouched by any responsive chord. But the reaction from this sedative of music was in every case violent. The remainder of the afternoon passed in tragic unquiet. One day Harrison called Fred aside. The assistant superintendent was daily yielding more and more to Fred's judgment.
Fred's education, under this talented instructor, made progress. He sat hours and hours laughing at his stories sometimes obscene, sometimes profane, but always so full of life, drollery, and mimicry that a more steady head than Fred's was needed to withstand the contagion.
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