CHAPTER II
When Captain Richard Gerrardthe father of Mrs Westonleycame to Australia from India, he first settled in Gippsland, in Victoria. A retired military man, with ample means, he devoted himself successfully to pastoral pursuits, and soon took a leading part in the advancement of the colony. He had married the daughter of an English chaplain, by whom he had but one childElizabethand when she was but an infant of two years of age, Mrs Gerrard died. For thirteen years her husband remained faithful to her memory, and then did what all his neighbours regarded as a very sensible thinghe married the daughter of a neighbouring squatter, and sent his child to England to be educated. His second wife was a beautiful, vigorous, and well-trained woman, mentally and physically, and although her parents were English, she was a native of the colony, and, naturally enough, took the deepest interest in all that concerned the station, the advancement of her husbands interests, and the colony in which she was born. Two children were born to them, a twin son and daughter, and as time went on, Captain Gerrards station became one of the best in Victoria, and the R over G brand of cattle brought top prices in the Melbourne market.
After completing her education in England, Elizabeth Gerrard returned to Australia. She was a remarkably handsome girl, but cold, even to chilliness, in her manner, especially to her step-mother, for she had much resented her fathers second marriage. The six years she had spent in England seemed to have entirely changed her character and disposition, and when soon after her return, Edward Westonley, a young squatter, who was the owner of Marumbah Downs, fell violently in love with her pink and white beauty, and she accepted him, even her father, although he loved herwas secretly pleased.
Marumbah Downs was over a hundred miles from Captain Gerrards station, and there Westonley took his bride. He was a cheerful, somewhat careless man, very horsey in his tastes, and fond of good company. Both his father-in-law and Mrs Gerrard liked him greatly, and the two children by the second marriage, Tom and Mary, gave him their affection the first time they saw him.
The boy Tom grew up like most Australian-born boys of his class of life and surroundings, and before he was twenty years of age, was managing one of his fathers stations in Queensland, and managing it prosperously. Soon after he had taken charge, he heard from his father that his twin sister Mary was to be married to a local medical mana Doctor Rayner, who had been her steady admirer since she was a girl of fifteen.
It will be a very happy union, wrote Captain Gerrard to his son, of that I am certain, and although hes too young a man to have much of a practice for some time, hell get along all right. And even if things do go against him, it wont matter to him and MaryIll stand to them. Mary is writing to you by this mail. Then after alluding to some business matters in connection with his various stations he went on to say. Westonley comes over to see us now and thenLizzie never. Poor Westonley! Lizzie has crumpled him up altogether, although when he comes to see us he is the same cheery Ted of yore, and he, Rayner, and I had some grand kangarooing together when he was here last. Lizzie, during the past five years has become more and more crotchety, and has given herself up to religious thought and work, as she calls it, from which I surmise that hers is a reign of terror at Marumbah Downs. She has built a little tin-pot chapel in which there is not enough room to swing a cat by the tail, and had it opened a few months ago by some swagger curate from Melbournepoor old Preston, the Scotch parson at Marumbah township not being considered good enough, and having incurred her wrath by openly stating that when he had a cold he took whisky toddy at bedtime! then the silly womanwho rules poor Westonley with a rod of ironhad a notice put up in the mens quarters that all hands, from the head stockman down to the black boys, were to attend service every future Sunday morning and evening, Westonleywhom she wanted to conduct the servicebucked, and said he could not make an ass of himself before his employés, and the next day the entire crowdstockmen, fencers, sawyers, etc.rolled up to the station and gave Westonley a weeks notice, and the poor fellow had to effect a compromise, they agreeing to come into the Chapel and let Lizzie read them a chapter of suthin outer the Bible, if they could have the rest of the day for their usual Sunday recreationseuchre or kangarooing. I never thought Lizzie would turn out to be a crank, but a crank she is, and Im afraid Westonley is not at all a happy man, though he yields to her in almost everything.
Your mother has not been at all well for the post six months. She will be very lonely when Mary leaves the house, and you must come to us for a month or two next year; twill cheer her up. She doesnt want Lizzieneither do I; shed depress a dead bull calf, by just looking at him.
And then within a twelvemonth, came the tragedy of the Gerrard family.
Captain Gerrard, by Dr Rayners advice, decided to take his wife to Sydney to consult a specialist, and Rayner went with them. They took passage on a coastal steamer named the Cassowarya small paddle-wheel vessel of three hundred tons, old, ill-found, and utterly unable to cope with the savage easterly gale that met her as she rounded Cape Howe, and doots north for Sydney.
A fortnight later, Mary Rayner, as she was putting her two months old baby girl to sleep, was called from her bedroom to see a stranger in the sitting-room. He was a stockman from a station seventy miles away on the coast.
He silently handed her a letter, and then turned away, She opened and read it. It was from die Police Inspector of the Cape Howe district, and in a few sympathetic words told her that the Cassowary had been lost near Cape Howe, and that every soul on board but one seaman and a child of four years of age had perished, and that her husband, her father and her mother had been buried three days previously.
She never survived the shock, and when Tom Gerrard made his long journey down from North Queensland to Victoria, to comfort and aid his loved sister, he found that she had died a month before.
It took some months to settle up Captain Gerrards affairs. He had made a will devising his head station to his wife, together with (less a certain reservation) the sum of ten thousand pounds. His two other stationsone in Central Queensland, and the other in the Far North of that colony,he bequeathed, the former to his dear daughter, Mary Rayner and the latter to his son, Thomas Gerrard, together with such moneys as might be at his (the testators) death, lying to the credit of the two stations. Thenand here came the sting of the certain reservation to Elizabeth Westonleyto his dearly esteemed son-in-law, Edward Westonley, of Marumbah Downs, I give and bequeath the sum of one thousand pounds, to be by him used in the manner he may deem best for the benefit of the Marumbah Jockey Club, of which for ten years he has been patron. To his wife (my daughter Elizabeth) I bequeath as a token of my appreciation of her efforts to improve the moral condition of illiterate and irreligious bushmen, the sum of one thousand pounds, provided that she first consults and has the approval of my wife Eleanor, as to the manner in which the said money shall be expended.
Then, as if to show that despite this gentle sarcasm towards the cold-hearted daughter who had never forgiven him for his second marriage, and had so long alienated herself from her stepbrother and sister, he still bore her a parental affection, he added another clause (also with an unintended sting in it) to the effect that if Mrs Westonley should have issue, male or female, five thousand pounds was to be invested for her first child, to be paid upon coming of age, also the like sum for the first child of my beloved and affectionate daughter, Mary Rayner.
Then, as if to show that despite this gentle sarcasm towards the cold-hearted daughter who had never forgiven him for his second marriage, and had so long alienated herself from her stepbrother and sister, he still bore her a parental affection, he added another clause (also with an unintended sting in it) to the effect that if Mrs Westonley should have issue, male or female, five thousand pounds was to be invested for her first child, to be paid upon coming of age, also the like sum for the first child of my beloved and affectionate daughter, Mary Rayner.
Poor Lizzie! said Tom Gerrard to his brother-in-law, Westonley, after the contents of the will were made known, she wont be pleased at this, I fear, Ted.
She wont, Tom, replied Westonley frankly, as he placed his hand on Gerrards shoulder with a kindly gesture, but, between you and I, she has nothing to be angered at. I am pretty well in, and if I died to-morrow, she would be well provided for. And I dont thinkIm not disloyal to my wifeI dont think that she was quite as kind as she might have been to your mother and to you, and to poor Mary.
Of course the death of Mrs Gerrard simultaneously with that of her husband, somewhat complicated matters, for she had made no will, and was evidently not aware of the nature of that made by Captain Gerrard; for she was of too gentle and kindly a nature to have permitted him to have written anything that could have aroused a feeling of resentment in the mind of his first-born child, although that child, from the day she returned from England had treated her with unconcealed hauteur and coldness.
At last, however, matters were finally settled, and Mrs Westonley, although she did resent most bitterly what she called her fathers wicked will, consented, at her husbands earnest request, to take charge of and educate Mary Rayners orphan child.
It will be a disgrace to us, Elizabeth, if we send the poor child to strangers, Westonley had said to her, almost sternly. Tom, although he is a bachelor, would be overjoyed if we let her go to him.
He is most unfitted to have the care of a child, said Mrs Westonley, icily; from his conversation I should imagine he would be a most decidedly improper person.
But he means well, you know; but, like your poor father, hes a bit too outspoken and rough. And and Elizabeth, we have no children of our own, and you will get to love the poor little one.
I will make no guarantee as to conferring my affections upon a child whose disposition may prove to be utterly unworthy of the tuition and Christian training I have undertaken to give herat your request, was the acidulous reply.
Westonley groaned inwardly, but made no answer.
A few months after this conversation, Tom Gerrard made a short visit to Marumbah Downs to see Westonley and his dead sisters child. He had just returned from the little bay near Cape Howe, where the Cassowary had been castaway, and where his father, mother, and Dr Rayner had been buried, together with all the other passengers and members of the crew whose bodies had been washed ashore. After dinner, he, Westonley, and his step-sister, were discussing Captain Gerrards will, when just then there came in a neighbour of Westonleysa squatter named Brookewho was one of the executors. Mrs Westonley received him rather coldly, and when Tom Gerrard began describing to him the situation of the place where his father and mother were interred, she listened with an ill-concealed impatience.
Well! Mrs Westonley, said Brooke, stretching out his spurred and booted feet, your father and mother died togetheras they lived, hand in hand, and heart to heart.
The late Mrs Gerrard was not my mother.
There was a dead silence, and then Tom Gerrard rose, and looked his step-sister in the face with undisguised and bitter contempt.
No, thank God! she was not, but she was mine, I am proud to say.
Then he held out his hand to Westonley, Good-bye, Ted, Im leaving.
For heavens sake, Tom! Elizabeth, you forget yourself! Oh, I say, Brooke, dont let him go.
But Tom Gerrard, his heart aflame with anger, pushed Brooke and his brother-in-law aside, went to the stables, saddled his horse, and rode off to the Marumbah township, fifteen miles away, and next morning Westonley received a note.
Dear old Ted,You and I will always be the same old pals. I know you will be kind to Marys little one, and will write to me from time to time, as I shall to you. But I cant forgive Lizzie. You will say I write in anger. I do. And yet I am a man quick to forgive an ordinary affront, even from a woman. You understand, old boy. TOM.
And so for many years, Tom Gerrard kept away from Marumbah, till his step-sister and Westonley wrote, and urged him to visit them.
CHAPTER III
Breakfast was served punctually at eight oclock, and Tom Gerrard, whose equanimity was now quite restored, took his seat opposite his sister with a smiling face, and in a few minutes, under the sunshine of his genial manner, Mrs Westonley, much against her own inclination, began to thaw, and presently found herself chatting quite pleasantly with him.
Ive sprung myself on you two or three days before you expected me, Lizzie, but Im sure you dont mind.
Indeed no, Thomas. I am very glad I wish Edward was here, but the mailman may bring me a letter from him this morning. He said in his last letter he would be sure to return home by Saturday, and to-day is Thursday. But what brought you here so quickly, Thomas?
Well, I was very lucky in getting a passage in one of the new Dutch mail steamers, instead of having to wait for the slow old Eagle so I reached Melbourne a week earlier than I expected. Then at Melbourne I caught the steamer for Port Albert, just as she was leaving. At Port Albert, instead of waiting two days for the coach for Marumbah, I bought a couple of horses, a gun, and some other gear, and came the ninety odd miles comfortably, instead of being shaken to pieces in one of Cobbs awful coaches.
But what an unnecessary expense, Thomas. The two horses
Oh! the whole thing, gun and all included, didnt run into fifty pounds.
Fifty pounds! Oh, Thomas! And your coach fare would have been but three pounds! You really are dreadfully extravagant.
Not at all, Lizzie. I shall not lose much in the end. Ted will buy the horses, and all the gear from me. I think I can jew him into giving me something for them, even if it is only thirty quid.
Thirty what?
Thirty quidthirty pounds. Now my dear old Lizzie, dont pretend to be shocked at the word quid. You know youve heard all the colonial expressionsand poor dad used them pretty frequently.
Indeed he did, Thomastoo frequently, Im afraid.
Ah, well, Lizzie my dear, it doesnt matter now. By-the-way, doesnt little Mary breakfast with you?
Oh yes, usually; but this morning I told Janet to give her her breakfast in her bedroom, then after she has made herself presentable she can join us. Im sure she and that dreadful boy Jim will get you to inspect their cubby house down on the river bank in the course of the day. Sometimes Edward makes me quite cross by the way he yields to their stupid whims. He actually spent a whole day in helping them build their precious cubby house.
Gerrard laughed: Good old Tedjust as much of a boy as he was twenty years ago! But who is this youngster Jim?