always going into town the day before and not returning till a day, and
often two days, afterwards.

He was in great demand among drovers and auctioneers; and in the stock
news his name was always mentioned in connection with all the principal
sales in the colony.

It takes an astute, clear-headed man to keep himself off shore in stock
dealing. I never yet heard of a dealer who occasionally did not
temporarily, if not totally, go to the wall.

He need not necessarily be downright unscrupulous, but if he wishes to
profit he must not be overburdened with niceties in the point of honour.
That is where Richard Melvyn fell through. He was crippled with too many
Utopian ideas of honesty, and was too soft ever to come off anything but
second-best in a deal. He might as well have attempted to make his
fortune by scraping a fiddle up and down Auburn Street, Goulburn. His
dealing career was short and merry. His vanity to be considered a
socialistic fellow, who was as ready to take a glass with a swaggie as a
swell, and the lavish shouting which this principle incurred, made great
inroads on his means. Losing money every time he sold a beast, wasting
stamps galore on letters to endless auctioneers, frequently remaining in
town half a week at a stretch, and being hail-fellow to all the spongers
to be found on the trail of such as he, quickly left him on the verge of
bankruptcy. Some of his contemporaries say it was grog that did it all.

Had he kept clear-headed he was a smart fellow, and gave promise of doing
well, but his head would not stand alcohol, and by it he was undermined
in no time. In considerably less than a twelvemonth all the spare capital
in his coffers from the disposal of Bruggabrong and the Bin Bins had been