shindy, and what did those girls do? They got the barman to come into my
room while I was asleep, and hang a bucket o' water to one of the beams
over the bed. Then I'm blamed if they didn't tie a string from it to my
big toe! I gives a kick, down comes the bucket and half drowns me.--
Gosh, how those girls did laugh!"

"H'm!" said Mahony dubiously; while Purdy in his turn chewed the cud of
a pleasant memory.--"Well, I for my part should be glad to see you
married and settled, with a good wife always beside you."

"That's just the rub," said Purdy, and vigorously scratched his head.

"Till's a first-class girl as a sweetheart and all that; but when I come
to think of puttin' my head in the noose, from now till doomsday--why
then, somehow, I can't bring myself to pop the question."

"There's going to be no trifling with the girl's feelings, I hope, sir?"

"Bosh! But I say, Dick, I wish you'd turn your peepers on 'er and tell
me what you make of 'er. She's AI 'erself, but she's got a mother. . . .
By Job, Dick, if I thought Tilly 'ud ever get like that . . . and
they're exactly the same build, too."

It would certainly be well for him to inspect Purdy's flame, thought
Mahony. Especially since the anecdote told did not bear out the good
impression left by the letter--went far, indeed, to efface it. Still,
he was loath to extend his absence by spending a night at Geelong,
where, a, it came out, the lady lived; and he replied evasively that it
must depend on the speed with which he could put through his business in
Melbourne.