good-looking. He was very much indeed about my house, suggesting
improvements in household arrangements; making remarks on my wife's
personal appearance--with corresponding disparagement of myself; riding
with my wife across the plains; shooting kangaroos with her by night; and
secretly instructing her in the mysteries of a rabbit-trap, with which,
he was sure, he could make "dead loads of metal" (he was proficient in
the argot of the back-blocks); and with this he would buy her a beautiful
diamond ring, and a horse that had won the Melbourne Cup, and an air-gun!
Once when she was taken ill, and I was away in the South, he used to sit
by her bedside, fanning her hour after hour, being scarcely willing to
sleep at night; and was always on hand, smoothing her pillow, and issuing
a bulletin to Eversofar and Bingong the first thing in the morning.
I have no doubt that Eversofar and Bingong cared for her just as much as
he did; but, from first to last, they never had his privileges, and were
always subordinate to him in showing her devotion. He was sound and
frank with them. He told Eversofar that, of course, she only was kind to
him, and let him have a hut all to himself, because he was old and had
had a bad time out on the farthest back-station (that was why he was
called Eversofar), and had once carried Bingong with a broken leg, on his
back, for twenty miles. As for Bingong, he was only a black fellow, aged
fifteen, and height inconsiderable. So, of the three, Billy had his own
way, and even shamelessly attempted to lord it over me.

Most husbands would consider my position painful, particularly when
I say that my wife accepted the attention of all three lovers with calm
pleasure, and that of Billy with a shocking indifference to my feelings.
She never tried to explain away any circumstance, no matter how awkward
it might look if put down in black and white. Billy never quailed before
my look; he faced me down with his ingenuous smile; he patted me on the
arms approvingly; or, with apparent malice, asked me questions difficult