Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-03-14

about It, And what they think absolutely
the most impossible sort of thing Carew
ever did may-I don't say 1t will-scrape
him through where some of us may be toio
to stand down when the last reckoning
comes.
L suppose his people and the Mortons de-
cided before Daisy Morton could walk that
she should marry Henry Carew, and SO
unite the Hampshire properties. Harry LETT
a very fair record behind him at Elton, hav-
ing followed the line of least resistance
there and thus avoided lectures and pun
ishment He meandered through his time
at Oxford. Then he dawdled about the con-
tinent for six months. and returned home
in time for Daisy's Contingent ball, on
her nineteenth birthday.
There were very few men In England then
who loved color and beauty more than did
Harry Carew. Daisy was beautiful. A
trifie spoiled by her people perhaps, but a
dainty, charming, winSome little queen.
And none of those concerned had been
quite foolish enough to let her suspect any
thing of the deputy destiny business.
The lights were brilliant. the decorations
beautiful and the occasion inspiring. The
surroundings suggested sentiment. The sug-
gestions of environment were always first
cause. and law absolute. to Harry Carew.
In a dimly-lighted, fiower-scented conserva-
old playmate. The situation demanded its
curtain. The line of least resistance was
the mans only course. He threw back his
head to the pleasing intoXication of it all,
told Daisy he loved her, and won her prom
Use to be his wife.
"Well, she's a dear little girl, anyhow"
said Harry TO himself. as he stood at his
bedroom window watching the sun rise over
the New Forest.
Within the next few days the very I'M
necessary formality of asking for consent
had been gone through. For various rea-
sons 1t was decided that the marriage
should not take place till after Daisy's
twentieth birthday, and to this arrange
ment neither of the contracting parties had
any objection
Just a month after the engagement news
reached old Mr.. Carew in Hampshire of
certain complications connected with some
Of his extensive station property In New
South Wales. An absconding manager and
a serious bush fire were amongst the diff
culties, and Mr. Carew's Sydney solicitors
strongly advised a visit to the south, and
in the personal setting to rights Of things.
The delicate state of his wife's health and
his own duties as a member of parliament
made leaving England at that time i'm
possible for Mr.. Carew.
In discussing the matter with his father
Harry Carew, without for a moment think
ing Of his engagement, expressed his readi-
ness to go to New South Wales, just as he
might have offered to run up to London.
The old gentleman very gladly accepted his
sons offer. So Harry explained the situa-
ton to his fiancee, and prepared to leave
England for Brindisi at once, promising
that his trip should not occupy more than
three or four months at the most
Then 1t was that Daisy Morton discovered
that she really loved the easy-going man
she had promised to marry. When she had
fond" of Harry. Now she loved him, and
experienced a feeling of dread In parting
from him. So there were tears in her pref
~ eyes as she said Goodbye" But. the
limo had cSalf for oil Nf y1o
and, after all, she told herself the separa-
ton would only last few months.
Harry Carew stayed only three days In
Sydney. Then. with the breath of things
English still fresh in his nostrils, he start
ed for the north, where his fathers stations
lay. What he saw from the box of the
Cobb's royal mail between Tibberena and
Meryula was his first glimpse Of the Bush
the great, gray wilde. ness.
Carew iuoked, and saw, little: and was
interested. 1t takes goodish time to see
comprehensively, but there does come a
period at which one has a desire, on reach
ing the Bush from an outpost of civiliza-
ton. to bare ones head before its naked,
solitary grandeur Carew had, Of course,
not reached this period when he dismount-
ed from Cobb's mail outside the Meryula
store.
At the little iron and weather-board
shanty which, In Meryula, is called 1.-THE
Royal Hote:." he hired wiry little broken
in brumby at about half the cost Of the
outright purchase of a horse. in the same
locality, and said he would ride out to the
Cootra homestead alone.
He rode out quite considerable distance
in the direction indicated by Larry Foley
of the hotel as the road to Cootra. And
then he gradually realized that he had lost
his way, and himself.
Though he did not realize the fact, his
losing the track was. up till that time, the
catastrophe par excellence, OF his life. In
the Meryula country old hands have died,
mad and starved, pushed within five miles
Of township.
The sun was setting Later on came a
little moonlight; not much, but enough to
make that weird Meryula country many
times more weird and bewildering than It
had been in the evening sunlight. Carew
spent the night in realizing his position.
And before daylight came he was very
weary and gray and little hysterical.
In the very early morning sunlight Carew
lifted up his tired eyes and thanked his
Maker for the sound Of human voice. 1t
was a rich, unframed contralto, and the
triiing. Joyous words that reached the
mans wondering ears were, up in the
morning''-and then a break. Perhaps there
was stumble and q change Of stride in
some hollow
Riding through wet grass, the bushman's
on his way;
side there.
And then Carew pushed his brumby hur-
riedly 10 one side to make way for a horse
flying at full gallop down the side Of the
little ridge at the foot of which he, Carew,
had been waiting and listening.
"Hullo! Who's there?"
In three or four times Its own length the
galloping horse was refined on to its
launches, with "Darkeyi Wa! Steady
steady!' And Carew saw that the singer
was girl. whose long. glossy hair streamed
behind her, dew-spangled, and whose face
had warm, moist bloom upon it.
This was Aileen the eighteen-year-old
daughter OF James O'Malley. the missing
and absconding manager of Cootra A new
manager was installed now. with his wife,
at Cootra homestead. Aileen kept her own
room still, however. And In the meantime
she had her horse, Darkey, wild and un-
tanned as herself: and the bush-the bush
they both loved. So she had stayed on at
the homestead, waiting with unquestioninR
faith for her fathers return.
Now, In the course of her customary
mornings gallop she found Harry Carew
lost In the bush, just three and half miles
from the home paddock slip rails Of his
fathers principal station.
Aileen interested Carew, because she was
beautiful and because she seemed 30 en-
tirely part OF the strange, great wilderness:
In which she had found him.
1T does seem funny to think Of your los.
ing your way, but / believe strangers dc
find Meryula country difficult. And 1 sup