Ethel Turner

“ All the time we smoke—I smoke, that is—the parcel's on the stand against him, and he keeps his hand on it. I—I have heard of such things, and you know what a strange fellow he is—I must say it—it has occurred to me that the parcel—suppose, Hillyer—you hear of such things sometimes——"
Hillyer's hair fairly stood on end. It was dark, and they were already within the cottage gate, and the pale, subdued lights from the windows shone in front of them. He was almost for turning back, so suddenly horrible had the thought become of that eternal parcel Marsden ever carried to and fro. ”

“ When February's shroud of heat hung over Australia, and tallow and wool and half-dressed hides flung their most abominable odour right into the glass enclosures of the offices, the sickened clerks used to project their thoughts to the stout-hearted little ships creeping wearily through the locked seas, and feel cooler and mentally stronger for the exercise. ”

“ Mr. Clackerty's dividend has already been posted, but there is your twelve hundred still here. It is your own business to stand or fall by, sir. I suggest that you do not draw your sum, but keep it to meet the interest."
Marsden's wrath was frightful. "Get out of my room!" he said. "Get out of my room! Not draw my income? Great Heavens! how do you suppose I'm to meet my private expenses? For two pins I'd dismiss you, Mr. Shaw—dismiss you at an hour's notice! Go and carry out my instructions. Twenty per cent., remember. And warn Hillyer about the paper-fasteners." ”

“ Every night he returned, the parcel in his hand.
Shaw followed him home one night, his heart in his month. At the gate of the distant house he spoke. "I thought perhaps you'd ask me in to have a smoke, sir?" he said.
"Certainly," Marsden answered, and held open the gate.
They sat together in an ordinary sitting-room for two hours, Shaw puffing at his pipe, awkward, constrained; Marsden seated motionless on a hard chair and watching his visitor furtively. There was absolutely no conversation. "You must excuse my silence," Marsden said; "I never talk."
"But you smoke," entreated Shaw. ”

“ Hillyer said one morning. "It seems a farce to open the doors. There's not been a penny spent at the sales for two months, has there?"
"Does it look like it?" Shaw replied, and looked round at the strangely empty warehouse, and sniffed at the air, which was positively pure. "Another month, and the season's over. And Jackson and Parker have pulled themselves together just by buying up all that lot of Dighton and McManamey's that I wanted to get. We'd be afloat yet if Marsden had let me do it."
"Wonder what's got him these three days?" Mathers said.
"Oh! it's no loss," said Shaw. ”

“ He's got little baby there. All the afternoon she has been talking like that," wept the affrighted Maggie, staring with starting eyes at the polished case.
The doctor went quietly across the floor, and Marsden turned and faced his visitors; and not one of them but felt relieved to know that the strained brain had at last given way, and that in all human probability the man would be happily insane for the rest of his natural life. ”

“ Hillyer had the impertinence to come to me for more to-day. I'm continually seeing paper-fasteners lying on the floor."
"Look here, sir," Shaw said earnestly. "Do believe I know what I'm talking of. It's not small economics that can save us; but if you'd authorise me to make a bold stroke—that matter with Dighton and McManamey, now, and I'd like to get the whole of the wool that's coming down from Sheens—I believe, even at this late hour I could pull things straight."
"Could you make the stroke without money?" Marsden said. ”

“ Marsden came to the office with a careworn brow.
"Mr. Shaw! Sir. Shaw!" he called.
Shaw came in.
"I see by the books there is five shillings a week allowed to a boy for cleaning the windows."
"Yes, sir," said Shaw.
"Discontinue it," said Marsden. "Five shillings is a large sum. There is no need for the windows to be cleaned."
And Shaw went straight back into his room, sat down and wrote a complete account of affairs to Mr.Clackerty at Christiania, urging him to come out instantly and take control of affairs. ”

“ But the schoolmaster, overworked and worried, had merely treated the outburst as the common plaint of an idler, and forced him to greater efforts.
The boy appealed to his father himself. He entreated to be allowed to leave school and go on a station or to sea. He vaguely recognised there might be something in himself if he were allowed free play; but as long as mathematics and languages were required of him, his life was an evil dream.
The father, a University man, but unintelligent, saw no further than the schoolmaster had done. ”

“ Corbett?" Marsden said anxiously. "A fly is often the means of transmitting infection. If ever this happens again, throw the milk right away and give her fresh. Of course, you boil all the milk?"
"Oh, yes, as soon as it comes from the milkman, sir."
"That is right. And what is this she says about the kitten biting her cheek—I see a little scratch? You surely don't allow her to put her face near the cat?"
"Oh! law, sir; what can you expect? You won't let her see a child. She talks all day to the kitten and plays with it, same as if it were human. ”

“ Then he added, with swift, nervous sympathy: "But it was so close a thing, sir, I think I know pretty well how you feel just now."
The twitching muscles of the young man's face thawed the desolate father's heart, and for the first time he spoke of his loss.
"It would be even worse for me than it is," he said, "only that I have her there," and to the shuddering horror of the young men he approached the parcel and fingered it sadly. "Life is a very uncertain thing, Hillyer," he said, "and the life of little children is like the thistle-down. Your little girl seems much to you ”

“ Shaw said. "You reduced salaries six months ago. The men will resign—they can't stand it; and at a crisis like this, raw material in the office is a serious drawback."
"I can't help it: it's got to be done. And see here, Mr. Shaw, you're too lax with the clerks—they're a ruinously extravagant lot. I gave out a box of paper-fasteners and a ream of foolscap on Tuesday, and Mr. ”