An Outback Marriage
Page 141After the great case was over life at Kuryong went on its old round.
Mary Grant, now undisputed owner, took up the reins of government,
and Hugh was kept there always on one pretext or another.
Considine and his wife stayed a while in the district before
starting for England, and were on the best of terms with the folk
at the homestead, Peggy's daring attempt to seize the estate having
been forgiven for her husband's sake.
Mary seemed to take a delicious pleasure in making Hugh come to her
for orders and consultations. She signed without question anything
that Charlie put before her, but Hugh was constantly called in
to explain all sorts of things. The position was difficult in the
extreme, although Peggy tried to give Hugh good advice.
ask her to marry you? See what a good thing it'd be? She's only
waitin' to be asked."
"I'll manage my own affairs, thank you," said Hugh. "It isn't likely
I'm going to ask her now, when I haven't got a penny." He was as
miserable as a man could well be, and was on the point of leaving
the station and going back to the buffalo camp in search of solitude,
when an unexpected incident suddenly brought matters to a climax.
A year had slipped by since William Grant's death, and the glorious
Spring came round again; the river was bank-high with the melting
of the mountain-snows, the English fruit-trees were all blossoming,
and the willows a-bud. One day the mailman left a large handbill,
as a rule, to the Doyles and the Donohoes, at which no outsider
had any earthly chance of winning a race.
In William Grant's time the handbill would have soon reached the
fire-place; he did not countenance running station horses at the
local meetings. Under the new owner things were different. Charlie
Gordon was spoiling for a chance to run Revoke, a back-block purchase,
against the locals, and suggested it in an off-hand sort of way
while reading the circular. Hugh opposed the notion altogether.
His opposition apparently made Miss Grant determined to go on with
the scheme, and she gave Charlie carte blanche in the matter.
When race-day arrived, there was quite a merry party at the homestead.
was flirting very openly with Charlie Gordon, to Hugh's intense
misery; and it was whispered about the station that the younger
brother would be deposed in favour of the elder.
Hugh did not want to go to the races, but Mary asked him so directly
that he had no option.
It was a typical Australian Spring day. The sky was blue, the air
was fresh, the breeze made great, long, rippling waves in the grass,
and every soul in the place--Mary in particular--seemed determined
to enjoy it to the utmost.