Page:Catherine Carmichael; Or Three Years Running.pdf/13

Carmichael, she only shook her head. She could not explain to them her thoughts and feelings. She could not say to them that she would not admit herself to have been the wife of a man whom she had ever hated,—for whom, not for a single moment, had she ever entertained anything of wifely feeling. "I am here ," she said, "only as his care-taker;—-only as such will I ever spend a farthing of the money " Then she showed them a letter, of which she had sent copies addressed to him at the post-offices of various towns in New Zealand, having, spent many of her hours in making the copies, and the letter was as follows:—

"If you will return to Warriwa, you will find that everything has been kept for you as well as I have known how to keep it. The sheep are nearly up to the number. The money is at the bank at Timaru, except a very little which I have taken to pay the wages and just to support myself,—till I can go away and leave it all. You should hurry to Warriwa, because I cannot go away till you come. CATHERINE."

It was not, perhaps, a very wise letter. An advertisement in the New Zealand papers would have done better, and have cost less trouble. But that was her way of setting about her work,—till her brothers had come to her, and then she sent them forth upon her errand. It was in vain that they argued with her. They were to go and find him, and send him,—not to her,—but to Warriwa. On his arrival he should find that everything was ready for him. There would be some small thing for the lawyer to arrange, but that could be arranged at once. When the elder brother asked at the bank about his sister, the manager told him that all Timaru had failed to understand the purposes of the heiress. That old Peter Carmichael had been a miser, everybody had known, and that a large sum was lying in the bank, and that the sheep were out on the run at Warriwa. They knew, too, that the widow had inherited it all. But they could not understand why she should be careful with the money as old Peter had been; why she should live there in lodgings, seeing no one; why she should be taken out to Warriwa once a month; and why on these occasions she should remain there a day or two, going through every figure, as it was said that she did do. If she liked the life of a squatter, why did she not live there and make the place comfortable? If, as was more probable, the place could hardly be delightful to her, why not sell it, and go away among her friends? There would be friends enough now to make her welcome. For, though she had written the letters, and sent them out, one or two at a time, she had told no one of her purpose till her brothers came to her. Then the banker understood it all, and the brothers probably understood something also.

They got upon his traces at last, and found him in Queensland, up to his throat in mud, looking for gold in a gully. "Luck? Yes; he had got a little, and spent the most of it. There was gold, no doubt, but he was not much in love with the spot." 'Tis always thus the wandering gold-digger speaks of his last adventure. When they told him that Peter Carmichael was dead, he jumped out of the gully, leaving the cradle behind him in which he had been washing the dirt, searching for specks of gold. "And Warriwa? " he said. Then they explained the nature of the will. "And the money, too?" Yes; the money also had been left to the widow. "It would have been hers any way," he said, "whether he left a will or not. Well, well! So Kate is a rich woman." Then he jumped into the gully again, and went to work at his cradle. By degrees they explained it all to him,—as much, at least, as they could explain. He must go to Warriwa. She would do nothing till he had been there.

"She says it is to be all yours," said the younger brother.

"Don't you say no more than you know," said the elder. "Let him go and find it out for himself."

"But Kate said so."

"Kate is a woman, and may change her mind as well as another. Let him go and find it out for himself." So he sold his claim at the gully for what little it would fetch, and started off once again for New Zealand and Warriwa.

He had himself landed at Dunedin in order that he might not be seen and questioned in passing through Timaru, and from Dunedin he made his way across the country direct to Warriwa. I need not trouble my readers with New Zealand geography,