*CHAPTER XXII*
*Conclusion*
'Let one more attest I have lived, seen God's hand through a lifetime, and all was for best.'
Life, so long a hopeless tangle, smoothed itself out at last for thelittle family. Challis was well again, and had gone off to give a seriesof concerts in the respective capitals of each colony; gone off in highspirits, touched with sweet responsibility, inasmuch as she was thebread-winner for the family. Mr. Cameron went with her this time, andher mother stayed thankfully at home on the selection. And Australia,despite the fact that she neither recited 'The Absent-Minded Beggar,'nor yet had 'Sons of the Empire' in her _repertoire_, gave her so warm awelcome everywhere that in three months she was back again at The Roserywith a fresh thousand pounds put to her credit in the bank.
This pleasant sum was to pay passages across the sea for all the family.
For, warm-hearted as the big overgrown young island had proved, itseager, easily roused enthusiasm would soon be turned upon some otherobject, and there would be no permanent opening for the girl-musician.She must go to the little, pulsing, crowded island the other side of theworld for that.
Mrs. Cameron had the plan of campaign all in readiness in her head.They were to find an ideal house in a pleasant countrified suburb justout of London, and Challis, accompanied by her father, was to fulfil herEnglish engagements from there.
When she went abroad, they would all, when possible, go with her, andmake headquarters in some inexpensive French or German village. Thebenefit of a varied life like this would be incalculable to the youngones, after the stagnant years at Wilgandra.
Bart was to go to an English public school the moment they touched landafter the voyage. He had but three or four years left now in which tocrowd all his school education, and he was eager to begin. In generaleducation and the making of moral fibre, Wilgandra had done a betterwork than Eton or Rugby could ever hope to do.
'But I shall come back and be a squatter,' he always insisted. 'Noother life for me.'
'If he sticks to that,' old Stevenson said to his father, 'send him backto me. I'll give him a start, and be thankful to do it. He's got thestuff in him to make the kind of man this country wants.'
Then he fell to chuckling over the memory of the calf that Bart had soldhim, and so started the intimacy between them.
Hermie was to travel as much as possible, take lessons in varioussubjects from good masters, and go on with her general education underthe able guidance of her mother. And there were picnics and dances andall manner of brightness for her in her mother's campaign, to counteractthe grey monotony of her earlier girlhood.
And, when the war was over, one in khaki would step in and take theyoung life into his keeping, and make all the sunshine for it that aboundless love makes possible.
On his far battle-fields Mortimer knew now the little girl's heart washis own. His father had written to him one of his characteristicletters.
'I'm glad to hear, my boy, you're still alive, but it was a fine thingthat other fellow Stevenson did for his general. I take pride that myname's the same. But perhaps you'll get a chance yet to do the samething. I've been looking round, and I think the hill over the way willmake the best place for your house, and I daresay two or three thousanda year would keep you going for a time, as she's not flighty and used tofine things, like Luke's wife. It's a pity she can't make soap and suchthings, but maybe she can learn; she may favour her mother, who seems asensible body, more than that fool of a father of hers. I'll give thelittle baggage credit, at all events, for being fond of you. A nice jobof it I had with her, when we thought it was you killed instead of thatfine fellow Mark Stevenson. She was nearly crazy, because she said you'dnever know how she loved you.'
ONE OF HIS FATHER'S CHARACTERISTIC LETTERS.]
So Mortimer fought the rest of his battles with a light heart, and manya night, when the veldt slumbered restlessly beneath its covering ofwhite, harmless-looking tents, he lay happily awake, thinking of thegreen twin hill at home and the bright cottage that was going to crownit.
'But I shall insist that he travels about with you for a year or twobefore you settle down,' said the mother; 'it will do you both good. Andhe must bring you for a visit home to us at least every three years.'
The girl went on her way, shyly, sweetly, learning all she might to fither for the high office of woman and wife.
Miss Browne?
At first Mrs. Cameron had almost obeyed the natural impulse to dismissher kindly, give her a handsome present of money, and help her to find acomfortable situation. But the vision perpetually haunted her of thepoor woman with a strand of dull hair blown loose, and her blouse andskirt not quite meeting, and her face moist with perspiration, toilingin one hot country town after another, getting sparks in her eyes,cooking other peoples' food, dragging fat babies out for a walk,battling helplessly with naughty small boys and girls, and distractedlysaying to them, 'My love, my dear.'
This while she and her own family, their eyes turned eagerly to aglowing future, sailed thankfully away from all the misery and monotonyof the past.
She could not do it. The woman seemed to stand right in their path, amoral responsibility for all their lives.
So while Mr. Cameron was away with Challis on the Australian tour, shefilled in all her spare time undertaking a mission to Miss Browne. Herfirst battle was to make the woman respect herself, trust herself. Sheordered some clothes for her, well-cut coats and skirts, warm-colouredhome dresses with soft lace to hide the bony neck and wrists. She gavedeep thought to a style of doing her hair, and having found it, kept herto it, insisting that she should give plenty of time to curling thosehelpless strands and brushing them and getting them into good condition.She encouraged her to form her own opinions on things, and teased hergently out of her little eccentricities of speech. She applied herselfenergetically to making her capable and efficient in the branches ofhousekeeping which all these years she had so hopelessly muddled. Themission was sheer hard, exhausting work--there were times when it seemedalmost desperate; but women have battled far harder and with far lesshope of success with the Island blacks or the far Chinese, and here washer work come to her hand.
'Why,' cried the changed woman, at the end of a day that had seen theaccomplishment of a most respectable pie-crust, an almost invisiblepatch on a coat, and a hard piece of music mastered, 'I shall be able toask for ten shillings a week, I am sure, when I go to the registryoffice again; I never used to get more than five or six until I came toMr. Cameron, and I am sure I was not worth the ten he used to pay methen.'
'My dear,' said Mrs. Cameron, 'you have finished with registry offices.I want you to come to England with us, and help me with Floss and Roly.'
This decision she and her husband had only just arrived at; to leave herbehind, even improved as she was, would mean she would soon sink backwithout stimulus into her dreary ways. So Challis gave yet one moreconcert in a country town, to pay for the extra passage money andfrocks, and the future they left to look after itself. She had arelative or two in England who might give her a home; if not, well,unless life went very crookedly again, they would always keep a cornerfor her themselves wherever they lived.
But before they had been in London six months the pleased Fates relievedthem of their anxiety.
Next door to them in the pleasant home they had made was a widower, justgetting over--and without overmuch difficulty--the loss of a wife whohad insisted upon managing his very soul as well as his house, and histwo children and his very respectable cheque-book.
His small ones were running wild--he noted the contrast between them andFloss and Roly, whom Miss Browne seemed now to manage so admirably. Theintimacy increased; the change from his past, overruled existence to thecompanionship of this gentle lady-help, who deferred humbly to hisopinions, and asked his advice, and was curiously grateful for thesmallest attention, was such a restful nov
elty to him that he offeredher his hand and heart and lonely little children forthwith.
And now that Fortune, so long harsh and uncompromising, had taken toflinging gifts at the family with unstinted hand, it did not leaveCameron himself out of its scheme of sudden generosity.
The picture of the ship had found its way safely from under MissBrowne's bed at Wilgandra across the sea to the artist who painted inleafy Fontainebleau pictures the world was pleased to stand and look atlong.
And the man's artist-soul rose in recognition of the passion andstrength that had gone forth into the brush that had worked sofeverishly in that far-away bush township.
An important Paris exhibition was just coming on. He rushed up to thecity with the canvas, and his influence got it in at the right time, andsaw it well hung. The second day the exhibition was opened it sold fortwo hundred guineas, and the path Cameron had ached to walk on all hislife was at last open to his feet.
The day had not dropped her burdens from the backs of these people forever; it had merely strengthened weak shoulders with soldierlydiscipline, and readjusted the weight.
Bright days, sad days, separations, meetings, temptations, love, death,all would come along, as they always have done, as they always will.
For this is Life we fare upon, and not just a little journey to asksmooth ground for all the way.
THE END.
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