Australian Short Stories [antikvár]

B ARRINGTON * A few years ago I made the acquaintance of an elderly lady whose husband so far back as 1799 held an official position, both civil and military, in the colony of New South Wales.* Many anecdotes she told me of celebrated characters who had in the words of one of them "left their country for their country's good."* With most if not with all these celebrities the old lady had come in contact personally. "One morning," she began, "I was sitting in my drawing-room with my two little children, who are now middle-aged men with large families, when a gentleman was announced. I gave the order for his admission; and on his entering the door of the apartment, I rose from my chair and greeted him with a bow, which he returned in the most graceful and courtly manner imaginable. His dress was that of a man of f ashion and his bearing that of a person who had moved in the highest circles of society. A vessel had arrived from England a few days previously with passengers and I fancied that this gentleman was one of them. I asked him to be seated. He took a chair opposite to me and at once entered into conversation, making the first topic the extreme warmth of the day and the second the healthful appearance of my charming children-as he was pleased to speak of them.* Apart from a mother liking to hear her children praised, there was such a refinement in the stranger's manner, such a seeming sincerity in all he said, added to such marvellous neatness of expression, that I could not help thinking he would form a very valuable acquisition to our list of acquaintances, provided he intended remaining in Sydney * instead of settling in the interior of the colony.