resources for Laura among the members of my
own family. The next thing was to discover
a means of providing for her without assistance.
I had formed a project for this, after
meditating over my conversations with
the returned transport in Barkingham
gaol, and I had taken a reliable opinion
on the chances of successfully executing my
design from the solicitor who had prepared
my defence.

Laura herself was so earnestly in favour of
assisting in my experiment, that she declared
she would prefer death to its abandonment.
Accordingly, the necessary preliminaries were
arranged; and, when we parted, it was some
mitigation of our grief to know that there
was a time appointed for meeting again.
Laura was to lodge with a distant relative
of her mother's in a suburb of London; was
to concert measures with this relative on the
best method of turning her jewels into
money; and was to follow her convict
husband to the Antipodes, under a feigned name,
in three months' time. If my family had
not abandoned me, I need not have thus
left her to help herself. As it was, I had
no choice. One consolation supported me
at parting—she was in no danger of
persecution from her father. A second letter
from him had arrived at Crickgelly, and had
been forwarded to the address I had left for
it. It was dated Hamburgh, and briefly
told her to remain at Crickgelly, and
expect fresh instructions, explanations, and
a supply of money, as soon as he had settled
the important business matters which had
taken him abroad. His daughter answered
the letter, telling him of her marriage, and
giving him an address at a post-office to
write to, if he chose to reply to her
communication. There the matter rested.

"What was I to do, on my side? Nothing but
establish a reputation for mild behaviour. I
began to manufacture a character for myself on
the first days of our voyage out in the convict-
ship; and I landed at the penal settlement
with the reputation of being the meekest and
most biddable of felonious mankind. After
a short probationary experience of such low
convict employments as lime-burning and
road-mending, I was advanced to occupations
more in harmony with my education. Whatever
I did, I never neglected the first great
obligation of making myself agreeable and
amusing to everybody. My social reputation
as a good fellow began to stand as high at one
end of the world as ever it stood at the
other. The months passed more quickly than
I had dared to hope. The expiration of my
first year of transportation was approaching,
and already pleasant hints of my being soon
assigned to private service began to reach
my ears. This was the first of the many
ends I was now working for; and the next
pleasant realisation of my hopes that I had
to expect, was the arrival of Laura.

She came a month later than I had
anticipated; but she came, safe and blooming,
with upwards of five hundred pounds as the
produce of her jewels, and with the old
Crickgelly alias of Mrs. James, to prevent
any suspicions of the connection between
us. Her story (concocted by me before I
left England) was, that she was a widow
lady, who had come to settle in Australia,
and make the most of her little property in
the New World. One of the first things
Mrs. James wanted was necessarily a
trustworthy servant, and she had to make her
choice of one among the convicts of good
character, to be assigned to private
service. Being one of that honourable body
myself at the time, it is needless to say that
I was the fortunate man on whom Mrs.
James's choice fell. The first situation I got in
Australia was as servant to my own wife.

Laura made a very indulgent mistress. If
she had been mischievously inclined, she
might, by application at a magistrate, have
had me flogged or set to work in chains on
the roads, whenever I became idle or
insubordinate, which happened occasionally. But,
instead of complaining, the kind creature
kissed and made much of her footman
by stealth, after his day's work. She allowed
him no female followers, and only employed
one woman-servant occasionally, who was
both old and ugly. The name of the footman
was Dear in private and Francis in
company; and when the widowed mistress,
up-stairs, refused eligible offers of marriage
(which was pretty often), the favoured
domestic in the kitchen was always informed
of it, and asked, with the sweetest humility,
if he approved of the proceeding.

Not to dwell on this anomalous
period of my existence, let me say briefly
that my new position with my wife was
of the greatest advantage in enabling
me to direct in secret the profitable
uses to which her little fortune was put.
We began, in this way with an excellent
speculation in cattle—buying them for
shillings and selling them for pounds.
With the profits thus obtained, we next
tried our hands at houses—first buying
in a small way, then boldly building, and
letting again and selling to great advantage.
While these speculations were in progress,
my behaviour in my wife's service was so
exemplary, and she gave me so excellent a
character when the usual official inquiries
were instituted, that I soon got the next
privilege accorded to persons in my situation
—a ticket-of-leave. By the time this had
been again exchanged for a conditional pardon
(which allowed me to go about where I
pleased in Australia, and to trade in my own
name like any unconvicted merchant) our
house-property had increased enormously,
our land had been sold for public buildings,
and we had shares in the famous Emancipist's
Bank, which produced quite a little
income of themselves.