Part 20

“You must have been dears,” is the verdict with which a talk of these distant days is often ended by my laughing critics. And I feel inclined to say, “Well, and you are dears, too,” so I suppose that is the real solution of the question.

THE END

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. Edinburgh & London

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Station Life in New Zealand,” Macmillan.

[2]

“Now under heaven all winds abated, The sea a settling and foamless floor, A sunset city is open-gated, Unfastened flashes a golden door. Cloud-walls asunder burst and brighten Like melted metal in furnace blaze; The lava rivers run through and lighten, The glory gathers before my gaze.

* * * * *

Eastward an isle, half sunken, sleeping, Crowns the sea with a bluer crest; Vine-clad Terceira!—but I am keeping A tryst to-night with the wondrous west. What there is wanting of purple islands, Lo! golden archipelagoes, Coasts silver shining, and inner highlands, Long ranges rosy with sunny snows.

* * * * *

All glowing golds, all scarlets burning, All palest, tenderest, vanishing hues, All clouded colour and tinges turning, Enrich, divide, the double blues; O’erleaning cliffs and crags gigantic And in the heart of light one shore Such as, alas! no sea Atlantic To bless the voyager ever bore.”

[3] Now F. M. Viscount Wolseley.

[4] 12th Duke of Somerset.

[5] The late Sir Thomas Cockburn Campbell, Bart., and the Hon. H. Parker, K.C.

[6] Lieut.-Colonel Crole-Wyndham, C.B., 21st Lancers.

Transcriber’s Notes:

Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.

Perceived typographical errors have been changed.

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.