CHAPTER XIV.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1604, 14 October 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

CHAPTER XIV.

Several weeks elapsed before Walter Addiscfh was able to leave his bed, and, in accordance with his wish, I prolonged my stay at Yaramboona, until he was convalescent. The more I saw of him, the more I liked him; and, as our knowledge of each other increased, we discovered many points of resemblance between us, not only in tastes and likings, but in habit of thought and color of opinion. None the less was I surprised at &OJUC of the beliefs which he held, and which, however I might disagree with them, denoted a width of thought very unusual in so young a man. Thus it was that during his convalescence we had many tough arguments together, and, one morning when he had almost quite recovered, I happened, in the course of a discussion, to mention the name of my former friend, Count Giustiniani. " Count Giusthiiani !" exclaimed Walter. " Did you know Count Giustiniani ?" " Yes ! Why should that surprise you ?" " Because I know him. Why, he's in Melbourne now. At least, I suppose we mean the same person. How old would your Count be?" " Let me see ; it is nearly twenty-four years since I knew him, and he was then about thirty-three." "Just about his age. Was he married when you knew him?" " No — but of course he might have married since." " Yes, he has ; he's a widower, and has a daughter of about twenty." " Here, in Australia, with him ?" " Yes ; she's been pretty well round the world with him. He is pursuing some ethnologic investigations, which have taken him successively to the Sandwich Islands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, and Australia." " I should like to renew my acquaintance with him ; his is a master mind ! Are you on intimate terms with him?" " Well, to tell you th<? truth," said Walter, with some hesitation, " I have not seen much of him latterly. I made his acquaintance at the house of a Boman Catholic clergyman in Melbourne — a certain Father Ormonde, who was acquainted with my mother before her marriage ; I have told you that she belonged to that communion. I enjoyed the society of the Count and his daughter very much, and we had become pretty intimate, -when my father happened to make ( a visit to Melbourne, and produced — you know his style — suoh an unfavorable impression upon the Count as to seriously endanger certain expectations, or rather hopes, that— that I had begun"— ' "That you had begun to entertain with regard to Signorina Giustiniarli !" said I, shrewdly divining the cause of his confusion. Walter laughed rather, sheepishly. ' " We'll say nothing on that subject until you have seen the lady," he said. "And that may be before long,, Suppose you come •to Melbourne with me?" " <'' ' ' ' ' J ' ; - ' To comply with this proposal vfould be to bring to' a summary end the seclusion -which I. had proposed to,myself in ! coming' to Australia ;* but the 'desire to cbntinuemyaeq;uaintance with Walter,' as well ad to renew that with Count Giustiniani, induced" me/finally to consent, and thus 1 it was that about a fortnight later Dfound myself >in the Queen City of the South. ,> „.^'ii ■■ .■ j» ■ '•',>''