Mahony remained at the Hotel till the following afternoon, then walked to Geelong and took the steam-packet to Melbourne.

The object of his journey was to ask Mr.John Turnham's formal sanction to his marriage.
Polly accompanied him a little way on his walk.

And whenever he looked back he saw her standing fluttering her handkerchief--a small, solitary figure on the bare, red road.
He parted from her with a sense of leaving his most precious possession behind, so close had words made the tie.

On the other hand, he was not sorry to be out of range for a while of the Beamish family's banter.
This had set in, the evening before, as soon as he and Polly returned to the house--pacing the deck of the little steamer, he writhed anew at the remembrance.

Jokes at their expense had been cracked all through supper: his want of appetite, for instance, was the subject of a dozen crude insinuations; and this, though everyone present knew that he had eaten a hearty meal not two hours previously; had been kept up till he grew stony and savage, and Polly, trying hard not to mind but red to the rims of her ears, slipped out of the room.