'I'm not likely to think about him or any one else just now; but it seems such a dreadful thing to think a man like him, so clever and daring, and so handsome and gentle in his ways, should be obliged to lead such a life, hunted from place to place like--like----' 'Like a bush-ranger, Ailie,' I said, 'for that'll be the long and short of it.

You may as well know it now, we're going to "turn out".' 'You don't say that, Dick,' she said.

'Oh! surely you will never be so mad.

Do you want to kill mother and me right out?
If you do, why not take a knife or an axe and do it at once?
Her you've been killing all along.

As for me, I feel so miserable and degraded and despairing at times that but for her I could go and drown myself in the creek when I think of what the family is coming to.' 'What's the use of going on like that, Aileen ?' I said roughly.