arranged; and, when we parted, it was some mitigation of our

grief to know that there was a time appointed for meeting again.
Alicia 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 six 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 Hamburg, 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 behavior. I began to manufacture a character for myself

for 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 realization of my hopes that I had to expect,
was the arrival of Alicia.

She came, a month later than I had anticipated; safe and
blooming, with five hundred pounds as the produce of her jewels,

and with the old Crickgelly alias (changed from Miss to Mrs.
Giles), 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. Giles 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
honorable body myself at the time, it is needless to say that I

was the fortunate man on whom Mrs. Giles's choice fell. The first
situation I got in Australia was as servant to my own wife.

Alicia made a very indulgent mistress.
If she had been mischievously inclined, she might, by application

to 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, upstairs, refused

eligible offers of marriage (which was pretty often), the favored
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 behavior 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.
There was now no need to keep the mask on any longer.

I went through the superfluousceremony of a second marriage with
Alicia; took stores in the city; built a villa in the country;

and here I am at this present moment of writing, a convict
aristocrat--a prosperous, wealthy, highly respectable mercantile

man, with two years of my sentence of transportation still to
expire. I have a barouche and two bay horses, a coachman and page

in neat liveries, three charming children, and a French
governess, a boudoir and lady's-maid for my wife. She is as

handsome as ever, but getting a little fat. So am I, as a worthy