Life
A DEUX would mean a larger outlay; saving not prove so easy. Still it
could be done; and he would gladly submit to the delay if, by doing so,
he could get Polly. Besides, if this new happiness came to him, it would
help him to see the years he had spent in the colony in a truer and
juster light. And then, when the hour of departure did strike, what a
joy to have a wife to carry with one--a Polly to rescue, to restore to
civilisation!
He had to remind himself more than once, during this fortnight, that she
would be able to devote only a fraction of her day to flagmaking. But he
was at the end of his tether by the time a parcel and a letter were left
for him at the store--again by hand: little Polly had plainly no
sixpences to spare. The needlework as perfect, of course; he hardly
glanced at it, even when he had opened and read the letter. This was of
the same decorous nature as the first. Polly returned a piece of stuff
that had remained over. He had really sent material enough for two
flags, she wrote; but she had not wished to keep him waiting so long.
And then, in a postscript:
MR. SMITH WAS HERE LAST SUNDAY. I AM TO SAY MRS. BEAMISH WOULD BE VERY
PLEASED IF YOU ALSO WOULD CALL AGAIN TO SEE US.
He ran the flag up to the top of his forty-foot staff and wrote:--
WHAT I WANT TO KNOW, MISS POLLY, IS, WOULD YOU BE GLAD TO SEE ME?
But Polly was not to be drawn.
WE SHOULD ALL BE VERY PLEASED.
Some days previously Mahony had addressed a question to, Henry Ocock.
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