"Like a human being, I trust," said Carolan, thinking of a pair of bleak, grey-green eyes. like a human being exactly.”
"You are living near us?”
"In Sydney.”
"Oh, Marcus, it is over a month since we came here.”
"I know, I know. Do not forget I am not a man of leisure. I must wait on the pleasure of her who has taken me into her service. So when she arranges a visit to Mrs. Masterman, I can scarcely contain myself.”
"Oh, Marcus! Marcus! This is wonderful.”
"How much more wonderful it is to me! You look better Carolan, than when I last saw you.”
Old Margery said: "She had luck to be brought into this house. Mr.
Masterman's is the best house in Sydney, though I say it myself.”
"I am glad, Carolan," said Marcus.
"I am glad, Esther. I don't know how to thank the gods for placing my dear friends in such excellent hands, Ma'am.”
"What a caution!" giggled Margery.
"I don't know what the Old Country's coming to, when it starts transporting the gentry.”
"Your, smiles warm the cockles of my heart, Ma'am. May I come often to your kitchen?”
"What do you think this is, might I ask, a convicts' club?”
"Just now it seems something like paradise to me!" Margery twirled the drink in her glass. The voice of him! The words of him! Never, in the course of a man-haunted life, had she known anyone like him. And the girl loved him too, and if she was not mistaken, so did Miss mealy-mouthed Esther! But what chance would she have, beside Carolan, bless the girl! That white skin, that red hair, those lashes tipped with reddish-brown. Margery shivered with ecstasy, which the mere thought of love between them could give her. If ever two was made for one another, she mused, it's them! Come to her kitchen? He should come whenever he could; and they should have the basement bedroom to themselves any time of the day. And she herself would prepare a bit of something to eat and drink for them, for there was no denying that lovemaking could be hungry business... thirsty too! She chuckled, musing on memories that seemed suddenly touched with more romance, more beauty, in the presence of Marcus.
Now he was whispering to the two of them. He had an arm round each of them.
"I'll whisper a secret. I shall not stay with Miss Clementine Smith much longer. There is someone else after my services; his name is Tom Blake, and he comes from Seven Dials. He was a friend of mine in dear old London Town. Carolan, Esther, did I not tell you that I should know how to make my bed soft, even here! I am going to do it, my children. Tom is here; he has just arrived. He is what is called a warm man; money, has my friend Tom. He is going to set up in business here, and I believe there is money to be made in this country by those who are prepared to work for it. Tom will become a squatter; he will buy land and a flock of breeding ewes. He will start business in a big way. But he will want a man to help him, a man who is prepared to work hard, to be partner to him. You understand; it will be his old friend Marcus. He will take me away from the household of Miss Clementine Smith. According to the records, I am William Henry Jedborough, convict for the term of my natural life; but I shall, . as servant to my good friend Tom Blake, to all intents and purposes be a free man.
And do you know that after eight years of exemplary conduct a man can get a ticket of leave ... even if he has been sentenced for life?”
"Oh, Marcus, Marcus!" cried Carolan.
"How clever you are!”
"I am, am I not!" He laughed.
"My experiences have taught me how to be clever. And do you know, my darlings, it has taught me something else the astonishing fact that honesty is the best policy.”
"Oh, Marcus! How glad I am!" cried Esther.
"Everything that happened to you is worth while if it has brought you to that way of thinking.”
Marcus smiled and caressed Esther's hand.
"Sweet Esther!" he murmured.
"How right you are! From now on... when I get to Tom, that is ... I shall be perfectly honest. Why not? There are opportunities in a land like this; do you not sense it? Do you not feel it? Here there is a certain equality among men, which was missing in England. Once I can throw off the convict's taint I will be an honourable man. This is God's country... His own country, for it is a country made for men to be free and happy in. Here the sunshine is more beautiful than at home. I see a great country here ... not yet, but later. On the other side of the mountains I can feel there is grass for millions of sheep, and not to be stored in barns for winter either, but growing here under the sky all the year round.”
Jin, the gipsy, watched him with wide eyes and parted lips. She would have run away with him there and then, had he asked her. Poll listened, plucking at her apron; she did not understand what he said, but it was pleasant to hear him talk, and when his roving eyes fell on her, there was a tenderness in them that she had not had from anyone else in the whole of her life not from haughty Carolan who had made a doll for her, nor from the man who had so briefly been her lover.
Carolan was aware of the effect he had on them all. Marcus, philanderer and thief, the most charming man in the world! All the time he talked, his fingers were on her arm, pressing lightly, urgently. His eyes told her he loved her, and behind this talk of grass and sheep was the picture of their home together on some station not far from Sydney. He conjured up in her mind complete pictures of their riding together, of their living together.
She wanted Marcus, and she thought that everything that had gone before was worth while when set against that picture of them on the station together.
"You planned it!" she said.
"You were planning it all the way out!”
"Tom used to come to see me in Newgate," he answered.
"We worked it out.”
"He sent the money for the privileges you enjoyed!" said Carolan.
"Who else? And it was my money, darling.”
"It will be your money he brings out.”
He touched her cheek tenderly.
"It will buy us a place in the sun, in the sunniest country in the world, my darling.”
"When will you go to Tom?”
"We have to go cautiously.”
"You will manage it, Marcus. You are so clever.”
"I shall certainly manage it. And when I am with Tom we shall need some young women about the house. Tom and I were never ones for the pots and pans!”
"Marcus! Marcus!”
Esther said shyly: "Oh, Marcus!”
"One word in your ear," put in Margery.
"What about Mr. Masterman?”
"What about him?" said Carolan lightly, reminded of him suddenly, and hating and fearing him scarcely at all.
"He is a power in the city. Do you think you can pull wool over his eyes?”
"I have heard of this Masterman," said Marcus.
"A beast!" said Carolan vehemently.
"A cold-blooded beast!”
"I would rather have you in a house with a cold-blooded beast than a hot-blooded one!" He turned to Margery: "You think he will not let these two go?”
"I'm sure he would not. He is all against the sort of thing you think of doing, young man. And let me tell you this he has quite a lot to say as to the way things are run in this town.”
"He would be "All for Justice"!" cried Carolan.
"He would hate it if anyone did not pay the full pound of flesh.”
"Do not forget he is the master!" said Margery.
"Master!" cried Carolan.
"Master!”
Marcus gripped her hands tightly.
"We must wait of course. I talk impetuously. I lose my head because I am so glad to see you again.”
"Marcus," said Carolan, 'you have not been too unhappy then since we arrived?”
"My unhappiness has been in not seeing you.”