to which she desired to consult Clement.
"About those shares in the Gas Company, you
know; and as to a suitable person to receive
the rent for me," said Mrs. Saxelby. "I had
half a mind to ask Mr. Charlewood to allow
one of his clerks to look after it for me. But
I didn't know. My late husband's other
executor, Mr. Fluke, wouldn't have anything to
say to me now, I suppose. All his family so
strongly disapprove of poor Mabel's going on
the stage."

Then Clement asked her a few questions relative
to her money affairs, and promised to see
about a proper person whom she could empower
to receive her rent from Job Smith.

"I am glad," he said, with a deep sigh,
"that you are going to be with Miss Earnshaw.
Have you—have you good news of her?"

"Excellent news, thank you. I begin to
think, after all, Mr. Charlewood, that Mabel
was right in acting as she has done. Right,
at all events, in leaving Eastfield. The life
there was killing her."

"I must be going, Mrs. Saxelby. I would
not have come out at this late hour, but that
it was, as I told you in my note, my only
chance of seeing you. Give Dooley my love,
please."

"You send no message to Mabel then, Mr.
Charlewood? Might not you and she be good
friends again now?"

The "now" referred in Mrs. Saxelby's mind
to Clement's supposed engagement to Miss
O'Brien.

"If Miss Earnshaw would care to have me
recalled to her remembrance, and to know that
I—I——Good-bye, Mrs. Saxelby. Think of
me as one who will always be willing to serve
you and stand by you as a friend, as long as it
may be in his power to do so."

"God bless you, Clement. I am very grateful
for your kindness, and I wish you every—every
happiness."

"Thank you. I must learn, to be content
with less than that."

"Must you? I believe there are few people
with brighter chances of happiness than
Clement Charlewood. But at this moment you are
looking harassed and ill. Business troubles, I
suppose? I hear of them on all hands."

"Good-bye, Mrs. Saxelby."

"Good-bye, Mr. Charlewood."

Clement had driven to Hazlehurst in a cab,
but had dismissed the driver, meaning to return
on foot. When he had gone some distance
along the straight road, he stopped and turned,
fixing his eyes upon the light in the cottage
parlour, that shone clear and bright through the
darkness. He stood and watched it for some
minutes, heedless of the cold penetrating rain
that had begun to fall. All at once the steady
light moved and disappeared, then shone again
for a moment out of an upper window, and then
was seen no more. Clement turned resolutely
towards the dull flare upon the night sky, that
was reflected from the great factory fires and
household lights of Hammerham, and with a
long heavy sigh that came labouring from his
breast, walked through the black dreary weather
towards his home.

SNAKES IN QUEENSLAND.

OF the many species of snakes that infest this
distant colony, there are but few intensely
venomous, but the individuals of these few
species are extremely numerous. The Brown
Snake, the Whip Snake, the Diamond Snake,
and the Black Snake, are frequently found,
especially in the Mitchell district.

A curious circumstance that occurred last
year to a friend of mine, a Mitchell squatter, a
gentleman of clear honour, and consequently of
indisputable credibility. He accompanied me
last May when I was out  with my men "examining"
and surveying his "runs," which were
situated on a splendidly-watered creek, the
resort (as I soon found to my sorrow) of a tribe
of murderous black fellows.

"I had camped* just here, where we now
are," said my friend R., "and towards morning
I had a nasty dream. I dreamed that I saw a
brown snake coming over from that direction,
(pointing to the north), and soon felt it crawling
over my bare feet. Guess my surprise, on
awakening, to feel a snake actually winding
itself between my feet! I was lying on a
blanket, with another blanket over me. Remember,
I was on my back, and my feet were a few
inches apart. Well; this snake first passed
over my left foot, then round the sole of my
right foot, tickling it horribly. After a pause,
it glided over the right foot and round the sole
of the other, after which it kept 'dabbing' at
both soles, perhaps catching flies, until the
titillation almost drove me mad. At length I
mustered courage to raise my head and give a
' Hist!' when it quietly slipped away."

* Let the reader remember that "camping"
means in Australia taking up one's sleeping-place
for the night, even on the ground, with or without
tents.

I have generally found among my men a
belief that the whip snake can jump forward.
One of my men told me that he came suddenly
on one of these virulent little beasts one day,
that it immediately sprang at him as high as his
breast, and that but for a very active spring on
his part it would have "cooked" him. He then
picked up a piece of stick, just in time; for it made
spring number two, and he met it by a blow that
knocked it to the ground with a broken back.

The whip snake is a most courageous and
vindictive little wretch. I was one day in
a boat on the river Logan, when I spied one
swimming, and directed one of my men to hit it
with his oar. He made a blow at it, but missed.
The creature instantly turned and came stem
on towards the boat. I made several blows at it
with a whip-handle, but the water broke their
strength, and the reptile could easily have got
away; on it came, however, vindictively hissing,
until its back was broken by a lucky stroke.