Harriette Walters had been a wife but twelve months, when the sudden
failure of the house in which her husband was a junior partner involved
them in irretrievable ruin, and threw them almost penniless upon the
world. At this time the commercial advantages of Australia, the opening
it afforded for all classes of men, and above all, its immense mineral
wealth, were the subject of universal attention. Mr. Walters' friends
advised him to emigrate, and the small sum saved from the wreck of
their fortune served to defray the expenses of the journey. Harriette,
sorely against her wishes, remained behind with an old maiden
aunt, until her husband could obtain a home for her in the colonies.
The day of parting arrived; the ship which bore him away disappeared
from her sight, and almost heart-broken she returned to the humble
residence of her sole remaining relative.
Ere she had recovered from the shock occasioned by her husband's
departure, her aged relation died from a sudden attack of illness, and
Harriette was left alone to struggle with her poverty and her grief.
The whole of her aunt's income had been derived from an annuity, which
of course died with her; and her personal property, when sold, realized
not much more than sufficient to pay a few debts and the funeral
expenses; so that when these last sad duties were performed, Harriette
found herself with a few pounds in her pocket, homeless, friendless,
and alone.
Her thoughts turned to the distant land, her husband's home, and every
hope was centred in the one intense desire to join him there. The means
were wanting, she had none from whom she could solicit assistance, but
her determination did not fail. She advertized for a situation
as companion to an invalid, or nurse to young children, during the
voyage to Port Philip, provided her passage-money was paid by her
employer. This she soon obtained. The ship was a fast sailer, the winds
were favourable, and by a strange chance she arrived in Melbourne three
weeks before her husband. This time was a great trial to her. Alone and
unprotected in that strange, rough city, without money, without
friends, she felt truly wretched. It was not a place for a female to be
without a protector, and she knew it, yet protector she had none; even
the family with whom she had come out, had gone many miles up the
country. She possessed little money, lodgings and food were at an awful
price, and employment for a female, except of a rough sort, was not
easily procured.
In this dilemma she took the singular notion into her head of
disguising her sex, and thereby avoiding much of the insult and
annoyance to which an unprotected female would have been liable. Being
of a slight figure, and taking the usual colonial costume - loose
trowsers, a full, blue serge shirt, fastened round the waist by
a leather belt, and a wide-awake - Harriette passed very well for what
she assumed to be - a young lad just arrived from England.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 49 of 104
Words from 24974 to 25490
of 53870
